La Cave à Jazz

Backblipped after a rare night out. For the last 26 years, the nearby village of Conilhac-Corbières has organized a month-long jazz festival in November. Starting out as a small local event, run by volunteers, it has grown enough to attract international stars who fly in from the US and around the world to play in a village hall seating 300 or so. The "afters" take place in a nearby wine cave, and go on till 4 a.m. with all the musicians happily jamming.

This spring, the organizers -- still by and large the same group of volunteers -- decided to raise money by having a series of concerts in the cave à jazz, and last night was the first one. 20 euros for aperitifs, a sit-down meal (very simple, cassoulet and crêpes), and not one, not two, but three bands (who were all playing for free). We left home just after seven, and got back at 1:30 a.m. Hence the backblip :)

A very enjoyable evening: we shared a table with a group of older people who are members of a local Ray Conniff tribute orchestra -- you meet all sorts :) The first band was the Trio Bergin, whom we've seen a couple of times before -- they did a short and very varied programme. For a small person, Stéphanie Astre has a big voice, the pianist Thierry Gonzalez is fantastic, and they perform jazz standards in their own cool way. They were followed by the Harlem Fantasy Orchestra, a brass ensemble I wasn't expecting to enjoy. But they played Duke Ellington -- can't go wrong with that -- and they had a great saxophonist and clarinettist. Our tablemates really enjoyed this.

Finally ... I'll tell you about the rest in my next blip, because by staying up late I managed to get two blips for the price of one :) Mind you, I should specify that I only took the point-and-shoot with me, wanting to be discreet, and most of the photos were blurry and awful. This is the best I managed before midnight.

Edit: looking back at this, I now realise how spectacularly bad the quality is in large ...