Photography is something that I enjoy doing, but when you're pleased with the results you really want to show it to other people. So this is what that new blog is about and since I'm just a beginner, I entitled it Apprenti Photographe (Photographer Apprentice.) Unsurprisingly, you will see a lot of photos there of musicians, but other things also. I hope you enjoy it and I intend to try and post one photo a day. Oh, and it's bilingual, so don't be fooled by the French title!

Last night I headed out to Paris for the first time since I came out of the hospital for a concert at the Sunside. Will Bernard is a funk-jazz guitarist with a heavy Grant Green influence and I first discovered him on Stanton Moore's III. It was his first time in Paris and I thought it would be worth checking out. Will has just recently released a new album entitled Blue Plate Special which I'm listening to as I write this, and the line-up on that album is stellar with Stanton Moore (Galactic) on drums, Andy Hess (ex Gov't Mule) on bass and John Medeski (MMW) on organ.

The trio he tours with is not quite so famous, but pretty damn strong nonetheless. Will Blades is the young up and coming sensation on the organ, and Simon Lott is a New Orleans born drummer who has played with (amongst others) Charlie Hunter. The music they perform is a mix of straight-ahead funk jazz, more experimental stuff and occasional slow mournful numbers on which Will Bernard often plays slide.

It's a good mix and very groovy music overall. Lott probably impressed me the most during the concert, both because his playing was stellar, always dynamic and occasionally polyrythmic and because his stage presence was electrifying. Check out the photos for a feel of how 'into it' he was. Blades is an excellent backing organist and while some of his improvisations were good, I wasn't as impressed as the videos I'd seen on Youtube suggested I might be. That being said he played on a real tiny keyboard and I suspect that might have cramped his style a little.

Bernard himself is an excellent player, if somewhat subdued, especially compared to Lott. One of the things that I sometimes dislike about jazz guitar is the disconnection with the blues roots. Bernard certainly isn't guilty of that, and that's what pleasant about his playing. I thought he could have been slightly more fiery in his improvisations, but still, it was very good stuff.

The one thing I was slightly worried about was the writing. On Stanton Moore's recent trio albums the playing is out of this world but the writing is not always that inspired. Overall, I was favourably impressed with the compositions here, and a quick listen at the album confirms that this is indeed very solid stuff.

I took a load of photos despite very low lighting conditions, I hope you like them nonetheless... I have a video too. Sound is rough, and it's only 2/3 of a tune, but at least you'll get a feel for the material...

The final concert of the 2009 edition of Harmonica sur Cher was legendary British blues-rock band Nine Below Zero with Mark Feltham on harmonica. I hold Mark Feltham in very high regard, but much as I tried I simply did not enjoy this concert. The first reason, I think, is that I didn't for one minute think that these guys enjoyed playing that evening. It felt to me like the absolue bare minimum that a band can do.

Throughout the concert I felt that the musicians were on automatic, there was no palpable feeling. The reason I like blues is for the thrill that starts in your guts when you feel that the guy is not just playing the music, he's living it. The flip side of that coin is that there is no music I find more boring that Blues without a Feeling.

Let's be clear, this isn't a dig on them as musicians, and I have no idea what the reason of their lack of involvement that night is or even if it's a recurring thing with them. But they certainly weren't there for me that night. Having said that, there were people dancing and clearly enjoying themselves, so maybe it's just me. Go figure.

Anyway, I still shot the obligatory video just so you could hear for yourselves. The strange thing is that I still thought that Mark's harp playing was interesting and distinctive, he played very differently from other blues-rock harp player's I've heard. But irrespective of that, the thrill was definitely gone.

You can see for yourselves, the (few) photos are here and the video of Stormy Monday is here:

I'm sorry if this is only relevant to my French readers, but...

Amazon has finally launched its mp3 store outside of the US, and particularly in France. In order to boost visibility, they have a promo currently with 500 albums sold for 2.99 EUR. I had a quick look thinking there wasn't going to be much of interest, but I was wrong. There's a lot of really cool stuff there. Here are a few pointers if you're feeling like splurging out:

The Folk section has:

• Moriarty's Gee Whiz but this is a Lonesome Town
• Alela Dian's The Pirate's Gospel
• Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around

The Jazz section has:

• Jamie Cullum's Twentysomething
• Weather Report's Heavy Weather
• Miles Davis' Kind of Blue
• The Bad Plus' These Are the Vistas
• Charles Mingus' Blues & Roots
• Erik Truffaz' The Dawn
• Herbie Hancock's Headhunters
• Oscar Peterson's Night Train

The Rock section has:

• Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
• Nirvana's Nevermind
• Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here
• Queen's A Night at the Opera
• Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin
• Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV
• The Doors' The Doors
• The Police's Regatta de Blanc
• The Cure's Seventeen Seconds
• Telephone's Un Autre Monde
• The Clash's London Calling
• Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland

The World section has:

• Lhasa de Sala's La Llorona

Knock yourself out! I'm off to purchase stuff I don't have yet!

Much as I enjoyed Gutpuppet's concert at the Harmonica sur Cher festival, it wasn't exactly a discovery since I'd be listening to their music for a good while. Pédro Kouyaté, on the other hand, was totally unknown to me and while I have been listening to Vincent Bucher's harmonica alongside a variety of African musicians, this concert was still an absolute smack in the face for me, and as it ended I only wished it could have gone on for longer.

Pédro Kouyaté plays n'goni, acoustic guitar and calabash as well as a variant of kora with less strings which he named during the concert, but I don't remember the name. He was accompanied by a drummer, a percussionist, a tenor sax and flute player, a bassist and a harmonica player (the aforementioned Vincent Bucher).

I don't have a huge background in appreciation of Malian music, but I love Ali Farka Touré and I've heard a little Toumani Diabaté and Lobi Traoré. I was under the impression that a large part of the charm of this music was a certain tendency towards an apparent simplicity, even rusticity in the musicianship. Perhaps I felt differently during this concert because of the live effect two yards from my face, but this was not at all the impression I got from Pédro Kouyaté. His sense of rhythmic placement was simply astounding, no matter which instrument he was playing and it didn't in any sense feel rudimentary or simple.

Of course, this is transe music, built amongst rhythmic patterns and essential modal. Someone hoping for harmonic or even melodic complexity would be dissapointed. Thankfully, that's not what I was hoping for, and as all good transe, it's hypnotic. I fell into the pattern immediately - drawn into it by Pédro's great introductions to his songs, providing context and sense - and so, it seems, did most of the audience. You could see heads bobbing and after a few songs, a sizeable number of (mostly) ladies started dancing in the aisles.

Truly, it is impossible to resist this stuff. Furthermore, the presence of the drums, electric bass and sax gave a touch of afro-beat to what might otherwise have felt more as a roots thing (not that that would have made it less enticing to me...) Vincent's harmonica playing has a slightly different tole as it emulates mostly the malian violin and therefore feels rootsy. Vincent makes great use of his deep and powerful vibrato when he's improvising, and doubles the melodic riffs the rest of the time.

Pédro and his boys played for a little over an hour and then had to leave the stage to the next act, but I think I was not alone in regretting that they couldn't play longer. I am determined to check them out again in or near Paris, and will probably go along my son Corentin who kept raving about the concert for days afterword.

If you want a feel for it, here are the photos and here is a video of a tune which, as far as I can determine from the record is Seguin Magnydé. I apologise for the video flying around during the first minute, I was trying to get it stabilised on my new gorillapod and it took me a while. After the first minute it's stable:

I'm writing this from Boston, where I came over for work this week. I landed on Sunday afternoon, and as soon as my luggage was laid down at the hotel, I jumped in a cab to the New School of Music in Cambridge, where Session Americana was playing.

Session Americana is one of the bands in which the amazing Jim Fitting of Treat Her Right fame officiates as a harp player and singer. It was an incredibly fun gig with a really cool atmosphere, and it's not that often that you hear musicians playing unamplified to an audience (although there was a vocal microphone at the center of the round table).

In their normal concerts (this one was unusual, in a very small room in a music school), the round table that they're all sitting under has a microphone for each musician just under the table and the central mic for the vocalist. Thankfully, the small room helped with a (mostly) unamplified sound.

Last night I shared a few beers with Jim and we talked shop, and also discussed Morphine and Mark Sandman. Jim is a harp player I really like, he's got a sober quality that is not the best shared skill amongst harp players, pro or otherwise, and there's always something really interesting and different about his bands.

In addition, it's very humbling to talk to a guy who played with one of my musical heroes for so long. Jim mentioned that Dana Colley and Jerome Dupree of Morphine were playing that evening with a slide player, but I stupidly didn't write down the name of the club and subsequently couldn't find it... Oh well, I guess that'll be for my next Boston trip!

I took some photos and shot a few videos on Sunday, including the following song called Coal Oil Johnny: