Bonjour de Paris ...
Chers Amis,
We are happy to announce that we will be in L.A. from Nov. 30th to Dec. 7th. We are planning to perform a house concert at the San Juan Capistrano home of our good friend Ron Dye on Sunday evening (Dec. 6th). We love doing house concerts because the performance conditions are very conducive for an intimate connection with the audience. Ron has an exquisite Steinway “A” grand piano and a large enough home to accommodate a good sized audience so it will be a wonderful musical experience. As an added incentive for you to attend we are are going to perform much of the music we are planning to record for our next CD. So if you want to hear the music before we record it be sure to be there. We are really excited to be back in CA and to be able to see everyone again.
A few weeks ago we did the Jazz En Touraine festival in Montlouis-sur-Loire, FR. With Dee Dee Bridgewater as one of the festival headliners, Jazz En Touraine is one of the more high profile festivals we’ve done. Our concert was on a Sunday afternoon which meant we had to leave Paris by 10:00 am to make it in time for the sound check. The night before we got home around 2:00 am after having done a “Cotton Club” show in a venue outside of Paris which was at the end of one the suburban train lines. On Sunday morning at 9:45 am we met the bass player at the appointed rendezvous spot and waited for the drummer who was to pick us up to drive to the concert. By 10:30 am we were still waiting for him and he was not answering his cell phone. After a frantic call to the festival director, Leslie and I decided to get to a train station and grab a train to the concert. The bass player stayed to see if he could located the drummer. Leslie and I arrived at the festival stage 20 minutes before our concert was to begin and told them we would be doing the concert as a duo. Ten minutes later the other two arrived by car and we did the fastest load-in and set up I have ever seen. We weren’t able to do a real sound check so we just did the best we could to get the sound balanced on the stage as we played. It was a beautiful afternoon for an outdoor concert. Once we got started I was able to relax a bit, take a few deep breaths, and enjoy the moment. We were one of four or five bands to play that day so we only needed to play one long set. I was very grateful for that since we had such a time just getting to the concert I was pretty spent even before we took the stage. Leslie always seems to rise to these occasions and this time was no different. She somehow found the energy to give them a great concert and at the end of the set, the audience responded by forming a line to have her sign our CDs.
Cotton Club concert set up, Serris, France.
Concert stage at Jazz En Touraine, Montlouis Sur-Loire, France.
Festival grounds Jazz En Touraine, Montlouis Sur-Loire, France.
The band that played after us was lead by our ex-pat, Chicago blues playin’ friend, Boney Fields. His band played great and kept the crowd going until they finished their set. We were given a very nice bottle of champagne by the stage manager which we enjoyed with our dinner while sitting at a picnic table as we listened to Boney’s set. When we got back to Paris late that night I was still pretty wired after the excitement of the day. By the time I had relaxed enough to finally fall asleep the sun was starting to rise, it was around 4:00 pm on Monday afternoon when I woke up.
If you have plans to be in Paris over the holidays we are doing the last week of the year (Dec. 29th-Jan. 2nd), including New Years Eve at Chez Papa Jazz Club in Saint Germain des Près. Peter Giron will be playing bass and we hope to have a surprise guest join us on drums! (The club will be dark on Jan. 1st.)
Gerard and Leslie at Chez Papa Jazz Club, Paris.
View of the audience at Chez Papa. Our friends Mariya, Sarah, Jules and Sara having a laugh during our set.
One final nice piece of news, we just booked a date in London for February 28th at Pizza Express, a great jazz club on Dean St. in Soho. Word of mouth is a very valuable promotional tool for us so… we would very much appreciate if you could pass along this information if you know any jazz fans in London.
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/
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