"Leslie Lewis et Gérard Hagen" 1 Juin 2018 Bonjour de Paris

Bonjour de Paris ...

Chers Amis,


Friday night Marc Ghoukassian from Bayside Restaurant in Newport Beach was at our gig in Paris with a group of his friends. When we lived in California Leslie and I worked for him at Bayside as well as its' sister restaurant Bistango in Irvine. (Ron Kobayashi hosts a jam session at Bayside on Friday nights if you are ever in Newport and looking to play or listen to some music.) It was good to get caught up with Marc over drinks after our gig. After we returned home and I finished returning some email, I had six hours before I had to be at the college to listen to prospective students audition for entrance in the fall trimester. So after a few hours sleep I arrived a little before 9:00 am on Saturday morning trying to psych myself into audition mode. What I didn't know was that due to the fact that the students were from places such as Norway, Poland, South Africa etc., most of the auditions I was scheduled to do would use Skype. So François, my audition partner, and I spent the next four or five hours administering a performance evaluation followed by theory, ear training and sight-reading tests followed by a question and answer session for each candidate. Having survived that, I returned home, had a bite to eat and slept for a while before going to work with Leslie Saturday night. Speaking of Leslie, she has been at home at little more lately and she has been in designer mode. Why you ask? Well, we had our kitchen painted as well as some other minor updates which has put Leslie in designer mode. Designer mode is triggered by something new in our home that in turn requires another new thing and so on. It is both fun and frustrating for her due to the limits of space and also the time and effort it takes to find just the right thing and get it home from the store using public transport. I am very happy that she likes to take on these duties. Both because I know that she enjoys making our home as nice as possible but also because my vision of what those possibilities might be is shall we say, cloudy. The one good thing about having a small home is that little things can make a huge difference in both esthetics and functionality.

One of my student ensembles at IMEP Paris College of Music.

Leslie is out on the road twice in June. I can barely keep my schedule straight let alone hers, but I do know that one gig is in Le Mans and the other is where ever the Jazz and Cheese Festival is held! I also know that the transit workers strike is causing her to have to stay over an extra day during one of the trips. Which is a real drag, but at least she will be in a very nice hotel. I am in the last two week push that will close out the spring trimester. My last responsibility for the school will be concluded, I hope, on June 16th with another Saturday of student auditions for the fall. (Leslie will be on the road that weekend.) My last teaching responsibility is Sunday night June 10th, when my two student ensembles perform at Sunside Jazz Club in Paris. I am very proud of these students. They have been working hard to get prepared for this gig. It is a great opportunity for them to get an understanding of what it takes to do a professional performance at a jazz club in Paris. I really don't get too nervous anymore on my gigs but I suspect that I will be nervous that night for my students. I am really looking forward to having the summer off from teaching. I have enjoyed working with these students immensely and I don't teach every day, but between teaching and performing I am ready for a little down time.

IMEP Big Band in concert in Paris.


We are waiting on some confirmations but it looks like we will be doing between 20-23 concerts in July and August. Since many of the are away from Paris this will require a lot of travel. So far I have reserved tickets for fourteen train trips and two flights. The list of a few of the places we will be includes Lisbon, Annecy, La Clusaz, Toulon, Cormeilles, Bordeaux and La Baule. We will return to a few of those places several times. There is a possibility that we will make the trip to Turin, Italy during some down time in between concerts in Annecy. We are very happy and feel very blessed to have these opportunities and I don't mean to make it sound like we are working everyday. Most of our concerts come in groups of consecutive days so we do have free time to enjoy with friends in the different locations where we are working. I can't say that we have been pushing hard to get these bookings. They are the result of people that know our work contacting us with offers. So we try to be sure that every time we perform it is at the highest level possible because one never knows who is in the audience.

We are still re-living the memories of our time basking in the warmth of southern California in April. We are so thankful for everyone who took the time to come and see us. We love you and can't wait to do it all over again.

Here is our June schedule if you are in France.
May 31st June 1-2 we are with Peter Giron at Chez Papa Jazz Club. http://www.papajazzclub-paris.fr
June 7th we are in Pierrelaye with Christian Duperray (Contrebasse), Jean-Marie Lagache (Batterie) at Jazz Session de Pierrelaye-LA MEZZANINE http://www.jazz-session.org/concert-2018-06-07.html
June 8th Leslie is in Le Mans.
June 10th my student ensembles perform at Sunside Jazz Club in Paris. http://www.sunset-sunside.com/2018/6/artiste/1555/5467/


June 16-17 Leslie is with Philippe Martel at The Jazz and Cheese Festival. https://www.jazzandcheese.fr
June 21st we are working with Peter Giron at Chez Papa Jazz Club for Fête de la Musique
http://www.papajazzclub-paris.fr
June 23rd we are a duo at Monteverdi http://www.lemonteverdi.com
June 26th we have a concert privé in Paris with Clément Blumen.
June 27th we are a duo at the Café Laurent http://www.hoteldaubusson.com/en/cafe-laurent.html.
June 29-30th we are a duo at Monteverdi. http://www.lemonteverdi.com

Thank you to everyone who has already downloaded "Fragile", our new recording. It is available as a download on CD Baby at this link. https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/leslielewis5

Please check our website for news and updates. While you are there please sign up for our weekly email blast to learn where you can hear us. http://www.surfcovejazz.com

Thanks for staying in touch with us.

Until next time, Leslie et Gerard

Please if you have any comments feel free to contact me at <gerard@surfcovejazz.com>. I enjoy hearing your thoughts. This email also appears on our website where you may comment as well. http://www.surfcovejazz.com/blog/

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