How I spent my Paris vacation

klaatu · November 2011

My wife and I returned from our vacation a couple of weeks ago. We started in Paris and had planned to spent about six nights there, then head out into the countryside somewhere, but Paris was so wonderful we couldn't bring ourselves to leave. So we stayed there eleven nights before moving on to London to see my daughter, who has been living there for three years.

We of course did all the usual touristy stuff: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, museums, boat rides on the Seine, afternoon explorations of different neighborhoods (Latin Quarter, St. Germain des Pres, Montmartre), all that sort of thing. Fabulous food & wine. The works. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Musical highlights:

A pilgrimage to pay homage to Django's Selmer #503 at Le Musée de la Musique (aka Cité de le Musique). I expected to spend a little time staring at the guitar with my mouth hanging open and leaving, but to my delight the museum proved to be fascinating. Room after room filled with strange and wonderful instruments from many centuries, many of which I had never heard of (the instruments, not the centuries). There were also at least a hundred excellent video stations that you can tune into with the headsets provided. Well worth at least a full afternoon.
A pleasant hour at R & F Charles' guitar shop. It's situated in a gallery that's really hard to find, but worth the effort. Francois always has some very fine GJ guitars on hand. We had a nice chat, and then he left me to wank away to my heart's content while he went back to something he was working on. I had to fight the urge to buy something, but we had enough luggage to deal with without trying to get home with a guitar, too. If you go there, be sure to check the Web site to see what time it's open, as the hours are limited.
Two afternoons at La Chope des Puces. This shrine to gypsy jazz is located in a pretty rough neighborhood. From the Metro station, you have to fight your way through the aggressive street vendors selling cheap crap and then work your way through the enormous flea market (2500 stalls, it says) to the street that the Chope is on. This was the only neighborhood in Paris that I felt we had to be especially wary.

I expected a seedy bar with blood on the floor but found it to be very pleasant, a small but friendly place where Ninine Garcia and friends hold court every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. There's also a large restaurant out back, and the food going by on its way to the tables on the sidewalk looked and smelled really good. Along with Ninine were Rocky Garcia and Marcel Campion on guitar,the three of them taking turns as duos, with someone else sometimes sitting in. Very informal and entertaining. In addition, a hot young violinist named Jeremie Tordjman sat in for a while, and a couple of female singers took their turns. All in all, a great way to spend an afternoon.
Three evenings at L'Atelier Charonne, not far from the Opera Bastille. This bar features gypsy jazz EVERY NIGHT, unlike most other places, and we're talking world class artists. One night we saw Costel Nitescu with the Samy Daussat Trio - the show was so good that my wife, who is not a huge fan, enjoyed it tremendously.

Another night was supposed to be David Reinhardt and Benoit Convert. When we got there, it was actually Noe Reinhardt. OK, I can handle that. Another great show, although I was disappointed not to see Benoit, whom I had met at Django in June this year.

The only letdown was Moreno. We went to see him expecting yet another great show. Why not? Big name star, right? Well, first of all, he starts thirty minutes late (every other night they were right on time). Plays for forty minutes, takes a break. When he comes back he plays for fifteen minutes and takes another break! WTF??? To make matters worse, his playing sucked. I've heard him on plenty of CDs, so I know what he's capable of, but that night he was just being lazy, pulling a lot of cheap tricks to impress the crowd. His wife sang a few songs. We got up and left, and I'll never bother to go see him again. There are too many great artists who are not so full of themselves.

That experience aside, I would highly recommend this place. Good food and wine, great service, and superb music. There are a number of other places that feature GJ, but we never made it to any of them. I understand that Taverne de Cluny is good. Adrian's map at http://tinyurl.com/2avbxth is a great resource, as is this article: http://tinyurl.com/ycnu56g

I'll post some photos and videos later on. Au revoir, tout le monde!

Phil · November 2011

Hey Klaatu - sounds like a fun time, thanks for the reviews...sorry Moreno didn't meet your expectations; I'd love to see Moreno and would be happy to hear him play live, even for only 40 minutes...was Bireli no where to be seen? Did you get any video of Moreno as he seems quite elusive as there's not much video out there of him?
Cheers
Phil

Musette · November 2011

klaatu wrote:

The only letdown was Moreno

Last summer I saw Moreno also at the Atelier Charonne...like you said, it was completely disappointing, he did almost exactly what you said. Even my non-musician friends, who don't care much for this kind of jazz (or any other :shock: ) thought it was really crappy and they kept asking me why did he play with so bad technique, and I felt like a stupid because I was really excited to see him play live and my friends told me things like : "Didn't you say he was one of the best? Is that really the best of gypsy jazz?" I ended up being a big fat liar for that matter.

He started late, he played very few tunes, he did those cheap tricks with the wine glasses and other stuff to just impress the crowd, and his playing was really just crap. Sorry, I love him on his CDs but that night I was really impressed by the difference of his live playing, it was like he was being lazy and like he had forgotten all his excellent technique, it all sounded pretty lame.
And to make even worse that night, me and my friends got REALLY wet in the rain while searching Atelier Charonne. Ha!
But all in all a good experience, we still had some fun.
I have a crappy video of that night, maybe later I'll upload it too.

klaatu · November 2011

Wow, you described our experience down to the last detail, including the thing with the wine glass, which I neglected to mention. The sad thing is that there were a sizable number of people there that night cheering him on, apparently fans who simply adored him and everything he did, no matter what. I was hoping that this was just an off night for him, but two, a year apart? Not good.

klaatu · November 2011

Phil wrote:

I'd love to see Moreno and would be happy to hear him play live, even for only 40 minutes...was Bireli no where to be seen? Did you get any video of Moreno as he seems quite elusive as there's not much video out there of him?

Phil

Phil, I don't think you would have been happy with forty minutes of Moreno that night. No, no video, although in retrospect, I wish I had made one to show everyone what I mean. It was quite shocking.

Bireli wasn't in town, as far as I know. But with all of the great GJ that I saw and heard in Paris from only slightly lesser names, I can't say I felt like I missed out on anything.

rimm · November 2011

everyone has an off night-He's pretty sharp here though. Lets not forget that he's more of a traditional player other than the bebop tinged young players about right now-even so, sorry you didnt get to see him at his best.

klaatu · November 2011

rimm wrote:

everyone has an off night-He's pretty sharp here though. Lets not forget that he's more of a traditional player other than the bebop tinged young players about right now-even so, sorry you didnt get to see him at his best.

Yes, everyone is entitled to an off night here and there, but two identical "off" nights about a year apart?

If he had been more like the Moreno in your video clip, I would have been quite happy. He was playing electric the night we saw him, using a Stimer, relying too much on the pickup to let him get away with really sloppy technique and basically uninteresting solos consisting of flash and not much else. As Joscho Stephan once said while demonstrating something gaudy, "You could always do this ... someone will be impressed."

rimm · November 2011

You've brought up an interesting point there-as much as Moreno can be a little slap dash and seems to be not giving the best performances of late, I would still have to say that on a good night I would much prefer to see him play than Joscho-Joscho is obviuosly amazing but Moreno is the REAL deal when it comes to traditional gypsy playing ala Tchan-tchou Vidal -Apples and oranges of course, but there is something almost dangerous about Moreno's playing when he's on fire.
For those who don't know his good stuff, check out the CD he recorded with Angelo or the brilliant 'Django'c club' CD.

On a similar note, the joint that he has a residency in reminds me of a few of the 'Irish theme' pubs we have in Dublin, fiddly dee music for the tourists and traditional dancing round the clock. I know several musicians who play at these places and they are among the most jaded folk I know.