June-July is Jazz time in Vienne, when the international jazz festival Jazz à Vienne kicks off in the historic city of Vienne, across the Rhône from Blandine's village. If you remember my post on Vienne last year, Vienne was a major city in the Roman Empire in Gaul. It used to be called Vienna then, not to be confused with the modern day Vienna in Austria.
The concerts take place at the various historic Roman sites in Vienne, which are for the occasion turned into concert stages. The Temple of Augustus, the Forum and the Roman Amphitheatre on the hill all develop strange rashes in the shape of modern hi-fi equipment, lighting and smoke machines.
All the freebie concerts by upcoming groups take place at the Forum and the Temple of Augustus. Here is a Moroccan singer gigging a brand of Afro Jazz at the Forum.
Beside the open air stage, Forum also has an indoor stage. Tucked behind the walls of the Forum is a charming 18th century opera theatre. During JaV, they have a gig here midnights by a mid-level group (they call it Club de Minuit - midnight club). Here is the French Blues All Stars performing at Club de Minuit. These chaps comprise the cream of the Blues masters in France. Most of them have individually gigged with BB King, Buddy Guy and others in Chicago, so they're pretty hot stuff, even if they sing the Blues in English with a strong French accent.
But the big boys, the international stars, they play at the prestigious Roman Amphitheatre venue in the evening. These are, for the most part, unfortunately, paid gigs. Last year, I'd mostly seen the freebie concerts because the paid gigs were way too steep. This time, Blandine managed to get me a season's ticket courtesy her daughter Clara's new boyfriend who works for the administration of Vienne and can get them ultra-cheap. Clara has tons of useful boyfriends.
I had a fun two weeks seeing concerts by people I'd only ever heard on CD like George Benson, Chico Freeman, Benny Golson and the Messenger Legacy. A season's ticket holder is the first person allowed into the Amphitheater, so I could jam up right against the stage and see my heros at smelling distance.
George Benson had an EEEEEnormous back up band. They nearly took up the whole stage. Disappointingly, he didn't play much guitar. He sang mostly, and that too, a great deal of pop. I was waiting for his famous 'Gimmi the night' hit. It was fun to hear it live by the man himself, but the main riff was a bit disappointing. You know, where he goes 'Gimmi the night' and the guitar goes Dum-dum Ta-dum-dum-ta-dum-dum with that oh-so-fine pause. The dum-dum part was just GB strumming two quick chords on his guitar, and the rest of the riff was played by the second guitarist. I suppose it's too difficult to sing and play that riff at the same time. But that amazing pause was there all right. It has to be done just right, or it goes all bleah (actually, he did get it wrong, once).
But for me, the highlights of this season were two non-Jazz performances... the disco-funk of Sly and the Family Stone, which took me right back to my early childhood (I was a child of the Disco era)...
... and Sting! The Police were the first rock group I was ever crazy about - they hit their peak right about the time, a kid in half_pants, I started listening to rock; and I was blown away by them. That was before I discovered there were other rock acts like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles and Led Zep and the rest of it. But still, the Police have that special place in my heart.
And then Sting took to stage with an absolutely pared down group. He was playing a beaten up old bass with all the paint peeling off and with burn marks. I suppose it is the one he had at the start of his career.
Here is the Roman Amphitheatre before the concert - full to capacity.
I'm not a huge fan of Sting's post-Police work, but luckily he knows what the paying public wants, and he stuck mostly to the old favourites, like this short clip of him playing Walking on the Moon. That's me singing in the background. The big head is that of an officious security officer who stuck himself right in front of me. Probably I looked a security risk.
And here is a clip of Sting playing Message in a Bottle. The guy on the lead guitar is Dominic Miller, who has been with him since the break up with Andy Summers. It was a relief to see that famous riff of MiB being played exactly the way I'd learnt it (every budding guitarist is forced to learn that riff - it is supposed to be the best finger stretching exercise there is).
Sting closed with a very long rendition of Roxanne...
... leaving many teary eyes in the audience. Yep, we were all stung by Sting at Vienne.
The concerts take place at the various historic Roman sites in Vienne, which are for the occasion turned into concert stages. The Temple of Augustus, the Forum and the Roman Amphitheatre on the hill all develop strange rashes in the shape of modern hi-fi equipment, lighting and smoke machines.
All the freebie concerts by upcoming groups take place at the Forum and the Temple of Augustus. Here is a Moroccan singer gigging a brand of Afro Jazz at the Forum.
Beside the open air stage, Forum also has an indoor stage. Tucked behind the walls of the Forum is a charming 18th century opera theatre. During JaV, they have a gig here midnights by a mid-level group (they call it Club de Minuit - midnight club). Here is the French Blues All Stars performing at Club de Minuit. These chaps comprise the cream of the Blues masters in France. Most of them have individually gigged with BB King, Buddy Guy and others in Chicago, so they're pretty hot stuff, even if they sing the Blues in English with a strong French accent.
But the big boys, the international stars, they play at the prestigious Roman Amphitheatre venue in the evening. These are, for the most part, unfortunately, paid gigs. Last year, I'd mostly seen the freebie concerts because the paid gigs were way too steep. This time, Blandine managed to get me a season's ticket courtesy her daughter Clara's new boyfriend who works for the administration of Vienne and can get them ultra-cheap. Clara has tons of useful boyfriends.
I had a fun two weeks seeing concerts by people I'd only ever heard on CD like George Benson, Chico Freeman, Benny Golson and the Messenger Legacy. A season's ticket holder is the first person allowed into the Amphitheater, so I could jam up right against the stage and see my heros at smelling distance.
George Benson had an EEEEEnormous back up band. They nearly took up the whole stage. Disappointingly, he didn't play much guitar. He sang mostly, and that too, a great deal of pop. I was waiting for his famous 'Gimmi the night' hit. It was fun to hear it live by the man himself, but the main riff was a bit disappointing. You know, where he goes 'Gimmi the night' and the guitar goes Dum-dum Ta-dum-dum-ta-dum-dum with that oh-so-fine pause. The dum-dum part was just GB strumming two quick chords on his guitar, and the rest of the riff was played by the second guitarist. I suppose it's too difficult to sing and play that riff at the same time. But that amazing pause was there all right. It has to be done just right, or it goes all bleah (actually, he did get it wrong, once).
But for me, the highlights of this season were two non-Jazz performances... the disco-funk of Sly and the Family Stone, which took me right back to my early childhood (I was a child of the Disco era)...
... and Sting! The Police were the first rock group I was ever crazy about - they hit their peak right about the time, a kid in half_pants, I started listening to rock; and I was blown away by them. That was before I discovered there were other rock acts like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles and Led Zep and the rest of it. But still, the Police have that special place in my heart.
And then Sting took to stage with an absolutely pared down group. He was playing a beaten up old bass with all the paint peeling off and with burn marks. I suppose it is the one he had at the start of his career.
Here is the Roman Amphitheatre before the concert - full to capacity.
I'm not a huge fan of Sting's post-Police work, but luckily he knows what the paying public wants, and he stuck mostly to the old favourites, like this short clip of him playing Walking on the Moon. That's me singing in the background. The big head is that of an officious security officer who stuck himself right in front of me. Probably I looked a security risk.
And here is a clip of Sting playing Message in a Bottle. The guy on the lead guitar is Dominic Miller, who has been with him since the break up with Andy Summers. It was a relief to see that famous riff of MiB being played exactly the way I'd learnt it (every budding guitarist is forced to learn that riff - it is supposed to be the best finger stretching exercise there is).
Sting closed with a very long rendition of Roxanne...
... leaving many teary eyes in the audience. Yep, we were all stung by Sting at Vienne.
