Not long after Toots Thielemans came up with his inspired jazz tune Bluesette in 1961, his style caught the ear of a young Dutch whistler named Geert Chatrou.
Source: How Toots Thielemans inspired a champion whistler from the Netherlands | Public Radio International
Heaven has a new angel, and Jesus can this one whistle a tune.
Belgian jazz legend Toots Thielemans has passed away. Just yesterday, I was online checking the dates of the Toots Thielsmans Jazz Festival which takes place annually at La Hulpe, Belgium. I was hoping to attend next summer, and wondered if Toots would still be able to perform his magic.
I’ve been a fan of Francis Cabrel’s since first hearing Édition Spéciale‘ performed by Cabrel (with hilarious accompaniment from Albert Brooks) in the 1987 film “Broadcast News.”
Here’s a video I pieced together featuring Cabrel’s excellent French cover of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” Pictured are Linda and I at the 70 AD Roman amphitheatre in Nîmes where we saw Cabrel in concert on 7/22/2016.
Also, there’s lovely Linda kayaking in Ilse Sur La Sorgue, and dancing in a bike taxi while being pedalled through Paris.
The French New Wave movement in cinema (Nouvelle Vague en francaise) began in the late 1950’s and the tenets of Nouvelle Vague continue to be seen in French films today.
Notable features of this movement include:
While I have a genuine appreciation for Nouvelle Vague, I also appreciate a film like Pixar’s “Ratatouille” (2007), which not only sold beaucoup movie theater tickets, but also beaucoup toys. (I doubt the Jean-Paul Belmondo action figure ever made more than few francs – even with the optional toy cigarette that produces real smoke!)
On our final night in Paris, we crashed this groovy garden party in Saint Germaine. These guys followed this killer song (“La, la, la,la, la, da la, lah”) with Iggy’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”
La, la, la,la, la, Da la, lah!
Wait! Doesn’t this remind you of another great “la, la” song?
“Manhã de Carnaval,” the lovely theme song from the classic 1960 film “Black Orpheus,” seemed to follow us around France for three weeks, first hearing it played from a saxophone echoing through a busy Paris Metro station, and later sung beautifully by Vakia Stavrou at an outdoor concert we found in Uzes, and finally sailing through the open air of the Avignon train station, as we began our journey home (the Avignon station features a piano that travelers can play while waiting for a train – good idea, non?)
Ms. Stavrou’s concert began with “Manhã de Carnaval,” but she added chansons in French, Greek, Portuguese fados, and a few jazz standards sung in English. Singing under a tree in an open field, if she was concerned about the wild electrical storm in the sky above, she never showed it. The flashes of lightning through blue-slate sky over Uzes, made it all feel like being in Maxfield Parish’s “Daybreak.”
“Manhã de Carnaval” isn’t French in origin, but a Brazilian bossa nova written by Luis Bonfa. The film “Black Orpheus” was directed by Paris’ Marcel Camus, who won the Academy Award in 1960 for Best Foreign Film.
The upper video clip is from the film with subtitles. Below is a great cover by Paul Desmond, who played sax with Dave Brubeck. Earlier in the week, we stayed at a villa owned by Brubeck’s son.
Imagine that!
Pas De Merde 