In May 2025, I spent two weeks in Paris – I’d been there many times before, mostly for work, but never for such an extended period. I wanted to allow it to get under my skin. I think it worked because, I returned in February this year and plan to make Paris trips regular events in my life. After-all, living in the South of England, France is my nearest neighbour and Paris is almost as accessible for me as London.
I’m doing a bit of a catch-up with my blogs which took a break through most of last year – maybe I was having too much fun. Anyway, the plan is to climb back into the bloggers saddle with some of the events and places that confirmed the special place Paris holds in the thumping organ hidden behind my ribcage.
Let’s start with a dance – not just any dance, but Disco dancing. I was surprised to fine this amazing show at the illustrious Philharmonie de Paris, a complex of concert and exhibition halls, opened in 2015 and designed by Jean Nouvel, one of the many great architects who have added great new buildings to Paris in recent years. It was great to be here in one of the world capitals for the arts and to begin my exploration with Disco – I’m coming out, a substantial exhibition about the history and cultural influence of the phenomenon that was Disco.
Disco – I’m coming out was an exhibition that, in the curators own words was ‘dedicated to the cultural, political, and aesthetic legacy of disco music shaped by the energy and creativity of Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities in the US in the United States in the early 1970s’
Disco quickly became a global phenomenon, bringing together diverse communities under a shared spirit of celebration and freedom inspired by Afro-American roots, the heir to soul, gospel, and funk. Disco was born in small underground clubs in the United States but it more than took off during the 1970s, it became the rock on which dance culture was built and to which survives as an inspiration behind much of popular culture today. And, more than anything, it was thrilling and fun.
there were clothes, but of course, sparkling outfits, outrageous hair, memorabilia, vintage musical instruments and recording machines, classic disco lighting, a rich photographic, film and sound archive, featuring classic artists from Chic and Sylvester to Giorgio Moroder, Cerrone, Jacques Morali, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, and Grace Jones, and, a reconstructed disco dance floor and, well you couldn’t have a show like this without the music, and we were surrounded by sound relayed over a sound system that any disco club would die for.
The soundtrack to the exhibition said more than words , it lifted the whole event into a great foot-tapping party with a specially commissioned mix by DJ Dmitri – here is a sample. We forget just how many classic songs came out from the disco impulse.
https://youtu.be/ItMJ3Zonn3k?si=rZTs9uzKpkz4SCdQ
In May 2025 and February 2026 I stayed in an apartment Le Marais, Paris. It was a five minute walk from 38Riv, a jazz club on which holds events every night in its tiny but atmospheric medieval cellar. On both trips to Paris, I went to some of their named concerts but also their late night jam sessions. It felt like the real thing because that is exactly what it was.
Jam sessions here from eleven until very late ar night or early in the morning had an intriguing mix of instrumentalists and singers , some regulars, others newcomers, who substituted, interchanged and improvised with astonishing cool and, I assume, no rehearsal. Amazing.
38Riv is definitely small, it seats begween 30 and 4 people, there’s an excellent little bar, and the accoustics are great under those vaulted arches. It was exciting to be so up-close to the musicians, especially as the musical standard is so high. Joanne Dolly, from Martinique, with her phenomenal voice, with the dramatic use of high-pitched calling techniques, seems at ease with combining singing with her desterity on the standup bass. A thrilling combination, especially with the virtuoso vibraphone playing by Latvian, now Parisian resident, Janis Fedotovs. Since returning to the UK, I have been playing his absorbing debut album Baryon Acoustic Oscillation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdv7_c6LT58
In February this year I was equally pressed by the club’s season of jazz concerts by Belgian musicians, including the Basile Rahola Quartet. Basile Rahola on bass leads his quartet of master musicians, all playing at the top of their game, as if they have been playing together their whole lives. Wonderful. Matthias Van den Brande, saxophone, Wajdi Riahi, piano and Pierre Hurty, drums. I found their new album, From One Path To Another, and I can’t stop playing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuYTIlo0s0c
VG. From One Path to Another v reminiscent of Jan Garbarek’s masterful 1990 album, I Took Up the Runes.
Hi Steve, yes you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that.