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

Off for a wee bit

Hi All...

I'm up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the month of August - I'll try and catch up on some listings later this week but it's very busy up here and my update may be delayed ... All very good here so far - two 5 star reviews for my concert of Kurt Weill songs...

meanwhile click over to the Clubs listings and you should find enough addresses to keep you going while you're in town

see you soon
Bremner

Jazz in Paris for late July and on - The American Jazz Fest Continues

Jazz clubs in Paris are hopping this warm week and its easy to find great jazz music in Paris up till the end of July (when a lot of the players and clubs head out of town for the month of August) I like the programming in the American Jazz Festival at Sunset/Sunside - and my pick for the week is at this festival - Jeri Brown with the Jobic Masson trio.








Jobic plays a pretty outside free style when he gets going, but pulls in the reins a bit when working with singers and I think the combination of Jeri Brown's stylings with Jobic's work should be pretty amazing. They're on at the Festival Sunday the 26th and Saturday the 27th. - see our 'Best Of' page for detailed listings and the club listing page for addresses and phone numbers.

Next up ...and running until the 5th of August, there is the All Star Festival at New Morning. It is Jazz/Blues/World Music with a lot of bands making stop overs in Paris while they cruise the festival circuit. This great club is a little north of the downtown core, in the fabulous neighbourhoods around the Boulevards (a gorgeous 15 minute walk from Opera or a hop skip and a jump from Strasbourg St. Denis Metro) Here's the LINK to their site and my recommendation (as I'm on old ska fan from the days of the Specials and Madness and The Selector, who were my first concert!) for a really and fun night out would be the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble, playing on the 29th of July. Enjoy!!

Whiskey Bars with songs by Kurt Weill at the Edinburgh Fringe

For those of you travelling north this summer come see Whiskey Bars by Bremner Duthie, with the songs of Kurt Weill at the Edinburgh Fringe. I'll be in Edinburgh performing at the Fringe Festival with my show based around the songs of Weill. Here's a link to myspace site if you want to check out the recordings - not a jazz album - but a lot of these songs did end up becoming standards for other jazz recording artists, so think of this as a kind of historical reenactment of the original versions!

http://www.myspace.com/bremnersingsweill

here are the dates and times... come check out the show - it's only 6 pounds!

WHISKEY BARS

by Bremner Duthie, with songs by Kurt Weill

at The Vault, 11 Merchant Street

preview Aug 3, 9pm (1hr) £3.00

Aug 4-10, 12-17, 19-25, 8:40pm (1hr) £6.00(£5.00)

book online at edfringe.com

WHISKEY BARS AT THE ED FRINGE, THIS SUMMER

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/whiskey.bars/whiskey.html

Fests and Super Groups - Live Jazz listings for Mid July upcoming in Paris

Live Jazz in Paris is alive and well this week and jazz clubs in Paris are not closing down for their summer holidays yet! So its a great time to get out to the clubs and festivals and see some great players.

Well, the fusion super group Return To Forever is at the Olympia on July 8th. Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White will be doing their virtuoso fusion thing with tickets going from 70 to 100 euros. It should be an amazing concert, though I have read some on-line reviews of their tour that complains a bit of a cold virtuosity sneaking into their playing - but I'm curious if age has added a new depth to what they do - it has been what, 30 years since ego and differing musical ambitions broke them up.


The Sunset/Sunside has the American Jazz Festival for the next two weeks. I'll post the entire schedule in the "Best Of' page (click through is over to the right) There are some fine young players - and I'll be curious to hear Dan Tepfer play on the 5th - he's the pianist son of a some friends of mine who've been running a wonderful performance space (Atelier de la Main D'Or) in Paris for years - they've provided a great launching pad for many careers and projects.


And this is a fab little Paris Jazz Fest - Les Arenes du Jazz takes place in the stately roman ruins of the tiny arena Lutece, on the left bank above the latin quarter - 27, Rue Chappe - 75018 Paris. Its a great history filled space and makes a wonderful outdoor concert hall...



and for those who like their jazz really 'outside' -although the Festival Rotonde de Choc takes place inside the Espace Jemmapes on the lovely Canal St. Martin (definately worth getting there early to put up at some outdoor terrace and people watch) the music should be as out there as Paris can provide. Perhaps we'll see the future fusion super group in the making as they push the boundaries of what improvised music can mean...




check out the 'best of' page for the sunset schedule and you'll find addresses for the clubs in our separate 'clubs' page...

Out and About - Jazz in the Summer in Paris and Jazz Festivals near Paris

With the weather in Paris and summer coming on strong I'm going to suggest more Jazz festivals and also some events that are happening in venues where you can get out and either be in Parcs in Paris or see Jazz outdoors.

First, for the diehard Gypsy Jazz fans there is the Django Reinhard Fest at Samois Sur Seines



http://www.festivaldjangoreinhardt.com/

Its about a 40 minute drive from the city, and if you plan it well, you can combine it with a trip to the fabulous Chateau of Fontainbleu.

Then, from the old to the new (ish) John Zorn will be doing a whole series of concerts at the Cite de La Musique . To get his sound back in your ear, here's a brief video of the work of Man Ray with soundtrack by Zorn.




the Cite is a venue I adore, since its right inside my favourite parc in Paris - the Parc de La Villette... a kind of post-modern playground where real submarines are parked in the middle of the grass. Get out there on Sundays if you can to see the many Samba bands that set up in the afternoon!

and finally - this is inside, but it should be amazing - on July 4th the Studio Ermitage presents the congolese poet Loscony with the extraordinary Bobby Few with Rasul Siddick, Tom Mckenzie, King Blaise, Chansse Evans and Eddie Allen...among others...

Weill Inspirations

When I first started working on my CD of the songs of Kurt Weill inspired by my show Whiskey Bars, I knew I wanted to do the gorgeous Speak Low, but the coaches I saw in New York all advised me to do it as this shlocky uptempo musical theatre thing. And it made me itch - probably because the words are so heartbreaking... I couldn't see myself believing in an interpretation of these words


Speak low when you speak, love
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Speak low when you speak, love
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift,
we're swept apart, too soon

as some bouncy fingersnappin' uptempo thing. So I was delighted to stumble upon a strange recording of the amazing bassist, Charlie Haden, jamming on this song with a recording of Kurt Weill, the man himself, apparently taken from some rehearsal where he was coaching the song. And it's heartbreaking. (ok...the video itself is kind of kitsch...but it was the 80's.... however the song is gorgeous... hell, anything Haden ever did is gorgeous...)



so Stan (my amazing pianist) and I decided to do it as slow as possible and just let all those beautiful words and harmonies just flow out. This is live from the show...





and you can hear the version from the CD here... or here - on Amazon, or itunes..

WHISKEY BARS - AT THE ED FRINGE THIS SUMMER

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/whiskey.bars/whiskey.html