Brad Spurgeon's Blog

PARIS – Sometimes I wonder during my winters in Paris when I’m not travelling and I’m attending the same open mics week after week, I wonder how I can write anything new about them on my blog. Such was the case again last night when I went again to the wonderful Baroc open mic in Belleville. I’ve been going for years now, and for years the MC, Réjean Mourlevat, has been doing a great job. But from one week to the next, how do you find something new to write about, let alone to “live”? Last night, Réjean himself gave me the answer.

Towards the end of the evening, which had many of the regular musicians I see there from one week to the next, Rejean got up behind the mic while a pianist from Strasbourg (not a regular musician here, and boy was he good), began to jam away with a sax player. Suddenly, Réjean began to sing. No please note that Réjean is a wonderful MC, and a multitalented musician, who often plays either piano or drums while others play their stuff at the open mic. But he is something of a quiet, shy guy, and I have never heard him sing before.

This may not sound like much, but really, listening to Réjean sing was one of the high moments of the night! It was so cool! In fact, it was so cool that I didn’t think about taking out my camera until it was almost too late. I did manage to get a bit of it on film, though. So check it out.

Other than that, it was a pretty typical night at this warm open mic where you rarely know quite what to expect from one week to the next in the way of small differences, but at the same time you know you can always expect something to happen.

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