100 BANDS in 100 DAYS

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File this under “Things I should probably know, but somehow had no idea.” Paris is known for jazz. So if jazz is the sound of the city, then damnit, I was gonna see some jazz. But where to see jazz in a city known for it? I had no idea. So I asked the Internet. The Internet knows all.

The Internet said there was a good jazz place called Sunset/Sunside (two venues attached) in the Les Halles (“The Market”) district. I thought, “Hey, I love the NY restaurant Les Halles, where Anthony Bourdain is executive chef (but has no time to cook between trips around the world), so that sounds good to me. Ok, maybe the decision wasn’t that easy (or trivial).

It actually took all day. I wanted to make sure I saw something good, considering that I missed Ben Lee the night before. But I didn’t want the place to be an hour away like last night, either. This is the hell that can be this project sometimes – especially when there are limited days remaining, and I want to make every show count.

Here’s what I considered:

Afro-beat bands @ Batofar – a venue on a boat. cool, but way too far away.

The jazzy hip-hop group US3 @ the jazz club New Morning – sold out, and too expensive anyhow (27 €).

Metallica at some arena way out in the suburbs – sold out, way too expensive (65 €) and ridiculous to think I’d go all the way out there. But, could’ve been really cool if I could’ve pull it off.

Sophie Alour Quintet @ Sunset/Sunside – winner!

I chose Sophie because a) she’s Jazz, b) her gig was part of the Blue Note Records jazz festival going on at different venues in Paris, and c) I ran out of time and needed to pick something. And it turned out to be a great choice. We hopped the Metro from our hotel, 3 stops to the Les Halles district, popped out, and within 5 minutes we were at the club.

We rolled up to Sunset about 9pm, Sophie was slotted to go on at 930pm. Walking into the club, it felt like I was back at a NYC jazz club. First, there was the English name. Secondly, it just felt like home: exposed brick walls, tiny tables, a stage lifted only a few inches off the ground, super overpriced drinks – like I said, just like home. As mentioned before, this was part of the Blue Note Records jazz festival. During the festival, Blue Note artists would perform the works of other jazz legends. Tonight’s show Sophie Alour’s Quintet performed the music of Wayne Shorter.

I wasn’t sure who Wayne Shorter is, due to my limited knowledge of jazz. But who cares. It’s jazz and I’m in Paris. So I order an 8,5 € (approx $11) Stella, Sunshine gets an 8,5 € Kir Royale and we grab seats a few rows back from the stage. Just before Sophie takes the stage, I look back and notice the place has sold out. Nice, I picked a good one.

The quintet is Sophie on saxophone, and a bunch of other dudes on trumpet, piano, bass and drums. They’re all pretty young, and seem pretty good. The drummer was a bit anxious and over the top for my liking. And the bass player was pretty anonymous (maybe because he never soloed). But I liked Sophie, and the trumpet and piano players. They were all pretty solid, but nowhere near the quality of Terence Blanchard – who their style closely resembled, I thought.

They played four 15-minute songs, where everyone got to step in for their solos (save for the bass player, as Isaid). Whenever the drummer got to his solo, the rest of the band fell off quietly – leaving him to beat on his kit. And I don’t know, I guess he was ok – just a bit too aggressive and all over the place for me. But he played with a permanent smile on his face, and occasionally knew when to take a back seat, so I’ll let him off the hook.

Sophie was a good sax player, and good performer. She grabbed the mic after nearly every song to address the crowd. Of course, I had no idea what she was saying. But it sounded nice. Everything sounds nice in French. Even the bums and gypsies around Paris make it sound really nice when they’re asking for your money:

Bum: “Bonjour Monsier. [Something in French], s’il vous plai?.”
Me: No
Bum: “Merci! Au Revoir!”

Man, France is awesome. Some guy could be sticking you up in Paris and it would probably be pretty pleasant. Not that I want to try though. Bonne nuit.

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Tonight is the first truly significant night of this project: It’s my 25th day of consecutive live music. That’s right: 25 of 100, a quarter of the way there, 75% to go.

How do I feel? About the same. But that’s because I took it easy on myself tonight, and last night, really. Although, it is strange to think that Titus/Los Camp show was last night. It feels like 2 or 3 days ago. And that’s one more thing that scares me about this project – how a lot of the shows/bands/days are starting to just blend together. I can hardly remember who I saw last Monday, Tuesday, or Friday for that matter, unless I check the blog.

But I can remember tonight because it was a weird one. Weird, quick and free – mind you. How weird? Well, I went above 14th street, for starters. Took the D train Uptown to…wait for it…Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle!

That’s right. I got fucking crazy tonight and went and saw music where books are sold. Forget the super hipster LES crowd. I spent this Monday night kicking it old school…literally…I was hanging with the Early Bird Special crowd. One 90-year old guy in front of me slept through the whole set, obviously dragged there by his lovely wife of 50+ years. He didn’t even wake up when the homeless guy behind me kept winding a disposable camera for whatever reason, causing the lady with fake orange-sprayed hair on my right to repeatedly shush him. Which only worked for about a minute, when he moved on to digging through a plastic bag, making even more noise. Ah, the joys of free entertainment with old people on the UWS. 

For those of you who don’t know (and I’m assuming that’s most, if not all, of you who read this blog), Anne Hampton Callaway is recognized as the only composer to have collaborated with Cole Porter, when she set her music to his posthumously discovered lyric, “I Gaze in Your Eyes”. Listen, I didn’t know that shit either until I saw her Wikipedia page. I wanted to know a little something about who I was seeing tonight. And she was pretty entertaining.

Callaway had more than a great voice. She was also funny. Like when she asked if there was any Callaway virgins in the audience, “You know, people who haven’t seen me, or slept with me…” She even threw in a Facebook joke at one point – which shot right over 98% of the crowd’s heads.  

Callaway was at B&N tonight to sing tracks off her new record At Last. Surprisingly that included the Fleetwood Mac song “Landslide,” which she sang alongside standards like “Over the Rainbow,” and the Etta James, title track “At Last.” Accompanying her was Ted Rosenthal on piano and Jay Leonhart. They were pretty solid. Especially Ted.

All in all, it was good to change it up, and it was a good show, for what it was. Maybe it was a bit of a weak way to hit a milestone 25th show. But, it did remind me that I wanted to buy Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook.  Not that I bought it, but I wrote it down, and one day I will.  But, perhaps the best part of the show though was how it started at 6:10pm, was over with by 6:40pm, and I was back downtown, in my apartment, cooking dinner by 8pm.

Lovely.