Brad Spurgeon's Blog

I decided that for a change I would go back to Le Baroc for its open mic last night, as Tuesday in Paris there are so many choices of where to go and I almost invariably choose the P’tit Bonheur la Chance, no doubt the best open mic in town at the moment.

But I did not regret the change. First, on the metro ride to the Baroc I heard a couple of wonderful African musicians, playing some kind of African harp and singing. Then, arriving at the Baroc, the first act was an incredibly fantastic young classical guitarist who barely hit a bad note. I’ve never heard an unknown player play classical stuff this well in an open mic. I took his name and email address, but lost it! Will try to find it for future reference, but give him a listen – it reminded me a little of the Lenny Breau recordings from when Breau was 20 years old and recorded with Levon Helm and Rick Danko.

The Japanese man who calls himself “monkey guitarist” was also there. I had heard him play at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance, so he obviously chose to change too. And there were other interesting acts as well. I played four songs, and had the MC, Rejean, play drums with me, and the classical guitarist did some lead. That worked best on “Mad World” and “Borderline,” which were the only two songs in which I more or less kept the same rhythm from beginning to end. :-()