Saturday, October 16, 2010

Who needs Jazz clubs in Paris - Go home with a real Paris Jazz Musican

Bored of simply seeing live jazz in Paris bars and clubs.... well, now the house concert has finally hit France!

And man, I love the way they say this in France - 'participation aux frais au chapeau' just means 'we'll pass the hat', but somehow it sounds so much more refined when they say it.

If you would like to get down and dirty and get really intimate with the Paris jazz scene, then why not risk your best tourist-French and call and make a reservation to hear these two fine players in an intimate setting in a home in Paris.  (click on the image to get the details in a larger window)



Thursday, October 14, 2010

15,000 Visitors to Paris Loves Jazz

15,000 people searching here for live jazz in Paris and live jazz clubs and bars in Paris

Wow.  How did that happen!  I started this blog a while ago to communicate my amazement at all the extraordinary music going on in the city.  Coming from North America, where unless you live in NYC, you're lucky if a city has two or three clubs that specialize in jazz, I was blown away by the dozens of clubs that cover the Paris landscape.  It seemed logical to talk about the great times I was having experiencing all the variations of jazz and improvised music by players of all ages and backgrounds across the City of Lights....

I'm glad it worked out....

Visitors to Paris

Through this blog I not only get the pleasure of writing about and visiting the Paris jazz clubs and seeing live jazz in Paris, but I get the pleasure of meeting some spiffy visitors to the Fair City. Jazz musicians, singers and jazz lovers drop me a line, and, when I can, it's great to cross paths and show them some of the sights and the sounds, or just meet up to swop stories and see a band. Occasionally I even get to make music with them.

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful west coast Sax player Paul Wainwright.



Paul has has played with hundreds of renowned musicians and singers such as Kenny Loggins, Stevie Nicks, Michael Buble, Martha Reeves, Jim Byrnes, Donny Walsh (Mr Downchild), Vic Damone, and opened for Herbie Hancock, Manhattan Transfer, Etta James, k.d. lang, Melissa Etheridge and The Great Guitars (Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd)... he has some great stories about his travels and music, and we dropped by Sunside/Sunset to hear some music.

Later that week he dropped by my place (a lovely little cobblestone alley in the north of the city) and to my delight my street was closed that day for a festival and a marching jazz band was wandering up and down.  I felt like Paris was doing it's best to impress Paul.

And this summer, lo and behold, I went on tour, and I got a chance to play with him.  On my tour of Canada I played a bunch of dates across the country in support of the new album 'The Sky Was Blue' , and Paul helped me set up a couple of shows in the lovely town of Victoria, BC, where he is based.

He loaded me with CDs and so I've spent the last month listening to the sounds of his very tight little 3 piece 'big band' - I love his new album ...it's a bit bigger with Steve Duben on Bass, John Ferraro on Drums, Tom Lang on Guitar and Morry Stearns on Keyboard and it is up here  for listening or purchase.

Paris is truly a moveable feast .....