Good evening at New Morning

Fal Frett, the Martinique group with whom I've enjoyed a wonderful association for the past 15 years recently performed in a very special place - the New Morning Jazz club in Paris, France.
Opened in 1981, the New Morning has featured performances by such jazz legends as Art Blakey, Pat Metheny, Stan Getz, Chet baker and Dizzy Gillespie just to name a few. Considered by the French to be the equivalent of New York's Village Vanguard or Blue Note, the New Morning is one of those marquis venues that every European jazz musician aspires to perform in.
While still coming to grips with jet lag and the fatigue of the previous day's red eye flight from Martinique, we stepped out of a cold grey Parisian February afternoon into the darkened club. The New Morning's subdued lighting, decor and aroma could only be that of a classic jazz club and we were all struck by the atmosphere and history that seemed to exude from it's walls.

A panoramic view of the club from the entrance hall

If the decor and ambiance were warm, the temperature definitely was not! and our group of thin blooded Caribbean musicians for the most part kept their sweaters on.
The first task was to assemble the vibraphone - isn't that what everyone does when they go in a jazz club?

We had to be quiet while the piano tuner tuned the Yamaha grand piano, this gave me an opportunity to walk around and check out some of the pictures...

We had a long afternoon setup and sound check, then another long wait for our performance at 9:30 (Or 21:30 if you are French).

Having spent so much time living in the Caribbean, it was interesting to again work in a colder, less humid environment. My alto sax behaved differently, the middle register G suddenly grew stuffy and the tuning on all three of my horns was a challenge. The experience reminded me of my time at Berklee College of Music in Boston where cold fingers in winter were par for the course. It would be nice to have more opportunities working under these conditions and particularly situations where I'm moving between performances in the Caribbean and much cooler winter jazz clubs and festivals.

Here is a video of our first song for the evening - the Fal Frett composition Cha Pistache

Our trip was made possible by Fal Frett's producer and label owner Don Miguel Elizabeth of Dons Music.
As you can tell from the video, Don Miguel's promotional efforts paid off and the room was filled with fans of Fal frett. Here is a pictorial review by Marie-Claude Bewa 

I should also mention that our hotel, the Hotel Magenta, was very nice with small but recently renovated modern rooms in an ancient but tastefully decorated building. Interestingly the elevator went to the 6th floor and my room was on the 7th which meant that I had to lug my suitcase up stairs that reminded me of a Harry Potter film. The staff were very pleasant and the breakfast was excellent. On the return journey I had to overnight in my Martinique home away from home - the Centre International de Séjour.

view from hotel in Martinique

view from the Hotel Magenta, yes this is a color picture and that is the sun!!

Here are two pictures, views from the two different hotel's windows capturing the contrast between the worlds of wintery Europe and the sunny Caribbean. Where would you prefer to be?

Mi Fugue - Filming the music video

In August of this year, the Martinique group Fal Frett, along with their producer Don Miguel, decided to create a video of the song "Mi Fugue", a beautiful yet mournful ballad featured on the 2013 release "Histoire d'un Vie"

The producer, Don Miguel of Dons Music, engaged Patrice Aboulicam of Radix to direct the video. Patrice chose to film the band on two full day sessions in two locations. The first location was a rehearsal space in Fort-de-France Martinique, and the second was the stunningly beautiful grounds of the JM Rum refinery in Macouba.

The first day of filming was fairly arduous to say the least. I arrived in Martinique early in the morning and was driven straight to the first location, an old, colonial building in the suburbs of Fort-de France which was obviously used as a music school and rehearsal space.

Fal Frett's instruments were already set up and we got straight down to work. The audio was played from a cd player and under the hot lights we began miming or playing along to the track as Patrice and his assistant filmed us. We were all fairly enthusiastic and bushy-tailed as we performed the first few times through the song. As the day wore on and the number of our run-throughs or 'takes' increased, we realized what hard work it can be filming a music video. By 5pm at the end of the shoot we were jokingly in agreement that we would never play the song again - ever! That same night we played a gig at La Croisiere, a local Martinique jazz club, and sure enough Mi Fugue didn't show up on the set list!

The next day's filming location was the JM Rhum distillery in Manicou, the most northern area of Martinique. The 90 minute drive to Manicou was interesting as I saw the rugged east coast of Martinique with it's isolated fishing villages and undulating countryside. Every turn in the coast road presented another spectacular view of an aggressive sea patiently trying to wear away the formations of volcanic rocks.



Nestled under a volcano and framed by a stream, well kept lawns and gardens, the distilliery was the ideal place for a video shoot. Even though we started in the morning, the air was steaming from the heat and we glanced anxiously skyward watching the occassional rain clouds making low passes over the hills around us. Patrice made some quick decisions about our wardrobe and the locations for each individual musician then he got to work filming us in turn.

My location was a beautifully manicured lawn next to a large stream filled pond. I followed my directions, walking and playing along to a battery operated cd player taking great care to not step into a puddle, fall into the pond or walk too far and fall off the edge of the lawn.

We were so hot our clothes clung to us like street beggars and in two minutes our faces were covered in perspiration. Fortunately during both days of the shoot we had a charming makeup artist Stéphanie Montlouis-Calixte who kept us looking good in the heat of the day without resorting to plastic surgery. It turned out that Stephanie was also skilled in the sandwich making department creating tasty baguettes for us at the end of the day.

After our filming was complete the kind staff at JM Rhum distillery unlocked the massive doors to their huge warehouse that contained hundreds upon hundreds of rum barrels stacked to the ceiling.

As we eagerly stepped inside, the smell alone was enough to give us a pleasant high - the perfect ending to a very special video shoot!