Live Jazz in Paris and Jazz clubs in Paris for January 2009 - Happy New Year

So, 2009 looks like live jazz in Paris is going to be great despite (or maybe because of) the global downturn. Jazz clubs in Paris are never going to be making that much money, so hopefully having a few less tourists turn up won't change their situation too much... like the whole jazz world, we're used to operating on a shoestring!

That said, January is always a slow month, but I think there is some great stuff going on - so, here's some links and some recommendations for the next couple of weeks. As usual, explore the Venues page and you'll find lots of clubs in your Quartier of Paris and you can make your own choices!





This is a nice choice- free, apart from the price of a return ticket on the RER - and, if you're inclined, you can combine it with a day at Euro-Disney, since its one RER stop away. (though why come to Paris and then spend a day at Disney I've never understood - but hey, its there, so why not.... I guess) Or if members of the family are looking for that European mall shopping experience you can always head out early to the immense designer discount mall at Val d'Europe before catching some music... Anyway... - At the Val d'Europe stop at the Médiathèque du val d’Europe there's a nice sounding Trio - on guitar N'guyen Le, vibraphone, Philippe Mace, and drums and percussion Joel Allouche - I always love that crossover world and it seems that they're going to be playing around with vietnamese traditional musics.... Its free but you'll just need to make reservations - 01 60 43 66 28.

In town, here is a very cute idea - At Sunside, every Sunday for January and February at 4pm they will have Jazz for families and kids.






they're going to do an 'homage' to a different jazz legend, or jazz theme evey week and the idea is really to have families and kids and turn the younger set on to jazz. So, if you're in the city with the young ones, it might be an event for you. And, for the older set who want to stick around - and 9pm there will be a jazz jamm based around the theme, so you'll have lots players dropping by with their instruments looking for a chance to play.

so - here's the lineup for the next few weeks...
le 11 janvier : "hommage à Dizzy Gillespie”
le 18 janvier : "hommage à George Gershwin”
le 25 janvier : Laurent Courthaliac Trio plays Sonny Rollins

Philippe Soirat - drums ; Mathias Allamane - upright bass ; Laurent Courthaliac - piano

enjoy....

Slave and Master

The blogs on pause for a week while I finish work on the album - today I'm off to spend the day in front of a set of 20,000 dollar audio speakers listening to myself - I'll be hanging out while James Paul of Rogue studios, 'masters' my album.





Wikipedia defines this as "a form of audio post-production - the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). After the advent of tape it was found that master recordings could be optimized by making fine adjustments to the balance and equalization prior to the cutting of the master disc. Mastering became a highly skilled craft and it was widely recognized that good mastering could make or break a commercial recording"

When pressed for more details James defined it as 'I give him some money, he sits in front of a set of 20,000 dollar speaker for hours, and then he gives me an album that sounds amazing'....

beyond that it seems to be witchcraft and magic...

basically as far as I can see its the process of finding a middle balance for the sound on the album so it rings true on every kind of speaker - the cheapo transistor, or the ultra high end, or the car stereo... cutting some frequencies, adding others...

it should be a fascinating and strange few hours

Christmas Jazz in Paris, the City of Lights

sooooo... the end of the year, and you're in Paris for Christmas (very romantic!) or the new year (very very romantic) and looking for some Live Jazz in Paris, or some Jazz clubs and cafes in Paris. OK...

Why don't I start off with a slightly sideways recommendation. Why don't you perform some jazz in Paris? Bring your instrument and attend one of the many jazz jams in the city. Or just bring your voice, and three copies of the music of any standard you want to groove on - there is a Vocal Jam at the Le Baiser Salé at 10pm on Dec 23rd.





Or you can use the search function at this website to find the type of music you want (just warning you, its all in French, but I think the search and styles options are pretty obvious). Or if its Django Jam you're looking for then on Dec 26th at 8pm the Cafe i (156 rue du faubourg St Martin, 75010 Paris) has a Boef (a jam in French) where you can work out your gypsy chops. All the Jams are very laid back affairs and they're just delighted to get players in.

But, if getting up on stage isn't your thing, then here are some listening ideas for the rest of the year (all 8 days of it!)

At the Duc Des Lombards Rene Urtreger will be playing on the 29th and 30th. He was the pianist of choice of visiting jazz greats during the 1950's. He played for Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Lester Young and Miles Davis. It should be a chance to catch a bit of history on stage. Here's a lovely Youtube clip of him in great form playing a fab standard



and on the 30th and 31st I'll take a chance and recommend Olivier Temine at Sunset/Sunside at 10pm. I've reviewed his concerts before and honestly sometimes I find his mohawked persona a bit much, but there's no faulting his players or professionalism, so I think it'll be a show well worth seeing. The line up will be Jérôme Barde – bardophone ; Emmanuel Duprey – fender rhodes ; Akim Bournane – basse ; Arnold Muezza – percussions ; Julien Charlet – batterie ; Olivier Temine – sax tenor

and then, after the 10pm show on the 31st, if you've planned ahead, then perhaps there's a tiny bottle of champagne tucked in someone's purse or bag, and you are a five minute walk from the bridge over the Seine with one of the best views in the entire world. So I would make haste to any of the bridges and join the gangs of folk bringing in the New Year, and pop a cork into the muddy waters of the river (no doubt to join several centuries of other corks floating around down there....)


enjoy!

Christmas in Paris, Live Jazz over the Holidays

So you're arriving in the city of lights and looking for live jazz clubs in Paris and a chance to see the see some great music in Paris. But you're arriving over the holidays and you're concerned that the bars and clubs will be closing down for the season? Well don't worry, there's lots going and some great players. Unlike August, when Parisians desert the city and leave it to the Tourists and the poverty stricken (those can sometimes be the same, with the prices in the city!) at Xmas the city spends a lot of time out enjoying itself.

And its one of the rare times of year when you'll see a Parisian having an extra couple of drinks and getting a bit tipsy - the metros can become very entertaining!!

anyway - there's lots going on.. so I'll put a couple of picks here for the upcoming week or so, then if you want to check out listings yourself go over to our Venues page.

First, up to the 20th of December there's the ongoing Triton jazz festival.



its a nice venue, just over the edge of the Peripherique, so a little off the beaten track, but very accessible by metro. Personally I'm excited to have the chance to see the combination of the Balafon (an african wooden marimba) played by the Burkina Faso master Moussa Hema, combined with the quartet of Francois Merville. Click here for a sample of Moussa's playing



And although there are lots of big names at the Clubs, don't forget to check out the many jazz jams around the city. Its very free form, but you'll see some of the most amazing players in the city (For Free!) working out their chops with their friends - its a wonderful vibe, and different clubs specialize in different styles. There's a classic night at the Duc des Lombards on Dec 12th at midnight. And personally I LOVE the Jazz Groove Jam at the Caveau des Oubliettes every wednesday night - its where the spirit of Eddie Harris, one my heroes, lives on




(I recommend it especially now they've outlawed smoking in the bars -previously you'd have to schedule half hour breaks just to step out of the cellar to get some oxygen in your lungs!)

Enjoy - I'll put more details for Xmas up next weekend...

December in Jazz in Paris

Jazz Clubs in Paris are in full swing for December. There is great live jazz in December in Paris every night of the week! I'll put a few listings up for the next couple of weeks, and check back in for the holiday season listings - which I'll put mid month

and you can always browse our pages on the venues Here

soooo, as usual I try to pick out something traditional and maybe vocal, fun and couple orientated and something a little more out there, and also then something totally off the radar...

for my Trad. pick -



I'd have to say that Anne Ducros at Duc Des Lombards is a good bet - (that's her with the mic, not the guitar!) she's not the most thrilling singer, but she puts over great standard versions of the tunes she picks, and, since she's French, she has access to a stable of amazing players and will probably mix in some French standards into the evening. She's happening for the next week, till the 8th - links and address details on our venues page.

now this - for the more adventurous out there - should be amazing.



Das Kapital plays Hanns Eisler. Eisler was a German composer of the 20's - 50's and worked in cabaret, along side Kurt Weill, and after the war returned to Germany, unlike Kurt, to work in socialist East Germany. A wonderful composer (I've always loved his song cycle - Hollywood Elegies - written after a period in LA) and I'm so curious what this power trio will do with him. Edward Perraud drums and electronics, Daniel Erdmann, sax, flute and electronics, and Hasse Poulsen guitar. They're playing at Le Triton (11 bis, rue du Coq Français, 93260 Les Lilas) so it's just outside the edge of Paris, but really easy to get to via Metro. Here's Perraud's myspace - very funky

and finally, on the small and tiny note... don't forget the lovely Swan Bar - its wonderfully situated in the South of Paris near Montparnasse. The programming is eclectic, (sometimes too eclectic!) but if you hit it on a good night then the cocktails are great, the lovely Irish bartendress is chatty, and the music and ambiance is very classy. Here is there lineup for Dec. I don't know the specifics of the players, but if you're in the neighbourhood it can be a great bet

02/12 La Clouée 19h30
Lezi 21h30

03/12
Jam Vocale Lexi & Sheldon 21h30

04/12 Laetitia Ayres 19h30
RMG 21h30

05/12 Caroline Jeannoutot & Joel Bouquet 19h30
A.Tcholakian Trio invite Cécilia Bertolini 21h30
Round Midnight avec Sheldon Forrest minuit

06/12 en attente 19h30
Léo Céra 21h30
Round Midnight avec Sheldon Forrest minuit

09/12 Saulo Gama Solo 19h30
Ballades chez Swan 21h30

10/12 YAPA 19h30
Richard Razafindrakoto Trio 21h30

11/12 en attente 19h30
Apéro lyrique Alina Pavalache 21h30

12/12 Maria Inês Guimaraes 19h30
The New Sisters 21h30
Round Midnight avec Sheldon Forrest minuit

Back at it - Jazz in Paris for the Holiday Season

So, there's soooooo much going on in the Paris Jazz Clubs and Cafes and with Live Jazz in Paris over the next month and half. Visitors roll into the city in spite of the rain and drizzle, and what could be more romantic than a walk across the Seine on the Pont Neuf from the left bank to see a fine jazz band playing in the Marais in the cellar of some 500 year old building. And, by the way, its great to back updating this after a couple of months away - life called me away from the web while I toured and did the final mix on my new album (more on that in later posts...)



So, lets start with next weekend......

First, I'll just drop in my link to the listings of Django-style Jazz Manouche. Here's an extensive listing on the pages of Marc Masselin, he hasn't updated these for a while, so always give a call to confirm beforehand!


Then lets try and find something 'out-there', and something a little more trad.


So, coming up on the 21st of November there's a group that wire calls "disciplined, focused music, the sound of people really thinking and playing, and close attention is consistently rewarded." - Clive Bell, The Wire.





Trio Sowari
Phil Durrant software sampler/treatments
Bertrand Denzler tenor saxophone
Burkhard Beins percussion & objects

And they're playing at Souffle continu - 20/22 rue gerbier - 75011 paris - 01 40 24 17 21.

I don't know the group but the label does some really fine work and they've been touring continuously now for the last while with this work. I'm always curious to see how a group integrates the samplers into live work. Here's a review from London

"Trio Sowari is one of European EAI's most consistently impressive working units, and their set didn't disappoint. Percussionist Beins and laptopper Durrant are old hands at lowercase - the former a stalwart of the Berlin scene (Phosphor, Perlonex..), the latter one of the pioneers of so-called reductionism (he helped coin the much-maligned term in the first place) in the groundbreaking trio with Radu Malfatti and Thomas Lehn documented on 1997's Beinhaltung (Fringes) and 1999's dach (Erstwhile). Trio Sowari takes its name from Durrant's 1997 album of the same name, but the violin has been consigned to its case in recent years, and it's on laptop that he joins forces with Beins and tenor saxophonist Denzler, who's mastered a whole repertoire of so-called extended techniques. You'd never guess he started out playing thorny free jazz. That said, Trio Sowari's set at the Instants was quite sprightly, Beins and Denzler's scrapes and hisses coinciding with almost uncanny telepathy to counterpoint Durrant's meticulously deployed fizzles and pops. "Too perfect", grumbled a local noisenik at the bar afterwards. Well, I've heard that said about Evan Parker, too. Maybe it simply means that this kind of music has matured sufficiently to define its own aesthetic rules and regulations. Then again, one person's maturity is another's stagnation. Let's see what the second decade brings. Here's to the next ten years, Jacko."
- Dan Warburton on Potlatch's 10th Anniversary at Les Instants Chavirés, Montreuil (Paris), May 29th-30th, 2008 -


And on a more traditional, accessible level Elizabeth Kontomanou will be at Sunset Sunside with an album release party that's coming out on Nocturne.





She'll be there on the 21st as well and tickets are a reasonable 22 Euros. She has a really fine voice and a nice quartet behind here with some blues and billie holiday stylings going on. You can check out her voice on her Myspace page


And finally, my recommendation for all of the holiday season will continue to be the fantabulous new incarnation of Duc des Lombards - the venerable institution on the street of the same name. When I saw they were 'renovating' it last year I fully expected it to reopen as an Irish Pub, or some other theme bar - but no, they've brought it back in much more splendour than before, with better sightlines and whole new look. So check out any of the programming this season. I'll be pulling some highlights, but its a pretty safe bet any night of the week right now.


and I stumbled on the first image for this posting on the web - its a great mashup of images for Paris and is available here Paris Jazz Poster

Back in Paris, back at the Jazz Clubs,

Hey All... just rolled into town after an amazing run of my show in Edinburgh at the Fringe.. so I'll be updating my listings of live jazz in paris and the paris jazz clubs in the next few days - Looks like there is great stuff coming up...

meanwhile check out the 'clubs in paris' link for lots of addresses of live jazz in Paris