06.25.07

Fête de la Musique

Posted in 101 Jazzmatiens at 12:39 pm by tesstess

In France, there is no such thing as “Midsommar”, as we have in Sweden. But instead they have Fête de la Musique, this year the day before midsommar, where music is played everywhere in all cities.

I played with my group “101 Jazzmatiens” in Garberjaire, the very small city center of Sophia Antipolis.

We played seven songs, starting the “Lullaby of Birdland” and ending with “Night in Tunisia”. All in all we were very happy with how it went, and the audience were perfect. Of course we made some misstakes here and there, but that’s ok, especially since this was our first gig ever.

The group have existed several years, but the group members have come and went. When I joined the group in september last year it was only Julie (piano) and Cedric (drums) left from the original group. Katerina (song), Enrico (bass), Martin (djembe and drums) and me on violin are all new. And for most of us newcomers it was also the first year of playing jazz.

I’m so happy to have the opportunity to learn how to play jazz. The many years of playing swedish folkmusic have given me a good ground to start from, having a good ear, and all swing dancing have given me all the jazz standards in my head. It was just a matter of getting it out in my fingers. I can ensure you that improvisation is quite tricky but finally it’s begining to be easier, and I even have managed to learn to play in higher positions and to use vibrato.

It’s not allways going my way, and sometimes my face shows how much concentration I’m putting in.

All children were dancing in front of the stage and after the last song they came to me to ask my name and to tell me I played well. So sweet!

Permalink