Bonjour de Paris ...
Chers Amis,
July has been very, very busy. We have been working outside of Paris for the past 5 weekends and have one more road trip this week. Mostly we have been going to La Baule and working at L’Hermitage and also the Hotel Royal. http://www.lucienbarriere.com/fr/hotel-luxe/La-Baule-Hermitage-Barriere/presentation-hotel.html Midweek we've been working in Paris and even though it is summer we have picked up some new students as well. Leslie continues to work at The Lido on the Champs-Èlysées. It is a modern version of the Moulin Rouge. She sings a pre-show dinner set with a big band. It is a good, high profile, job for her and since it’s an early set she can be home by 9:30 pm. Last week we worked for the first time at Monte Verdi, a restaurant very near our apartment. http://www.lemonteverdi.com It is warm here at night so the restaurants typically have all the doors and windows open. During the course of the evening many of the people who walked by heard the music and came in to check it out. By around 10:00 pm we had a full house. It is a great place to work and we are very happy to have booked more dates there in September. It doesn’t hurt that we can be there in less than a 3 minute walk from home. After Aug. 9th things here slow way down for us. Many of the jazz clubs and restaurants close till September and so for us nothing much gets accomplished in France in August. Since we have a few weeks of downtime, we decided to see Belgium, an area of Europe that is new to us. We are going for 6 days and will be in Brussels, Bruges and Ghent. Brussels is only a little more than an hour train ride from Paris so it is a pretty easy trip. Even though every month we routinely hit the road for work, we don’t typically have much time for sightseeing so I am hoping that we will feel like tourists when we visit Belgium. First I need to get a flowered shirt, khaki shorts, white tennis shoes and a fanny pack with a camera in it.
Speaking of road trips, in the first week of Sept. the "Cotton Club" show we work with is doing a show in Marrakech. Once again we fly in to do the show and have to be back in Paris to work the next night so no time to see anything. But it will be interesting to just “be” in Morocco. If any of you have been there maybe you can suggest one thing we can quickly check out just in case we have a free hour or two.
For those of you who live in France, this week we are at Chez Papa in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday at 8:30 pm. http://www.papajazzclub.fr Friday Leslie works with Clément Blumen’s trio at Place Dampierre in Bagneux, France. Saturday Leslie and I are at L'Hôtel Hermitage in La Baule so please check www.surfcovejazz.com for details.
We were really happy to see Joe and Sherry D’antony while they visited Paris on their way home to O.C. after vacationing in Italy. We enjoyed a great lunch and they were able to join us for a night of music at Chez Papa which we really appreciated. We also got to hang with Lisa Webb, a fine pianist/song writer Leslie worked with some twenty years ago. Lisa had lost touch with Leslie and heard one of our recordings on SiriusXM radio which prompted her to get in touch. I am always amazed by how the world works. More friends are in town this week including a great singer Leslie worked with many years ago when she lived in Nashville. Please let us know if you are planning to be here, it is always good to see you.
We hope all is well for you and your families and please keep in touch. It is really good to hear from you.
Until next time,
Leslie and 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/