Leslie Lewis & Gerard Hagen "Jazz from Paris"

 

    Bonjour de Paris ...   

“Watching, waiting and hoping!”   

Chers Amis,  

Watching our little corner of the world, we are waiting to see what’s next and hoping for something that resembles a world that we can truly live in. We all have these same stories, feelings and frustrations. In spite of the pandemic, Leslie and I do our best to make a life here in Paris. Normally that is not too difficult for us.  We live in the centre of town surrounded by restaurants, parks, museums, art galleries, stores…

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Bonjour de Paris ...    

      “The way things are going these days… I got no explanation!”   

Chers Amis,  

I have started this newsletter several times over the past few weeks.  Every time I sat down to write, something came up that was more pressing and caused me to put this on the back burner. Getting everything in place for the release of our new CD and creating the material needed for booking the new “Funky Ella” band has taken many, many hours. For many of us there is no longer any balance between…

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  Bonjour de Paris ... 

      “The more things change…well nothing is going to be the same is it?" 

Chers Amis, 

Spring rarely “springs” in Paris.  Ironically last year, while we were in confinement, Paris enjoyed a beautiful spring. This year, we are still partially confined but able to be outside and enjoy a spring walk. It’s more like the usual chilly, overcast April-May weather that will remain unchanged until one day in June when it feels like summer. 

So beyond the weather there are other things to…

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Joyeux Noël de Paris ... 

                                           

"That's a hip new joint!" 

Chers Amis, 

I have not written for a while because our current daily routine is not conducive to monthly "news".  Like many of you, with the exception of running necessary errands and responsibilities for work, we mostly spend our days at home. However besides wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year there is enough news at this point for another update. 

At the end of November Leslie had a hip…

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Bonjour de Paris ...   

“Take a test, change your life, or at least where you sleep tonight.”   

Chers Amis,   

Well that was interesting.  We have returned from two weeks playing music while cruising the Mediterranean Sea.  Our itinerary took us to Sicily, Italy, Crete, Greece and Sardinia. Circumstances required that previously scheduled stops in Corsica and Istanbul had to be canceled.  For me the days at sea were my favorite, as for Leslie, she was all about the jacuzzi and just being at sea.  This was…

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Bonjour de Paris ...  

“The Art Of Doing Nothing."  

Chers Amis,  

We’ve been back in Paris since Sept.1st.  We worked in Paris on August 1st and left the following day to spend some time with friends in La Baule and Bordeaux. Even though during our time away I worked on my French language skills daily and for the most part I got to the piano regularly, it felt too much of a luxury to take an entire month away from work. After all we had around sixty concerts canceled and the plan for this summer was to do…

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Bonjour de Paris ... 

"Living in the new Normal." 

Chers Amis, 

The above title was “lifted” by yours truly from an email written by our good friends Clifford and Lydia.  Under previous conditions they would most likely be in Paris or at least would be arriving soon. This is true for a number of our stateside friends who visit Paris yearly, bi-yearly or even more often than that.  So there are a number of you folks that we miss seeing here in the city of lights. That also includes the people we know who…

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Bonjour de Paris ... 

Chers Amis, 

We are on day 20 of quarantine. Our last gig which was March 14th in a very sparsely populated Parisien club. Around the second set I was just beginning to feel sick. I wasn't sure what it was. I had chest congestion, a headache and later that night I would get very intense muscle pain to the point that it wasn't possible to sleep. The next day was the first day of quarantine in France. The thing was that during the next few days I was mostly just annoyed that I wasn't…

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Bonjour de Paris ... 

Chers Amis, 

It has been too long since I last posted to you. Many things have conspired to put me behind including computer problems, concerts, teaching, traveling, arranging, rehearsing, practicing, booking gigs and on and on.  Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have all of these responsibilities, but I have had to prioritize and this newsletter, along with a number of other things, had to wait. 

So I'm writing this on a new MacBook Air and getting used to using an AZERTY keyboard…

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Bonjour de Paris ...

Chers Amis,
 
It rarely happens but... we had last weekend free. So with some extra time on our hands we made up for the fact that we missed celebrating Thanksgiving for the first five years that we lived here and had Thanksgiving dinner with friends on Thursday, Saturday and Monday night.  The reason that we were free was…

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