Music all around!

We had a wonderful summer evening in Carcassonne. Wanna listen? www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvATDw7djT8

More than 200.000 visitors are expected in Marciac within the three weeks of the festival. As the village is so small, everything is nearby. Famed American saxophonist Joshua Redman gave an interview just next to me. Later that day we visited the museum „Territoires du Jazz“ and had dinner, where the cloister was, before Henry Walters bought it in 1880. It got removed and may be in the the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore now. www.jazzinmarciac.com/

Had a great weekend in an around Marciac. During the festival Marciac is probably the best place for a stopover. Different bands performed on the stage on the central square over the whole day. Unfortunately I lost my notes - so I cannot tell you her name. She was brilliant www.jazzinmarciac.com/spectacles/jazz-in-marciac

Great music for a wonderful summer evening in Bordeaux! The music can be thrilling: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHnx7izv9us Merci beaucoup!! www.losteoporos.org/

Only a few hundred meters west from the "Abbaye aux Dames", on the banks of the Charente river, stands - since 18 aC, when Saintes was known as "Mediolanum Santonum" - the "Arch of Germanicus". Approaching the arch, I heard a great sound. Like many other French towns Saintes has a festival during the summer months. It is named "Les Oreilles en éventail" and this afternoon "La Fanfare A la Gueule du Ch'vaL" performed all around the ancient arch. Great rhythm for a summer afternoon... They do not only have a website: alagueuleduchval.fr/ You can even listen to them on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWKIH0lRIwM

The festival "Les Oreilles en éventail" continued over the whole weekend. When walked back from St. Eutrope and returned to the Roman "Arch of Germanicus", I heard a strange music. Somebody played the accordion - and then I saw, that the musican was "floating" in the air. Meanwhile I know, that the musician´s name is Arnaud Méthivier (aka "Nano"). The scene and the sound had some mystic touch, especially, when it got darker that evening. www.arnaudmethivier.com/ Here you can see him floating and listen to the music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoaIjWpavGw

The festival "Les Oreilles en éventail" continued over the whole weekend. When I walked back from St. Eutrope and returned to the Roman "Arch of Germanicus", I heard a strange music. Somebody played the accordion - and then I saw, that the musican was "floating" in the air. Meanwhile I know, that the musician´s name is Arnaud Méthivier (aka "Nano"). The scene and the sound had a mystic touch, especially, when it got darker that evening. www.arnaudmethivier.com/ Here you can see him floating and listen to the music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoaIjWpavGw

Arnaud Méthivier (aka "Nano"), playing the arcodion from the dark sky above, smootly approached the giant and got a hug. www.arnaudmethivier.com/ Here is a video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=afm990KKIjk

"Cie La rumeur & la Sirène" performing "Ma vie en rose" from a float on the Charente, later they were joined by an orchestra on a boat. Here is the "soundtrack". www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEi4szoJ7n4

Thanks to the brilliant swing of "Smoky Joe Combo", we had a remarkable and very jazzy evening in Nissan-lez-Enserune. Merci beaucoup! Meet the band here: www.myspace.com/smokyjoecombo

There are music festivals all over France during the summer. For a week "Les Suds à Arles" will flood Arles with music every year. In the late afternoon "Bo Houss", a HipHop-group from Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar, performs the song "Helicopter-Helicopter" - and the audience on the Place Voltaire starts to dance.. Listen to Bo Houss: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYFVu7CvZzs

Sunday afternoon all senior citizens of Bilbao seem to meet around the bandstand on the Etxetxua Plaza. They come to dance - and as they all were very "inviting", the senior tourists could join them.

A great evening in the "Théâtre Jean-Deschamps", where the majority of the audience was British, thanks to the English rock band "Status Quo". I do not have a record player any more, but still own "Pictures of a Matchstick Man", a 45pm-single from 1968. "Status Quo" is on the stage since about 50 years. The hard working gentlemen really gave a great performance in Carcassonne. Here is "Rockin' all over the World".. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkXP53xXog

A great evening in the "Théâtre Jean-Deschamps", where the majority of the audience was British, thanks to the English rock band "Status Quo". I do not have a record player any more, but still own "Pictures of a Matchstick Man", a 45pm-single from 1968. "Status Quo" is on the stage since about 50 years. The hard working gentlemen really gave a great performance in Carcassonne. Here are Francis Rossi (right) and Rick Parfitt, working together since the mid 1960s. Meanwhile both are "Officers of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" (OBE). Here is "Whatever you want".. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUki5WZq-VE

A great evening in the "Théâtre Jean-Deschamps", where the majority of the audience was British, thanks to the English rock band "Status Quo". I do not have a record player any more, but still own "Pictures of a Matchstick Man", a 45pm-single from 1968. "Status Quo" is on the stage since about 50 years. The hard working gentlemen really gave a great performance in Carcassonne. Here is "What You're Proposing" - and much more.. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2EDcl3FQWE

The Wailers reggae the world since the sixties. Once named "Bob Marley & the Wailers", but since Bob left this planet in 1981, they just are The Wailers. This evening was a mixture of nostalgia, young Rastafaris with swinging dreadlocks, and of course clouds of ganja hanging over the square André Chénier. Here is "No Woman, No Cry" www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApwkeD8t13o

The Wailers reggae the world since the sixties. Once named "Bob Marley & the Wailers", but since Bob left this planet in 1981, they just are The Wailers. This evening was a mixture of nostalgia, young Rastafaris with swinging dreadlocks, and of course clouds of ganja hanging over the square André Chénier. This is more than just dreadlocks! What an extraordinary hairdo! Here is the "official" video www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldcRh_PiFTE

The Wailers reggae the world since the sixties. Once named "Bob Marley & the Wailers", but since Bob left this planet in 1981, they just are The Wailers. This evening was a mixture of nostalgia, young Rastafaris with swinging dreadlocks, and of course clouds of ganja hanging over the square André Chénier. Here is Aston Barrett, the only person in stage, I remembered from earlier days. He was (and surely is) the "leader" of the band and probably played all bass lines of Bob Marley´s greatest hits. Legends (or rumours) tell, that Bob had about 40 children. Same sources tell, that Aston (aka "Family Man") fathered about 50 kids. Here is "Get up, Stand up" www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhMA2jOa6mA