Musical Ramblings

Good news, bad news

I'm taking a short break from the St Aignan festival reports because they take so long to write and there's a few other things I want to say before I'm done. The good news is Inspiration: 22 rare harmonica performances is out in France. I gave it a quick listen and some of the stuff blew my mind: Hugo Diaz, of course, but Don Les as well, Gabriel Grossi, Don Brooks, the very unusual George Harmonica Smith...

I'll write a fuller review later when time allows, but for now I'll just say that the feel of the compilation is very different from that of the first Inspiration, it's a bit more rootsy and folksy but still has the same variety of genres, countries, instruments and atmospheres. You can check out the full track listing and the cover art here.

The bad news? Well, it seems that unlike the first opus of this compilation series, this one will not be distributed outside of France since the record company didn't manage to have the world rights on a couple of the tracks. That's a real shame, although it may crop up on amazon.com as an import, I guess.

Meanwhile, those of you who simply cannot wait can head over to www.fnac.com by clicking on the link below. It's not for sale on amazon.fr yet, I'll let you know when it is.

Purchase Inspiration: 22 rare harmonica performances on Fnac.com

Friday night in Sa(i)n(t) Aignan

As mentioned in the previous post, I was pretty knackered by the end of my gig, so after packing all the gear, we headed back slowly to our rooms for a quiet meal and a bit of rest. As a consequence, I missed a good part of the Agitato show. I came in the concert hall for the last four or five songs. The guys sounded great, in an off-base chanson française kind of way. The music was tight (with a bass and two guitars, Christian Tezenas doubling as harp and conga player), and the lyrics were humorous and irreverential, riddled with puns.

The audience seemed to be enjoying it a lot, and I must say that I was impressed with Christian's harmonica playing. There are very few people who manage to combine rack playing with fluidity and/or precision, but he does. Later on that night, I heard snippets of his non-rack playing at the jam, and the Sugar Blue influence was evident, but even playing in the rack he managed to really funky, fluid lines. Shame I missed most of their concert...

After Agitato was a band I was really excited about, namely the Rhythm Junks, Steven De bruyn's outfit. I have reviewed their CD, Virus B-23, in these pages, and enjoyed it immensely so I was really looking forward to see them live. I wasn't dissapointed!

The stage layout, first of all, was really unusual. Center stage was drummer Tony Gyselinck, surrounded by a huge drumkit. On his right, bassist Jan Ieven, on his left, Steven De bruyn. Behind him, an elevated horn section featuring two trumpets and two saxes (including the occasional barytone). Visually, this really emphasised the importance of the drumming in the music, and Tony is an amazing drummer.

In general, the Rhythm Junks' music is energetic and lively, with, as might be expected, many horn riffs punctuating the grooves. There is no easily recognisable genre that they could immediately be associated with, although influences of jazz, latino music and blues can be heard here and there. Each song is different, springs from a different well and yet they are all recogniseably part of a whole.

Steven's playing keeps on amazing me... I guess I have a confession to make: he is one of the players that I admire the most, and were I ever asked the question "which harmonica player  would you have liked to be?" I would probably answer Steven De bruyn. When I was heavily into playing blues, his stuff on the El Fish records influenced me a lot, in particular his focus on energy and sparseness, and his amazing ability to fade in the background and still support the music as a whole.

With the Rhythm Junks, these qualities are manifest, and even amplified compared to the last time I had seen him live. There is not a single thing he played that night that sounded unoriginal or inappropriate. Of course, there are those who are unhappy about his frequent use of effects, for little things or for wilder ones. But I believe he did not in that whole evening play a single phrase that was predictable, and yet none of what he or the band played was inacessible either. And that's no mean feat.

As an added bonus for harp players, Steven uses every trick of the trade, and in particular, every single harmonica out there, from diatonics (including altered tunings) and chromatics to chord, bass and chromatica. He even resorts to related mouth instruments like kazoos, jew's harps, etc.

In addition to the superb music, the Rhythm Junks are great on stage. Steven jumps all around the place, kicking the air when he hits a particularly powerful note, dancing around the horn section at times. They in turn have their own routines and antics, especially the two trumpet players (but I believe that's a characteristic of trumpet players everywhere). The instrument swaps of the saxes (from soprano to barytone and back again) add spice both to the music and the looks. Finally, Tony's drum being set up front, there's a lot to look at there, although sometimes it's hard to actually work out what's happening amidst the whirlwind of sticks and brushes.

The Rhythm Junks played for about an hour and a half, and it was a blast from start to finish. If memory serves correctly, they opened with Supergroover and closed, unsurprisingly, with Salut Monique, the beautiful toots-esque ballad which leaves you mellow and pleased after an evening of high energy. Most, if not all of the current album was played, and in addition a couple of tracks from El Fish's Rewinder and El Fish & Roland's Waterbottle. If anything left me frustrated about this gig, it was the fact that I knew every single track they played from somewhere...

After the gig ended, I waited around waiting for the smoke to clear, and then went to talk with Steven while he was wrapping up his gear. He introduced me to Tony, who mentioned that I was the only reviewer of Virus B-23 who had worked out that the song Supergroover was about him. I guess I must have blushed! Anyway, I took the opportunity to take a snapshot of Steven's gear case, quite impressive for a harp player. One of the technicians also asked about a weird device he had used during the gig, a sort of synth guitar, and Steven gladly demonstrated its possibilities. It turns out it's a toy, but with a huge sound bank and the possibility of adjusting pitches and tempos dynamically, which makes it possible for him to use live.

I also discussed the repertoire with Steven and he explained to me that all his energy this last year has been focused on getting gigs for the band and thus keeping it going. As a consequence, he hasn't had time to work out a lot of new stuff, but there's much written already. I for one am looking forward to hearing it!

After that, we left and went to a tiny bar up the main street in which a strange jam was taking place. There was only enough space for a keyboard and a guitar, so there were no drums, but that didn't disturb Patrick too much. He had started collecting pots and pans for his kit, and as I arrived, Bill was scouring a nearby work site for pieces of metal to expand the kit. Sounded great, too!

I didn't play in the jam, but rather took the opportunity to get to know Ludo Beckers a bit better, and listened to some of the interesting players there. That's when I heard Christian Tezenas doing his Sugar Blue, I also heard Robert and Tony play their asses off. Bill sang a song rather than play his harp, Iano demonstrated that he played guitar and saxophone very proficiently indeed, and much fun was had by all.

More perhaps than on the other nights of the festival, I was totally exhasuted though, so I headed back for a good night's sleep to prepare for another very full day on Saturday...

My Friday afternoon gig

I was billed to play at the Rendez-vous des Pêcheurs in St Aignan on the Friday afternoon accompanied by the dream team that we'd assembled to play with Bill on the Saturday night. Rehearsals had been a bit complicated to organise, since obviously the rehearsals with Bill were more important, so all in all we managed to rehearse about  1 1/2 hours on the Thursday evening and 1 hour early Friday afternoon. Needless to say I was a little stressed out, but the guys were excellent musicians and I hoped all would go well.

This gig was both an opportunity for me to play live (which I hardly have time to do these days) and also a chance to invite many of the stellar harp players who were there at the festival. We set up around four, and before we even had a chance to soundcheck, the place was packed, so we simply started and adjusted as we got along. The setlist was mosty blues with a few jazzy tunes in there for the more advanced players to have fun with.

We kicked the gig with John Lee Hooker's Baby Lee, followed by Junior Well's Messing with the Kid. The band was cooking, and the sound was great from where I was (and I didn't hear anybody complain). I have a few self-penned blues tunes that I had decided to play, and the first one was Long Leg Blues, a story about a woman who knows how to use her charms. By then it was time to invite my first guest on a Cab Calloway song called San Francisco Fan, a great slow minor jazz tune. I was planning on inviting Bill Barrett to improvise over the bridge, because it goes up a tone every four bars and I simply can't follow that on the diatonic, puny amateur that I am. Unfortunately, Bill was nowhere in sight, and my second choice, Thomas Laurent, wasn't either, so I just sang over the bridge.

From then on 'till the end of the set I had guests on every song: Robert Koch on James Cotton's How Long Can a Fool go Wrong (mean Chicago sound, I played the head, he played the solos, and we traded licks), Thomas (who had just returned) on Gov't Mule's Worried Down with the Blues (Jean-Michel, the guitarist, absolutely killed on that!), Ben Bouman on Help Me (he played a solo on a low Bb Seidel harp, and it sounded amazing) and finally Julien Cormier on Muddy's I Want to Be Loved. I had invited Julien on the same song a year and a half ago playing a small gig after one of the seminars Christophe sometimes organises, and he had totally messed up his solo in 1st position, and I knew that he'd been mortified by it. This was the chance to prove the world that he'd done his homewok in the meantime, which he had!

During the break, Jean-Jacques arrived from Paris, and I asked him if he'd come up and play a tune with us, which he gracefully accepted. He met with Bill and I introduced Tony Ramos to him. Tony gave him one of his custom harps. I checked with the owner to see if everything was alright, and he seemed happy with the gig, so we resumed after a quarter of an hour.

Our first tune on the second set was Jimmy Smith's Back at the Chicken Shack, which I managed not to mess up too much. I find that when I'm using a lot of overblows in a theme (in other words, when it needs to be precise), playing amplified makes it a lot less reliable than playing it acoustic. I suspect it has to do with the whole volume control thing, and also with the fact that I'm stage rusty. Anyway, this was the track for Sébastien, who shaked and rattled its B3 to the core. He sure has nailed that greasy Jimmy Smith sound, and I love it...

I then played another one of my tunes, a slow minor blues sung in French called J'sais plus quoi faire. It's a sad song at the core, about a relationship breaking down, but there are a few dark jokes inn there which tend to the get the audience (and the musicians) laughing. Once more, it worked, so I was pretty pleased with that. I then asked Tony Ramos to join us on I'm Gonna Move to Kansas City. Tony's playing is very fluid and although he was playing over a pretty straightforward blues, he played jazzy lines that fit really well.

I had then planned to invite JJ Milteau on one of my own songs, but he came up and said that since Tony had given him a Bb harp, he would try it out immediately and suggested that we play Watermelon Man. He started solo, vamping along the theme, and the band joined later on. I was glad I could actually play that theme, which is one that I really like. It was such a thrill having him play on my side too: a humbling experience. He really is the master of 'every note counts'. He also knows how to lead a band, and actually gave solos to each of the musicians (including sections of fours to Patrick) but also managed to take back the hand when they were getting too long (Sébastien, in particular, had a tendency to loose himself in his solos and although what he played was alsways interesting, it did sometimes stretch a bit too much).

I played another one of my songs afterwards, called Tired of Being a Teddy Bear, a song about how when you're large, women like you as a friend but not so much as a lover. There was no harp on this (I always say that in a harp concert you need at least one track sans harp) and Jean-Michel took a really nice solo after the bridge. Bill had arrived by then, so I invited him to play on Ray Charles' Don't Let the Sun Catch you Crying, a beautiful, sad and slow jazz tune. He sounded great, powerful and sweetly unhinged, with just enough weirdness to remind you that this is Bill Barrett playing.

There was another guy I wanted to invite, a guy I had heard of and exchanged emails with but never met, called Barefoot Iano. Iano is an Australian who lives in the French Alps, and has the reputation of being an amazing performer as well as a great player and singer. He didn't feel like playing over one of our songs, so he simply called for a country-blues version of Walking Blues.  He started playing some really wild Sonny Terry-ish rhythm, and I just sat by the side of this tall, barefoot guy who was stomping and moving along the music like nobody I've ever seen.

Later on, I would reflect that one of the great advantages of not playing often is that you don't feel slighted when you're upstaged. Because a lot of this music stuff comes down to ego, I had always felt, when I invited guests, that I needed to show that I was just as good as they were. Having Iano alongside me I realised that I wasn't jealous or unhappy about being upstaged, I loved every minute of it ! What a showman!

By the time Iano left the stage, I realised that I was really tired, and feeling a bit dizzy. As I said, I don't play often, and I felt that all my eergy had been used up. I scrapped a couple of tunes and we played Muddy's Deep Down in Florida as a closer. It was getting late anyway, and the evening's concerts would start in less than an hour. I think the crowd enjoyed the gig, and I know that the band did. It's a shame I don't have more time available in my day to day life to get serious about building something up with these guys, but they are pros and they need to eat, they can't put time into any project that won't bring them money.

Still, considering how little we had rehearsed, it was a good gig. I have one frustration with the repertoire and that was that we took San Francisco Fan way too fast, which sort of ruined the song for me, but if that's the only bad thing about the gig, well, that's not bad at all. I took a drink and sat down for a while, getting my spirits back...

Note: I'm still waiting for more photos of the gig, so I will update this as I get hold of them.

Feedback (I)

I knew that Thierry Crommen and Bill Barrett made a good connection at the festival so I asked Thierry for a quote. Here it is :

Meeting Bill was a real pleasure for me, one of the strong moments of this festival: it was as much learning to know the person as it was hearing him live. I felt that, as with all innovators, it is a great originality in his approach to the instrument combined with an amazing musical culture and an impressive technique that make him an exceptional musician. Bill approaches the chromatic harmonica as a polyphonic instrument (he works on patterns and exercices borrowed from classical guitar, accordeon, banjo, etc.) and his amazing mastery of tongue blocking is the technique he has developed to achieve this goal. The man and his musicality make the rest...

Friday Morning : Bill Barrett's Masterclass

Friday morning at ten, Bill Barrett gave his masterclass to a group of between 10 and 15 attendees. I was the official translator but although Bill and I had planned for him to fill me in on the contents of the class we never found the time to actually do it, so I only had a marginal understanding of what it was going to be about.

Bill started by explaning that all the techniques he was going to demonstrate were inspired by other instruments, from bagpipes to accordions to banjos and classical guitar. He had a little booklet in front of him with pages upon pages of exercices written down, which he generously offered to photocopy for whomever was interested.

The masterclasse proper started then. The first topic was drones, also called pedal notes, and how they can be used as a simultaneous accompaniment to a melody. Bill explained his thought process of planes on the chromatic whereby every note in the blow plane, blow lever in plane, draw plane or draw lever in plane can be played simultaneously. A melody over a drone therefore has to use notes in the same plane as the pedal note.

Bill was then asked about his tuning and explained the differences between the be-bop tuning he uses and the standard chromatic tuning. However, he pointed out, all that he was going to explain in the masterclass was applicable just as well to diatonic or standard tuned chromatic. The be-bop tuning just gives him more options to do what he liked to do musically.

We then moved on from continuous pedals to simulated pedals, whereby the pedal note is not played continually but played in between each note of a melody. Reverting to the pedal note thus gives the illusion of continuity. Using the chromatic's repeated notes as the pedal notes expands the number of notes that can be played at the same time as the pedal. For example, using the two F notes on a C chromatic as the pedal allow you to access both the "blow lever in" and the "draw "lever out" plane.

This also works on diatonic using either 2 draw or 3 blow, but of course there are a lot more possibilities on chromatic. That being said, the relative dissimetry of the diatonic layout makes for interesting diads (or intervals). In general, the less symetric a note layout, the more opportunities for exciting intervals it provides.

All through this there were various examples taken from bagpipe, organ and balkan accordion music. There were some scientific terms behind each of the specific examples too, but I can't remember them now...

Some of the stuff Bill was displaying by this point was already pretty amazing, although he confessed to not having "rehearsed" the exercices as much as he should have. In thruth, he often did mess up on the first attempt but got it right by the second time!

The level kicked up a notch when Jean-Michel, the guitarist who was to accompany Bill on Saturday night showed up. With an accompanyist, Bill was able to showcase some of the techniques more efficiently. He demonstrated banjo rolls, some classical guitar techniques and then showed how to adapt Montunos to harmonica. A Montuno is a kind of tune in latin American music that usually feature a melody that is alternated with a chord, and Bill has transcribed and adapted dozens of these to the harmonica, as showcased on the track Montuno VI from his Gutpuppet CD.

Before he moved onto what he called "advanced chromatic techniques" (and maybe should have called "avant-garde chromatic techniques", Bill played some transcriptions of piano ragtimes with the bass line played on one side of the tongue and the melody played on the other side. By this time, everybody was absolutely baffled!

The advanced techniques were pretty wild. Bill demonstrated playing with the slide out, ie. how to unlock the CX-12's slide out mid-solo and what to do with it then (sliding it widely while blowing or drawing produces an odd coughing note). He then discussed moaning into the harmonica and what to do with it, creating intervals between the voice and the note sung, varying that interval, etc.

Altogether it was a very dense and amazing class, the kind that sends you back not dispirited but rather full of ideas on things to explore and practice on the instrument. I know this report nowhere near does it justice, but hopefully, I will be able to work with Bill on getting some of these exercices to you on this very blog. We have started discussing this, and I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and if you're interested in hearing some of these techniques in action, Bill's CD Gutpuppet is the one to get, available on his website. Not the most accessible music ever by far, but very interesting to analyse and take apart. It's available on Bill's website at www.billbarrett.net.

Harmonicas sur Cher - Thursday Part Two

I dashed from the rehearsal to the concert hall in St Aignan and made it just in time for the first attraction of the evening, a band called Balya fronted by a young and talented chromatic player called Thomas Laurent and a guitarist/singer called Vladimir (whose second name I didn't catch).  In addition to the aforementioned second guitar by Hervé Pouliquen, the band also featured a very solid double bassist.

The repertoire was about half instrumental and half vocal tracks, these often being in Russian, sung by Vladimir's deep slavic voice to great effect. On the more jazzier tunes, Thomas' harmonica playing was mostly as a solo instrument, but on the livelier, more folkloric stuff, his role was closer to the rhythmic and melodic aspects of the accordions often featured in traditional Eastern European music and gypsy jazz.

As has been mentioned already, Hervé Pouliquen supported the band with great gusto playing his pompe. La pompe (the pump) is the term commonly used to describe the rhythm guitar playing in gypsy jazz, and although many try to emulate it, there is a particular groove to it that differentiates the true masters from the wannabees. Hervé no doubt belongs in the first category, and although he took a little too few solos for my taste, on several occasions he let loose, and it was an absolute marvel.

The band has room for improvement, certainly in terms of stage presence and audience communication, and also, to some extent, in the assurance with which they play a sometimes tough repertoire. The potential is there, though, and it's huge. Their joy, their sincerity, their music, was delightful and all that more than compensated for a few minor stumbles (that probably noone but overcritical me noticed). I'd much rather have heartfelt imperfections that cold perfection!

One of the highlights of the evening was the wonderful Flambée Montalbanaise, an accordion piece written by Belgian musician Gus Viseur. It's a fast-paced sweet melody that lays wonderfully on the chromatic. I've heard it played by William Gallison on one of his records, and although his interpretation was technically cleaner than Thomas', it carried nowhere near the heart and emotion that Balya displayed in St Aignan that night.

Towards the end of the concert, Balya invited the children's choir of St Aignan to join them on stage for a Russian song whose name eludes me. This has become a traditional fixture of the first night of the festival, and it's a very moving scene. The children had rehearsed the song and, although it was in Russian, they sang it beautifully, supported by the band.

Balya then left the stage but they were promptly called back by vigorous applause. They performed one last tune in which Hervé finally took a long solo and traded fours with Thomas. It was an absolute delight, and as soon as they had left the stage, they were assaulted by a mob of teenage girls from the choir who wanted to purchase the CD! Thomas and Vladimir are young and handsome, which helps for these things, I guess. On a more serious note, they sold upwards of 40 CDs that night, a lot more than they expected.

During the intermission, I had time to discuss things with Thomas and Vladimir and they told me that they were very pleased with the night's concert and reassured about the band's viability. There's been a lot of personnel changes in the last couple of months, and they've been through some tough times delivering on promised gigs. A success like this one certainly helps cement the band and get them more visibility. And it's well deserved too! I look forward to seeing them again, maybe in a more intimate setting.

About twenty minutes later, the Marvellous Pig Noise settled on stage. Two guitarists, bass drums and piano, four very skilled singers amongst the band, and they immediately launched into their particular blend of blues and gospel. The MPN play a mix of originals (often in French) and re-arranged covers. They all have voices to die for and use them to great effect in three or four part harmonies.

Their music is lively and original, with many changes in tempo, songs seguing into one another and other musical events that keep the audience on its toes. Pierre Citerne, who fronts the band alongside the other guitarist/singer, is a gifted multi-instrumentalist who is at ease on both vocals, harmonica and slide guitar. His harmonica playing is fluid and precise, more aerial than the fat Chicago sound that most French blues bands adopt. He didn't play harmonica on every song, since he was juggling between instruments, but I suppose that since this was a harmonica festival the band made sure that the repertoire included as much harp as was feasible.

It was the first time I saw the MPN live, and although I enjoyed the gig, I felt that they suffered from a drawback of one of their qualities: because a lot of the stuff is structured and written (the vocal harmonies, the arrangements,...) their music sometimes feels a little mechanical and cold. They know how to let loose at times, but not with the wild abandon that is sometimes needed to really get the crowd going.

At the end of their concert, they invited Christophe on stage to play harp with them and he invited a couple of other players. It was fun, and a well deserved spotlight for Christophe who puts in so much work and energy into getting this festival going. He was kind of intimidated too, but it sounded great from down where we were.

And that, roughly, was the first evening done. There was a bit of a snafu on the organisation of the jam that was due to follow the gigs, and I therefore did not find it, but I found my bed instead, which was a good alternative. I was due to translate Bill Barrett's masterclass the following morning and wanted to be as fresh as I could for the occasion. The jam session that did take place was in a restaurant called the Mange-Grenouilles (the frog-eater) and apparently it was mostly led by Hervé and Thomas. Shame I missed it, but hey, sleep is sacred...

Harmonicas sur Cher - Thursday Part One

So it was that on Thursday, May 5th, we left Paris by car for a 2 1/2 hour drive to St Aignan. Bill Barrett and his wife Marie were with me in the car, for was to be, for me, a great musical experience and, in addition for them, a way to experience the French countryside and its charms.

The drive was uneventful, although the conversation was pleasant and interesting. Bill's depth of musical knowledge and understanding is amazing, and even though I don't understand what the heck he is talking about half the time, the other half is truly enlightening. Thankfully for her, Marie fell asleep as a consequence of our harmonica ramblings, and we arrived in St Aignan, everyone was refreshed. We headed straight for the Concert Hall where Christophe (the festival's head honcho) was supervising the soundcheck.

I have to specify at this point that because Bill Barrett mentioned an interest in French musette and gypsy jazz, I had shown him bits of the superb DVD by French singer Sanseverino, a concert of his wonderful blend of manouche music and quirky lyrics. As I walked closer to the stage on Thursday to say hello to Thomas Laurent, I noticed that his guitarist had a familiar face, but I couldn't quite place it. A few minutes later, Bill asks: "Is this guy the guitarist from Sanseverino?", and of course, he was right. Thomas' band Balya had changed line-up recently and one of the guitarists is now this Hervé Pouliquen, a young and amazing gypsy jazz guitarist.

The guys from the Marvellous Pig Noise were there as well. Amusingly, I was wearing my Derek Trucks T-Shirt and the two guitarists from the band immediately mentioned that they loved Derek's stuff. There aren't many people who know Derek here in France, and it's always a pleasant surprise when someone does! Later on, Pierre and I discussed it a bit amongst harmonica gossip, and it turns out he didn't know about the Live at Georgia Theatre, so I guess I will act as an importer once more and try to grab a few copies through friends in the US that I can hand around to French fans...

As soon as Bill's musician's arrived, I headed over to the leasure centre where we were staying in order to rehearse with them for my "off" gig on Friday. Robert "Sunnyside Bob" Koch was there and he set up a Sonny Jr amp that I was able to rehearse on. Great sound, although I couldn't see me carrying that to a gig!

Anyway, it's a real treat playing with Patrick, Sébastien and Jean-Michel, and even though, as always, I was cutting it pretty close by rehearsing the day before, I still took a lot of pleasure rehearsing with them. I had assembled a repertoire of blues and assorted bluesy jazz tunes like Cab Calloway's San Francisco Fan or Ray Charles'  Don't let the sun catch you crying. 

The guys turned out to have just the chops for that kind of music, being capable of hard-hitting, gut-wrenching blues as well as more melodic and complex jazzy stuff. Unfortunately, we only had time to rehearse half the repertoire before the evening's concerts, and since I didn't want to miss any of these, we decided that we would rehearse the second half Friday after lunch... Talk about cutting it short...

Back and Knackered

I'm back from the festival. It was definetely a blast, one of the most amazing moments of my musical life. I met tons of harmonica luminaries including Steven deBruyn, Tony Ramos, Howard Levy, Bill Barrett, Pierre Citerne, Ben Bouman, Christian Tezenas, Thierry Crommen, JJ Milteau, Ludo Beckers, Thomas Laurent, and I'm probably forgetting a few. I also got the chance to hang around great musicians who are not harmonica players (yes, they do exist!) including the amazing pianist Anthony Molinaro and the stunning gypsy jazz guitarist Hervé Pouliquen.

Above all though, I got to spend three days amongst friendly people, having great conversations, eating great food, drinking great wine and listening to great music. If there is more to life than that, I don't know what it is. I'll be posting stories and photos from the festival next week, once I get my sleep back, but in the meantime, the (approximated) quote of the festival goes to Howard Levy:

To all of us here, the harmonica is like Frodo's ring: it's always hanging around your neck, willing you to play it...

Last Minute Rehearsal

So we invited Bill Barrett to the Harmonicas sur Cher Festival in St Aignan. It was an obvious choice, since he is one of the most interesting innovators in jazz harmonica in general and chromatic in particular. In terms of logistics, it wasn' t that simple, particularly since it required hiring a backing band adapted to Bill's versatile approach. Bill arrived in Paris on Saturday and him and the band had two long rehearsals Monday night and last night.

I only attended last night's rehearsal. All I can say is "these guys smoke". I heard three songs they did and they just nailed that blues meets jazz meets funk groove. Awesome stuff! I took a few photos as well, so I thought I'd present you the band:

On drums is Patrick, an excellent drummer who played with many famous French artists including Claude Nougaro. He plays hard and sharp but knows how to shift to subtle at the bat of an eyelid. I was lucky enough to play a gig with Patrick a couple of years back, and it was based on that that I contected him for Bill's backing band.

On guitar is Jean-Michel. I had never met him and didn't know of him either, but I heard him last night and he is one of these rare guitarists who can play jazz but are also able to lean harder into blues territory. He can shift from that mellow Kenny Burrel sound to a harder, edgier Buddy Guy-esque feel. Amazing and tasteful!

On Hammond B3 is Sébastien. I had the opportunity to play with him last week (these guys are going to back the jams as well, and that's where I'm getting involved) and I just love his playing. Again, like Jean-Michel, he's as much in love with jazz as he is with blues, and capable of getting into these really intense build-ups that sound so great on the B3.

And finally, Bill. Bill sings and plays the chormatic harp. If you don't know him, do yourself a service and grab one of his records on his website. I once described Bill as the anti-Toots, because his use of the chromatic harp is mean and dirty as opposed to the nice and pretty. He plays with heavy amplification and distorsion, he bends a lot, does not shy away from strange chord substitutions. In other words, he's great!

On the way back from the rehearsal, we listened to JJ Milteau's radio show, a special on harmonica related matters because of the Festival and the release of the new Inspiration. JJ played the Paquito d'Riveira with Howard Levy and both our jaws dropped. I can't wait to hear these guys on stage together, which will undoubtedly happen!

If there weren't so many cool gigs and classes to be had in between now and Saturday, I'd wish it was Saturday already...

Two days to go...

In two days, the 2005 edition of the St Aignan Festival is starting. I'm already feeling the buzz, especially since Bill Barrett is staying at my home with his lovely wife. Tonight, I'm rehearsing with his backing band for an impromptu 'off' concert where I get to invite all the stellar harp players who will be around (Steven deBruyn, Tony Ramos, Bill Barrett, of course, Ben Bouman, Ben Hewlett, David Chalumeau and most likely a few others...)

I just wish I wasn't quite so tired. The kids are rough right now, and work doesn't let me breathe much. But anyway, I'll try and get in touch daily to gove you a rundown of the festival's highlights, hopefully with photos and all !