Jazzy

It was the opening night of the Conilhac jazz festival tonight, not to be missed as it featured accordion maestro Richard Galliano. We've seen him live several times, most recently in 2022. It turned out A and B had booked tickets too, so we went together, although we weren't seated together -- it was packed as usual. Possibly because it was the first night, we had to put up with five politicians making speeches, luckily only short ones.

The concert was fabulous of course; Galliano can make a simple trio (double bass, guitar, accordion) sound like an orchestra. And the other musicians aren't just there to accompany him; he gives them plenty of chances to shine, and the communication between them is evident in glances and smiles. 

In the past, the audience used to be strictly instructed not to take photos or videos. That doesn't seem to be the case any more. Luckily not many were doing it, although in the row in front of us one guy was checking rugby results, another was videoing with his phone held above his head, and a third was taking photos and WhatsApping them to his mates. I took four photos and then put the camera away. 

This blip gives me another excuse to link to a video of Galliano, late great violinist Didier Lockwood, and guitarist Biréli Lagrène. Sadly the wonderful video of them improvising that I linked to previously has disappeared from YouTube, but here's one of them playing Les Feuilles Mortes. Lagrène is a great musician in his own right, but here he seems to have decided to play it cool and let the two geniuses do their thing.