Madame Louis (bar Paris) | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

A Mile-Long Post About My Week of Open Mics in Paris – But Some Real Discoveries!

March 14, 2016
bradspurgeon

Le Paradis

PARIS – I cannot believe that it has already been a week since I last posted about my escapades in open mics and jam sessions in Paris, and that I’ve done another pretty full slate of open mics in Paris again since that post! That was not the way this blog has gone for the now six years of its existence. I’m usually very timely in my writings about the open mics – a day or two maximum afterwards. But like I mentioned recently, I’m really hard at work, and very excited (that’s corporate-speak, but true!) about the progress of my open mic documentary, which, like my CD that I just got finished and made, will also be called, “Out of a Jam.” But now, on to a few notes about the last week….

Monday, I decided to return to some old territory I had not been to for a very long time: The Tennessee Bar has started its Monday open mic again. This, remember, was one of the best in Paris when it was run for well over half a decade by James Iansiti. After some kind of difference of opinion between James and the bar owners – if I have my facts straight – James left the open mic. And so began what would be eventually a descent into the dark ages, and the open mic fell so low that it stopped. Now there is a new MC, and it is trying to build its way back into its once glory days. There is no reason that it should not succeed, if the environment of the fabulous cellar room were the only thing that counted. Let’s wait and see! (Oh, it also continues on Thursday nights, by the way.)
First bit o jam at Paradis

I then headed over to the new open jam session on the Ile St. Louis, at the Chez Madame Louis bar. It turned out to be as lively and kicking hot as usual. I managed a couple of songs on stage with a bassist, drummer, lead player and me on my guitar. But what ended up being the highlight of the night for me was that on my way out of the joint, I found some people outside the front door to the bar, struck up conversations, and pretty soon one of the guys took out his guitar and started playing out there. In all, a couple of people ended up playing and singing. But in the end, the bar owner decided it was time to take pity on the neighbors, so the music had to stop. But it was a fun moment of the kind I love at open mics and jams – spontaneity.
Second bit o jam at Paradis

On Tuesday, I finally decided to see if I could show up on time for sign-up at the Café Oz open mic near Place Blanche. I ended up maybe 12 to 14 or so on the list! But it was just two songs each. Still, I calculated that would give me at least two hours before I got up. I then thought of going to the many other open mics along the line 2 of the metro on Tuesday nights, but ultimately I calculated that, Hey, I bet I could take the metro all the way across Paris down to the Bastille, and then walk over the open jam session at the Nul Bar Ailleurs and take part in that, and then return to the Café Oz and do my bit there.
Third at Zebre Rouge

I was actually really kind of proud of myself when it turned out that I COULD do that. In fact, I was quite simply happy as anything because I thoroughly enjoyed my moment at the mic in the Nul Bar Ailleurs jam. It’s called, “Jam around the table,” because it has that kind of feel to it, and there are tables around it…. But it is very intimate, and extremely well organized. My only criticism would be that in between the main bits where you get to the mic, the jamming of the rapping and reggae kind can go on a long, long time, as it did Tuesday – but that’s only a criticism because I was so excited to get behind the mic again myself!
Second at Zebre Rouge

In the end, I figured I better get off to Oz again…. And I did, and I played, and I had time for a beer before, and after. So it was the perfect night!
First at Zebre Rouge

Thursday, it was back to the Zebre Rouge open mic and another fabulous time in the cellar of this bar. In fact, I had to go and pick up my entirely re-fretted Seagull S6 in Pigalle before the Guitar Garage closed, so I was very early for the open mic. But I decided that I would try out the food at the Zebre Rouge, and man did I have a great African meal! And I managed to find a table in the back of the room very secluded, where there were about four or five places in the wall where I could charge my telephone and plug in my computer. So I spent an hour sitting there, drinking my dinner wine, eating, AND editing my documentary film. Can things get any better than this?
Third at Nul bar ailleurs

Evidently, they can! For on Saturday night, I finally had the time and inclination to go and check out the jam at the bar called, Le Paradis, which is near the Barbès métro. I had seen this one for months, since there is little else on a Saturday night in Paris. And because it is usually run by the same guy who runs the Nul Bar Ailleurs jam. So I went to le Paradis, and found myself in Paradis! The bar is just the right size for a jam, i.e., small, with a back room where you can go to breathe, nevertheless. But best of all, the bar manager lets the music go on until nearly 2 AM or so, and it is loud, and it is drums, it is saxophones, it is guitars, basses and keyboards and vocals.
Second at Nul Bar Ailleurs

But it IS a jam, and the audience is so big and crowded around the “stage” area that you are best off playing crowd pleasers of one kind or another and having the audience sing along. To my total surprise, I also met Stephen Saxo there, and so we managed to jam together. There is no doubt for me whatsoever that I will be returning to this fabulous jam, which I finally got to. In addition to everything else, I arrived and found the mic ready for me the instant I arrived, and in ripping off my coat, buying a beer and taking out my guitar in about one movement, I did not see it but I had dropped my expensive new cell phone on the floor by the bar. An hour later – after they had announced the discovery of the phone, and I had not heard them – they still had the phone behind the bar and when I was running around in a panic thinking I’d lost it, that it was stolen, there it was being kept in a safe place for me.
First at Nul Bar Ailleurs

“We’re serious in this establishment,” the manager said. I agreed, and thanked him profusely.
First at Café Oz

I will definitely be back to the Paradis – it’s a paradise (for jammers, anyway).
More jam at Madame Louis

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Jamming outside Madame Louis

First at Tennessee

Bit o jam at Madame Louis

The Unexpected at the Imprévu and Other Nights in Paris

February 16, 2016
bradspurgeon

L’Imprévu bar

PARIS – Ever since the Baroc open mic ended with the closing of that fabulous dive bar in Belleville, there has been a huge hole poked in the Paris open mic/jam scene. If first impressions are everything, then the new open mic/jam session at the Imprévu bar on Saturday night could fill that void.

The bar has the advantage of being located just a few doors up the street on the same street – Rue Sambre et Meuse – where the former Baroc (now looking really dead) was located. It has the other advantage of having nearly the same kind of dive bar feel to it, and the final advantage of having a very high percentage of the same musicians and spectators from the Baroc in attendance. It was clear from my experience on Saturday evening that everyone in that place was looking for the “Baroc experience.”
Wild moment of jam at Imprevu

This open mic is run by Ivan, who occasionally – but far from regularly – took place in the Baroc open mic. The biggest difference that I can see – and it is one that could entirely put the lie to my thesis – is that although the Imprévu open mic and jam calls itself an open mic as well as a jam, the accent is clearly, wildly, on the jam side of things. So there could be a lot of musicians who like to play solo who will, in the end, not take part.
More imprevu

But on Saturday, the first night, it was wildness itself during the jam, and it was open mic to start with, and I don’t think anyone left the place really disappointed. I’ve rarely seen such a wild atmosphere. And the owner/manager/whatever behind the bar, made not a single comment about the craziness. And that will be the final factor as to whether or not it takes off.
Yet more imprevu

I had a great time playing with a keyboard player, a bass player (two different ones), drummer, cajon, and various other instruments, evening managing to get through my song Borderline with these people, most of whom had never played with me on it, or heard it. All a great, great sign of things to come. But it is true that frequently, the first night of an open mic can be the best, before they fall into whatever….
Karina at Imprevu

And even the suburbs can have swinging open mics….

Oh, yes, and earlier in the week – on Thursday night – I also tried another new open mic and to my absolute delight, but not total surprise, it was a huge success, a fabulous evening of fun. I wasn’t all together surprised since it was run by Stephen Saxo and Andy Bone, who have proven that they know how to officiate an open mic, with their Green Linnet open mic in Paris. But the big question on Thursday was whether it was worth going all the way out to the distant, posh, Paris suburb of St. Germain-en-Laye for this thing.
Post Jam at Imprevu

The answer, at least in terms of the fun to be had behind the mic – with fine sound system, and wonderful hosting, and a big crowd of locals and Parisians – was YES. That the open mic took place in one of the O’Sullivan’s pubs – there is a chain of them in France – ensured also that it would have a very good base of fun ensured. It will be run on Thursdays, but alternate occasionally with gigs by other musicians booked by Stephen. So I suggest you keep your eyes open on this one, and if you live out there somewhere on that other planet known as the banlieue, GO!
More post jam at Imprevu

And finally, or rather, firstly (as I’m going back in time here), I also made the rounds last Monday of the three open mics I mentioned a few weeks ago: The Some Girls on rue de Lappe followed by the Yellow Mad Monkey on the rue de Lappe and finishing off with the Chez Louis jam at Madame Louis on the Ile St. Louis. I was too late to play at the Yellow Mad Monkey, but I did get a few songs in at the Some Girls. The most fun this time turned out to be in the jam at Madame Louis, though, where despite arriving very late, I still got up to play, and found an old acquaintance on sax whom I met and played with frequently in the past at…the Baroc in Belleville…..
Jimi’s it at O’Sullivans

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Bit o jam at O’Sullivan’s

Another bit o jam at O’Sullivan’s

Yet more jam at Madame Louis

More jam at Madame Louis

And more again at Madame Louis

Pub Crawl to Three New Open Mic/Jam Sessions in Paris on a Monday Night

January 6, 2016
bradspurgeon

Some Girls

PARIS – Some people may hate Mondays, but in Paris and many other cities around the world, Monday is the day of choice for open mics. Less business from the regulars means the bar owners use the open mic ruse to get clients. I have frequently in years past written about three open mics in the Latin Quarter that I would make the rounds of on Mondays. Only one of those really remains in its usual form – the Galway – while the Coolin has closed down. But now, on Monday, I did a crawl from pub to pub all within walking distance of the Bastille to three different open mics and jam sessions.

So Monday is not just alive and well in open stages in Paris, but thriving. At least two of these open mics encourage either solo or jam styles on the stage, while the last one has the same musicians on stage joining the clients with bass and lead guitar added to your own instrument, or you just join them and do live karaoke….
First at Madame Louis in Paris.

The first of these places I attended was Madame Louis on the Ile St. Louis, on the Quai de Bourbon. I did not have any expectations for this place, but the moment I arrived I knew I had come to a unique location for an open mic/jam. The ground floor is on the quai near the Seine at the Pont Marie. You can drink or nibble up there, but the open mic is down…. Down down. Down two floors. Actually, you go down a ramp, then take the stairs to the first floor underground and on that floor there is a balcony looking down into the pit of the final floor under.

The balcony, in fact, overlooks the stage itself. So this is a fabulous way to watch an open mic: You can be right in the pit on the second basement floor or on the balcony floor. And the stage is a wonderful kitty-cornered thing with pretty OK sound system and a piano…. The approach is two songs for each musician, and if you want to play with other musicians, then they can join you. Those musicians also rotate, and so everyone gets a chance on the stage.
Singer at Yellow Mad Monkey open mic in Paris.

And the place was packed! I don’t know where they got all these spectators, but they did a great job, and I will be returning to Madame Louis.

From there I walked to the Place de la Bastille to try out the new open mic of the former presenter from the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic, Ollie Joe. This was on the famous Rue de Lappe in a cubbyhole bar of the kind that are perfect for open mics. The theme of the bar is the Rolling Stones, which you kind of understand very quickly, as it is called “Some Girls” and there are photos of the Rolling Stones everywhere.
Ollie and sax player at Some Girls open mic in Paris

This open mic has great promise if the atmosphere I found continues. Lots of clients, regulars and new people there just for the open mic. And Ollie Joe’s great hosting. Will this be the beginning finally of a new era of Ptit Bonheur la Chance-like intimacy in an open mic in Paris? Let’s see!
Turning his coat at the Some Girls open mic

Just up the same street, the Rue de Lappe, was the final open mic of the night, taking place in a sprawling bar called “Yellow Mad Monkey.” I expected something of a yellow mad open mic, and I was rewarded. This seems to be the same crew running this one who let me down so much at the Belushi’s bar open mic on the rue de Crimée last year. But here the deal was impeccable.
Second at Madame Louis open mic

I arrived late, but got my name accepted on the list, and I was the last performer of the night. We did our two tunes, “Mad World” and “Wicked Game,” in a really inspiring trio – at least for me it was inspiring, but I’d had so much to drink by then that perhaps anything would have been inspiring – and closed off the night with a nice jam feel to Wicked Game….
Third one at Madame Louis open mic in Paris

Again, I will no doubt return. In fact, I’m likely to return to all three, yes. No question….