Le Jazz Hot - C'est Si Bon!

Paris June 2015
(Review/Photos by Peter Ninnim)

750 people packed the Lecture Theatre in the  Maison des Oceans in Paris, paying thirty two Euros a head to see the Shai Maestro Trio present an off the wall programme of modern jazz. This was the “Festival Jazz at Saint-Germain des  Pres” in Paris.

By chance my good lady had booked us a five day Paris break coinciding with the first part of this two week event and what with that and all the normal Jazz clubs it was wall to wall jazz!

Diary.

Day one.

Jazz club Chez Papa just down the street from the hotel in the Rue St-Benoit. Pianist Remi Toulon and Bass player Jean-Luc Arramy Drummer not available and unfortunately no Kit lying about.  These two were a revelation; lots of original stuff and very melodic. It must have been good, I bought a CD! The food in the club was first class (and as in all Paris very reasonable in price) and as there was no admission fee it was an excellent evening and we left after midnight.

Day two.

Lots of Jazz on the street, largely New Orleans based.

Day Three.

Shai Maestro trio as above. What a band. Based in New York but travelling the world. Keep an eye out for the band if they appear in the UK. The bass player, Jorge Roeder was exceptional but the drummer Ziv Ravitz was in a class of his own. The concert scheduled for two hours over ran by about 45 minutes. Three standing ovations and the stand selling CDs at the end impossible to reach. The drummer in particular was a big favourite with the audience and he was a bit show-biz but he was entitled to be so.

After about thirty minutes I really started to appreciate the music; it wasn’t that there was lots of technical difficulty as far as I could see but the way it all went together just worked completely. There are a few good extracts on youtube which might give a taste of the trio.

Anyway out of the theatre at 11.45 and round the corner to a bar that we had spotted which turned out to be a club famous in the area and called “Le petit Journal”. Here in a cellar down two flights of stairs we found wonderful soprano sax player Marc Laferrierre and his band playing understated New Orleans Jazz until one o’clock. They unusually spoke very little English and I am unsure of the names as there was a quite a lot of sitting-in. I think that the trumpet was Boss Queraud.

Excellent band; we were not asked for admission (as it was so late) but the beer was 15 Euros a pint! The sort of club everyone wishes to stumble across!

Day 4

Came across a trio playing soft jazz in the café Beaux Arts, on the Left Bank near Notre Dame, but could not stay long; other non-music events called.

Day  5

Free street concert; first “Utopia Quartet” and then “Agathe Jazz Quartet.”  Both these groups were vocalist led and were warmly appreciated by a very large audience outside the “Deux Magots” café on the Boulvard Saint Germaine.

A great week; and sorry to leave before all the other jazz on the programme. I’ll try again next year. With more time there were plenty of late night Jam sessions available of a very high standard.
Photos.

Peter N.