Le Jazz Cette Semaine ...
Chers Amis,
Welcome to our new "blog". Thank you to everyone who replied to my request to review the revamped “Surf Cove Jazz” website. www.surfcovejazz.com I have added French language pages where possible and added French language text to the appropriate (I hope) pages. Looking at Google Analytics we are getting about three quarters of our web traffic from France, specifically Paris. Which makes sense.
We finally had a few beautiful spring days. Some of you know that the arrival of spring means Leslie turns into the “green gardner”. Today she left to run what she generically referred to as errands. She returned with an armful of plants, flowers, etc. and proceeded to plant them on our terrace. So far no midnight gardening but it is still early in the season.
Last weekend we had a really great time working at Chez Papa in Saint Germain. Leslie was in rare form on Saturday night. She kept the room packed until 1:30 am and then received a standing ovation with requests for an encore. We finished at around 1:50 am and had a nice hang with the club owner afterwards. We got home at around 3:30 am. Fortunately there is a night bus that runs from the club to our home in about 12 minutes. Just one more reason why we love working there.
Things are pretty busy. Our duo CD is being mixed and mastered and will be available for purchase when we are in California this summer. This is the first recording we’ve done without a band. It has been a bit scary to do a project that is so exposed.
We brought a couple of Leslie’s vocal students to a jam session last week. They both did great and the result is that they can’t wait to do more. We may live to regret that night!
In May Leslie and I are traveling with a Paris based production to Monteux, France to work in a “Cotton Club” show. The music pretty much all Duke Ellington, but there are a few Fats Waller tunes as well. The show includes several singers and tap dancers as well. Monteux is in the south of France not far from Avignon. The work schedule is such that we won’t have much time to explore the area. But we are looking forward to the train trip from Paris since it will be new terrain for both of us.
We are really looking forward to being in California in Aug. Leslie is working Aug. 4th in Irvine and we both are working with our old band on Aug. 11th in Seal Beach. In between we are flying to New Mexico for concerts in Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque with our friends Cal Haines and Victoria Rogers. We are looking forward to seeing you all and catching up with your lives so we will have to set up some opportunities to hang while we are in town.
Please take a moment to add our Facebook page to your “Likes” https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leslie-Lewis-Gerard-Hagen-Trio/151399944884337
As always you can find more info about us at http://www.surfcovejazz.com
Until next time ...