Paris is an amazing and inspiring place to study gypsy jazz. I found a place to buy a guitar the second day here and have been practicing every day. Which is awesome because I haven’t really had the time to do that since last summer! So the first few days in Paris I did a bunch of touristy stuff like see the Eiffel Tower, Le Champs Elysees, Le Louvre, Le Palais Royal, and many others. I’ve done tons of walking! It’s a bummer that it has been raining so much. And when it’s not raining the wind is blowing so hard! Im reminded of this video I saw a few years ago.

But nothing can really get me that bummed while in Paris! It really is a beautiful and romantic city.

So after I got being a tourist out of my system I was able to settle in an get studying and practicing. I’ve been getting up every morning and getting myself a delightful breakfast at a boulangerie or sitting down at a café and reading over un café et tartine avec un jus d’orange. C’est très français n’est pas? Then after breakfast I come home and practice for a hew hours, sitting in front of my big open window in my room (the picture below the view from my room). Not a bad pace to practice!

Every afternoon and evening I spend out in the city walking around seeing what there is to see. listening to street performers, sitting at cafés reading (but mostly people watching), and best of all, listening to gypsy jazz at wonderful little clubs, restaurants and bars. I am fully immersed in exactly what I came here to study! Im reading, listening, and practicing this incredibly style of jazz all in the city where it was born. I can think of no better way to learn the art form.

This week I have continued to read the book I read last week called Gypsy Jazz by Michael Dergni. He goes into a bit about Django Reinhardt’s life growing up and his progression as a musician. What makes the guitar style in jazz manouche so different from other form of jazz is the way Django was forced to relearn how to play guitar after is fretting hand was totally scorched when his caravan caught on fire. His ring and pinky finger were totally paralized after he recovered. So this new style of guitar playing that people musicians still learn and play even with all there fingers working, was born from Django’s terribly accident but amazing drive to still play guitar. Even though no one thought he would ever play again.

The term jazz Manouche comes from the name of the Romani people that Django was apart of. In Paris there live the Gitans, Tsiganes (or Tziganes), Manouches, Romanichels, Bohémiens, and the Sintis. In much of continental Europe, Romanis are known by names cognate to the Greek term τσιγγάνοι (tsinganoi).

The Romani (or Gypsy) culture is rich and beautiful and so full or art. I wish there was a way for me to experience more of it while here. This upcoming weekend I look forward to heading up north just outside of paris where le marche aux puces de saint-ouen is. This is the flee market where Django grew up and strummed his banjo on the streets and in the bals at night. I will be able to see where his caravan was once parked and some of the old bals where he used to play. Many of them are now turned into night clubs that bump electronic dance tunes all night which is awesome but it would have been cool to hear the valses, chansons, cabrettes, the outlawed java, and of course jazz manouche!

This week I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with Rai, her daughter Taj, and Tristan. It’s great to experience this wonderfully city with people I know. Almost every night we have been able to hear live music, and luckily for me they have been into listening to gypsy jazz! We have eaten so much good food and drank so many wonderful cocktails and glasses of wine together.

Tristan and me at a little Fondue Restaurant

Taj, Rai and I at Le Sacre Coure

Us working on our blogs together…….

Having our cinco de mayo tequila shots while listening to a Parisian jazz duo. And we had escargot! It was so good!