Louis

OK, it's not Paris Jazz Clubs and it's not about live Jazz in Paris - but it's amazing.  This video kills me everytime I watch it..... so I'm posting it again so everyone can see it...again and again....  You understand after this how Louis Armstrong was not only an amazing innovator in jazz instrumental styles, but an extraordinary innovator in vocal stylings.

Dinah!!

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)

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 .....

Fall in the Fair City - Jazz Clubs in Paris in Autumn - September and October

Springtime in Paris Jazz is pretty sweet - but even sweeter is Fall, especially for jazz clubs in Paris and live Jazz in Paris as all the well-tanned Parisians return revitalized from their 5 week holidays and set out to begin a new season of eating well and drinking well and heading out to see fine musicians around the city.

Even the Jazzers get their time to recharge. Under France's mandated assistance to artists and performers and musicians, all employers of these artsy types have to set aside 10% of their wages to assist them later in taking a summer holiday - the wonderful 'Conges Spectacles' program, where even the poorest of Jazz musicians can take two weeks and bring his family to the seaside.

So, expect some energetic performances in the next weeks in Paris.

and....... we're back!

So, heading back to Paris - after almost a year a way - back to the mecca of Jazz and Jazz Clubs and music all the other good things that Paris can bring...

Look for updates to this site in the next days and weeks

We'll be taking a look at Summer Festivals and the bar scene over the summer months

Vive Le Jazz!

Bremner

A Song a Day - Court and Spark

today's song is track 3 on the album - Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell



Court and Spark is the amazing Joni Mitchell album where she begins to seriously indulge her interest in Jazz, weaving jazz chords and harmonies into a pop setting. It went to the #2 spot on billboard in 1974 and stayed there for a month. Its a beautiful album. But, oddly enough, the musicians who I worked with in France, being serious, serious jazz guys, had never heard of it, or heard this track. Which left us free to start afresh, so to speak. The word street rap was thrown around (in a very thick Parisian accent) and the guitarist edited down the chords to a basic blues progression, and then we come up with this arrangement - which, oddly enough, features serious jazz musicians taking a jazz inspired pop song and simplifying it and taking aspects of rap and blues and layering those on top. I'm still not sure what I think of it - one day I love it, since I get to hear the bones of the song anew, and the next day I think - 'what the hell were we thinking...'


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