Jazz in Paris and live jazz clubs in Paris for the last weeks of July

A quick run down on another festival and an update on what's up with the clubs in the next two weeks. We've had a blast of hot weather in the last two weeks, so either the cool paris jazz club basements have been great to escape into, or the clubs that feature a little bit of air conditioning (not a standard feature in Paris) have been very popular!

A couple of upcoming highlights
Sophia Domancich is playing at L'Archipel on the 11th of July (www.larchipel.net,
17 bd de Strasbourg – 75010 Paris Metro Strasbourg / St Denis)



- you can hear her new work HERE.

Sophia has spent years in the jazz world, often working with West Indian and African singers and has jammed with players like Bobby Few and Steve Lacy. She's spent a decade working with some of the top players in the British Scene. I like her work a lot - its dramatic and almost orchestral and filled with emotion without being sentimental or losing any sense of musicality. She'd be a top pick for the upcoming week.

And we might as well keep things in a feminine note - ongoing at Sunset/Sunside there's the American Music Festival (which, confuses me since that's mostly what they play at Sunset Sunside, but whatever...) featuring Monica Passos, who is actually riffing on Brazilian and south american forms - she's an upbeat funky samba inspired singer currently based in Paris - check out her work HERE

Or watch her shake her circus thing here -

La caravane de Mônica PASSOS
by jeanlouislaforet

And ongoing in the summer festival update - I live up in the 18th Arrondisement in Paris, which is where real people live in Paris (I know, I know that's small minded and biased....) and we have our own wonderful fest up here 'Music and Gardens'



If you want to get out into Paris and see the Parisians in their most relaxed and community orientated I recommend this highly. Great music, families, wine and cheese and lovely settings in the old parks of Montmartre. I'll post the complete schedule in our 'What's On' Page, but check out Elise Dabrowski, in the Jardin of the Museum of Montmartre at 5pm (17h) on the 11th of July - its free, its lovely, and you get the added advantage of wandering through some of the most beautiful streets in the city.

Enjoy!!

A Song a Day - 'Again'

today's song is (logically enough) track 2 on the album - Again by Lionel Newman




I fell in love with the song when I heard Mel Torme's version. I love the long and complex melodic lines and the enigmatic, ironic text. We were playing around with this and finally Thierry (who is from Madagascar and has played with Brazilian bands) suggested a slight Samba rhythm on the drums. Benoit joined in and suddenly we had this uptempo lilting version.

Apparently the song comes from a 1937 gangster movie called roadhouse, which is described as a 'noir cabaret'. I have yet to find a copy, but I'd love to see it one day.


you can always hear more from the album, and buy digital downloads of individual tracks at itunes.com, or pick up a physical version of the CD by emailing me or dropping by www.cdbaby.com

Paris Jazz Clubs and Live Jazz in July

So its the season of festivals in Paris, but the jazz clubs in Paris and the live jazz in the city in the smaller venues won't be cooling down until August, when a good portion of the city closes down and heads for the countryside.

I'm just back from doing a run of concerts outside the city, so I'll start by giving a list of the festivals coming up - I'm super busy with rehearsals so it'll have to be one a day - and in a few days I'll start catching up with what's on at the clubs. Don't forget you can find a fairly comprehensive list of venues and their websites and contact info on our VENUES page.

All right then - festivals




First and foremost is the wonderful Paris Jazz fest going on right now in the lovely Parc Floral - here is a link to their English Language site. Its on every weekend, and I'm going to post the complete listings on our 'WHAT'S ON' page.

don't forget that its normal practice to come out to these festivals with a blanket, a bottle (or two) of wine and a picnic... I remember the first time I came to an outdoor festival in France and there was a security check - being from north America I assumed they were searching for alcohol - in fact the two security guards pulled my bottle of red out of the bag... and then complimented my taste in wine, and put it gently back and waved us back in....... ahhhh, nice to live in the land of the civilized...

enjoy

Song a Day

putting up a song from the new album every day.





today's song is the lovely 'Lover Come Back to Me'



This slow interpretation was a reaction against the many versions of this song which are upbeat and bouncy, even though the words are totally desperately tragic. We took the first words of the song, 'The Sky Was Blue', as the title of the album - enigmatic, and kind of bittersweet.

you can always hear more from the album, and buy digital downloads of individual tracks at itunes.com, or pick up a physical version of the CD by emailing me or dropping by www.cdbaby.com

I'm Big in Japan

I'm just going to take a moment away from Jazz in Paris and Paris clubs. Since last night I googled to see if my new album of standards' digital distribution had been set up yet by my distributor - the wonderful indie group cdbaby - and instead found this eye popping page.


[ 前の作品 | 次の作品 ]
The Sky Was Blue
発売元：
曲リスト
トラック 試聴 購入 / 価格
01： Lover Come Back to Me
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
02： Again
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
03： Court and Spark
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
04： Chelsea Hotel No. 2
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
05： Secret Heart
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
06： Pale Blue Eyes
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
07： Some of These Days
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
08： Whisper Not
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
09： Angel Eyes
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
10： Love Me or Leave Me
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
11： Sweethearts On Parade
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
12： Heaven
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円
13： Court and Spark (Slight Return)
試聴 試聴
曲を購入
150円



I can't really describe how much ridiculous pleasure it gives me to see the first commercial appearance of the album be in Yen and Japanese (see the actual page here http://download.music.yahoo.co.jp/shop/ic/11/281856353-316831191 )

I know the price because on tour in Japan I only ever figured out a couple of letters, but the sign for Yen ( 円 ) was the obvious one to need to understand. To memorize it I thought of him as a shy little character with one foot turned in awkwardly. I still find him a cute, endearing little guy. The price for one track is about the price for the pair of Japanese socks I'm currently wearing (don't know if that has any existential meaning)

So, I'm now expecting the big phone call from Tokyo. Hopefully the album will go to #1 with the harajuku crowd so I can tour smokey bars filled with folk who look like this:




or this



or this




meanwhile the album is now up for sale in a more comprehensible format at itunes and directly from cdbaby (just click on the links to get there), and you can listen directly to all the tracks at Myspace. No physical discs yet... just the ethereal digital realm...

Jazz in the Paris Jazz Clubs in the last weeks of May

Well, I know its hard to persuade yourself to go into the dark confines of a Paris jazz club in these beautiful spring days, but there is a lot of live jazz going on in Paris, so I'll try and get you off those evening outdoor terraces. Just thank your lucky stars that the new no-smoking rule is being observed nowadays - those jazz clubs used to be dark and very, very smokey

Alright - last week I recommended a few free-jazz events - so this week perhaps we'll stay in the more traditional world.... but I want to encourage folks to explore a bit, so first I wanted to post a couple of events out of the centre of town. The north of Paris is a wonderful area to wander in - filled with artists and trendy stores and also very multicultural - so here is one little interesting evening...

this sounds like its going to be a beautiful and interesting night of music -- Tristan Mace and Walter Thompson -



I recommend you check out Tristan's myspace page here or Walter Thompson's site here. Tristan plays the Bandoneon, made famous by Astor Piazzola. And Thompson has developed a sort of performance like gestural language for creating music with small ensembles. And the space 'La Regard du Cygne' is a lovely intimate little theatre. Its up on Belleville in a wonderful part of town in the north of Paris - lots of great little restaurants all around. Get off at the Belleville metro and walk up the hill - its about 15 minutes walk, but just a great funky, stylish neighbourhood. 23rd of May at 8pm at Regard du Cygne, 210 rue de Belleville, Paris 20ème (click here for a map) (closest metro is Jourdain or Place des Fêtes)


Again up in the north of the city around Belleville, at the Studio de L'Hermitage there is a jazz vocalist - Maria Maccarini - who is doing Cole Porter classics from a fun pop point of view -



you can hear her work here at myspace . She's playing on the 18th/19th/20th at this venue at 8 rue de l'hermitage (click here for a map)

Next up - Back in the centre of town Sunset Sunside offers a CD launch from the amazing label ECM (known almost as much for their wonderful design, as for the music within the CDs). Jeff BALLARD on drums,Larry GRENADIER on double bass and Mark TURNER on tenor sax. 22nd of May at 8pm, 25 euros. Its nice stuff - hear it at myspace Here's their own blurb

"Fly is a new thing. The trio has the intimacy of a close up conversation and the depth of three free minds exploring and expanding on each other's ideas. Uncluttered creativity." - Chick Corea

Sky & Country is the ECM debut of the highly-regarded collective trio that drummer Jeff Ballard has memorably described as “an intimate band with teeth”. Modern jazz history is not short on highly charged sax/bass/drums trios, including those of Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler and Sam Rivers, but Fly is differently cast. Equal rights for all instruments is one goal. The saxophone seeks parity with bass and drums, and its refusal to fill all the space with sound brings another set of tensions into play. As writer Nate Chinen observed in a JazzTimes article, “This is music that that expands and contracts, effortlessly and dramatically and that balances the cerebral components of group improvisation with the more gut-level element of groove.”

and finally at Duc Des Lombards on the 21st of May, there's this lovely Japanese singer: Emi Oshima (click to hear).



I was startled to hear this great stylistic sound, sung in flawless English and French - I was on tour in Tokyo a year ago and had my share of stilted versions of standards in quirky English. But this is really lovely - very smooth and with nice arrangements. (venue details on our 'venues' page)

click over to our 'what's on' page to see our top recommendations for this month and enjoy the lovely spring weather.

Live Jazz and Jazz Clubs in Paris in May, '09

There is so much going on in live jazz in Paris and all the jazz clubs around Paris. This should be cool (for those who like some outside and free sounds)

The Kris Wanders Outfit
Kris WANDERS saxophone
Johanes BAUER trombone
Peter JACQUEMYN double bass
Mark SANDERS drums

wednesday May 13th at Instants Chavirés
12 euros
Les Instants Chavirés - 01 42 87 25 91 - 7 rue Richard Lenoir - Montreuil (M° Robespierre)

Click HERE for a Map

One of the most powerful tenor saxophonists, Kris Wanders was at the birth of European Improvised Music in the 1960's.

A member of the seminal Globe Unity Orchestra his collaborators of the time included Peter Brotzmann, Louis Moholo and Fred van Hove, Willem Breuker, Kees Hazevoet, Peter Kowald, Stu Martin, Han Bennink, Gunther Hampel , Irene Schweitzer, Joost Buis, Johannes Bauer, Dave Liebman etc… Now a resident of Melbourne, Australia,




Its just outside the 'walls' of Paris (that is, just beyond the huge highway that surrounds the city). But the metro will get you there in about 15 minutes from the centre of town, and personally I would take the metro to the next stop and walk back along Rue de Paris to get a taste of the new artist suburb that is Montreuil.... a very working class district which is being colonized by graphic designers, writers, dancers etc etc etc... very different from the centre of town.



And now I'm going to have to insist that you check this out - its a festival taking place in my favorite theatre in Paris, and maybe the world. The Bouffes du Nord was a run down space that specialized in wrestling and porn when the famous theatre director Peter Brook found it in the 70's. They renovated it.... a 'little' bit... and left it as a beautiful, state of the art, crumbling ruin of a modern theatre. And now every year 'Le Voix est Libre', on the 12th, 13th and 14th of May, takes it over and shows all sorts of variants on jazz and improvised musics. I'm going to post the complete schedule on the 'what's on' page





They really mix it up - world musicians jamming over vivaldi, and all sorts of different approaches to the improvised music. But it can be an unforgettable evening. Also, Bouffes Du Nord Theatre is right beside the Sri Lanken district of Paris, so arrive early to eat some wonderful south Indian food, or traditional french meals in the theatre restaurant.



and finally for those with a yearning for something more 'straight up' I'll point you towards the concert with the wonderful Archie Shepp at the Duc des Lombards. He's on stage from the 13th to the 16th. Things might get a little outside since he's playing with one of my favourites - Dave Burrell. Check out our venues page for addresses and websites



and enjoy the spring weather....