Saturday, January 08, 2011

Wow! Live jazz in Paris rocks and rolls at Studio de l'Ermitage

OK, well these are my new 'favouritist bands ever'!

I went to see Benjamin Moussay and Ping Machine at l'Ermitage last night, accompanied by some new friends from the meet-up group http://www.meetup.com/Paris-Loves-Jazz/

Those bands brought down the house.

Benjamin's trio was a wildly successful mix of ....uhhhh... early Genesis meets Chick Corea?  Dave Holland meets Frank Zappa?  Whatever!  It was great music presented with humour and a delicacy of touch that just charmed the audience.

here they are in the recording session for their last album


they'll be back next in Paris on June 2nd at the Parc Floral Paris Jazz Festival
I really cannot recommend them enough... if I tried to do that I'd be here all day



And Ping Machine - well, they rocked!  13 members on the tiny stage of the Studio de l'Ermitage playing original compositions by their guitarist, Fred Maurin.  Think 'Zorn meets Grand Funk Railroad and they compose for a Hitchcock movie'.  They had a moment of big band dullness in the middle (from the looks of panic on some of the members I think they might have thrown one under-rehearsed number into the set) that sent some people out of gig, but then they picked up in a big way.

here they are live - the video doesn't capture the full wonderful madness of the compositions which span free-jazz to funk and are wonderfully interpreted by the very tight group.


they have a date coming up at the Olympic Cafe on the 24th of February, and they're also playing at Parc Floral this summer.

Check them out!

And if you're looking for other options then check out our complete list of Paris venues

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