The Mazet | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Spaced Out at Mazet

February 10, 2012
bradspurgeon

I felt a little on another planet at the Mazet last night, my head elsewhere. The only time I felt grounded was while singing, but even then my attention wandered until a number of the clients began to sing along and dance along to one or two or three of my songs. And that really serves to focus and bring the music back out of you.

It was sooooo cold still, that it was certainly that – in part – that led to what ended up being for me a very short and truncated evening at the Mazet. And one in which I managed to get only one useable fragment of video. Thinking that I had better sound by positioning myself elsewhere, I did not realize that I had ended up in the direct line of fire of a group of Irishmen – the same who sang along to my “Crazy Love” and “Wicked Game” – and that the video picked up their voice more than those of the singers.

So this will be nothing more than a short, truncated post with little content – kind of like my head last night….

Vintage Mazet, from Open Mic to Open Jam

January 27, 2012
bradspurgeon

It is becoming the blueprint for a great night at the Mazet pub on Rue St. Andre des Arts in Paris’s Latin Quarter: It starts out as a packed and loud open mic surviving almost in the background of this central meeting place near the Place de l’Odeon. Then as the evening progresses and performers all go up and play their first slot, the evening in the latter half turns into a jam session, or at least a free-for-all as the performers mix on the stage and play together anything that comes to mind, but usually famous cover songs, in English and in French.

Last night that’s the way it went again, and this time with yet again, as with most of the other evenings, there were some new faces, new voices, new musicians playing different instruments…. There was Mathieu from Switzerland, for instance, or Jul, from France who seems and sounds and looks for all the world like an American folk musician, the classic singer songwriter from Greenwich Village. And he composes in English too, and sings it well. (That, of course, is pretty common around here, but Jul seemed to have practically no accent at all.)

I almost feel like I should not be writing these reports about the Mazet, since at the moment there are always enough musicians to have a fun night, often more than four songs per person and then the jam afterwards. If this place gets too well known, it could turn into one of those waiting list places like so many of the best, most popular, open mics.

Mazet True to Itself

January 20, 2012
bradspurgeon

I attended my first open mic at the Mazet since it took a brief break for the festive holidays, and found that it was back to its regular ways. That means that it tends to start out fairly slow and discrete, and then it wakes up and becomes more intense, and often turns into a jam session at the end of the evening.

I met up with Conn Bux again, and he played some of his great songs, cutting through the chatter to have plenty of the many spectators applaud even during the middle of his songs. The Irishman was well received, to say the least.

I was pleased – if a little intimidated – that this time Conn’s friend, Saray, from Spain, asked if she could film me with my Zoom Q3HD recorder. I happily accepted. So I have more recordings here than usual of me….

During my set suddenly as I was singing “Mad World,” my upright bass player from the night before at the Highlander suddenly arrived, parked in front of the stage, and added another dimension to the song – injecting me with an instant fix of added energy as well. He then played with me on “Runaway Train” as well, and that was the end of my set.

Rimed showed up and played some of his sensational tapping, and there were a few other regulars who also played some lively and fun stuff.

I ended up cutting out at midnight, however, to go to Stephen Danger Prescott’s final Thursday night gig at the Galway before he heads off next week for Berlin. He will have one more open mic at the Galway, on Monday, though.

So all in all, it was a good evening at the open mic….

Another Cool Mazet Time

December 16, 2011
bradspurgeon

The Mazet really is becoming a cool open mic. Last week I did a post talking about how festive it became, and yesterday it began slow, it was raining outside, and I thought it would end up being a right-off, as the crowd that comes to drink at the Mazet comes very much for that. But something about the open mic – no doubt it has to do with David OxxO’s laid-back and easy MCing – meant that little by little the crowd got into the music and the evening. So by the time I left at around 1 AM, it was still kicking, bubbling, jumping, and once again had turned into a free jam. And again, the crowd began singing along, clapping along and being generally nicely responsive – while not ceasing their carrousing either.

I just managed to do a few videos, though. So I’m putting up just a couple….

Absolutely A-Mazet Evening – I Mean, Amazing – at the Mazet

December 10, 2011
bradspurgeon

The open mic on Thursdays at The Mazet on the Rue St. André des Arts in Paris is really turning into something. This bar, remember, is the last bar where Jim Morrison of The Doors had a drink before he went off to die down the street a little way in his hotel. After an evening in the open mic of the Mazet, you might feel the same way – but in a state of bliss.

Starting the night in the open mic the feeling is that this bar is more for the regulars and they are not really there for the music, they are there to drink and talk. But as the night goes on and the musicians change and the feeling develops, you realize that there is the basis here for a wonderful festive time, and the crowd loves music, wants music, requests music, sings along to the music and generally promotes it and having a great time.

As in weeks past, the open mic developed from a classic singer-songwriter thing into something of a free-for-all jam, even with members of the bar crowd just getting up on the stage and singing. I found it a great pleasure to meet a group of people who had come for a week-long course in learning how to use music as therapy for patients in healthcare situations. Some got up to sing. See if you can guess who they were….

PS, James Iansiti, the MC of the Monday night open mic at the Tennessee Bar also popped in for a while and whipped up an emotional storm, and also accompanied me on two or three songs. That was fun. He also did a couple of Rolling Stones songs on his own….

PS, I almost forgot that since my last post reporting on my gig at the 9b bar in Paris a couple of days ago, one of the spectators – in fact, it was Paloma Gil, the previous act – recorded me on her iPhone playing my last song, which was a request by the audience to do Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” in which I was joined by two other members of the audience on the singing – one of whom was Mr. Kidd, the first act of the evening…. Check it out, complete with my confusion on rhythm and lyrics:

Another Grand Cru du Mazet

November 19, 2011
bradspurgeon

Every time I go to the new open mic at the Mazet Pub on rue St. André des Arts on Thursday night in the Paris Latin Quarter, I like it more and more – and I already liked it to start with. Okay, there is one problem: This is one of the loudest, most talkative audiences I know of! But they are also an appreciative audience that seems to enjoy both talking AND listening to the music, as they applaud and are generous in their compliments, their little dancing moves when the music moves, and a general sense of well-being.

Last night I was also really pleased that I resisted the temptation to NOT take my new Gibson J-200 with me. I had been thinking that since I had been having so much trouble with the amazing, yet complicated, Fishman pick up and all its controls, that I was better off taking my Seagull, which just plugs in and sings. But I fell to the temptation to bring the Gibson just because I love playing it. I am pleased I did because, in fact, it took no work at all – except turning on the anti-feedback switch – to get it sounding great. I only really knew it sounded great, however, when I gave it to Justin Purtill to use during his songs. Then I was able to stand at the bar and listen and appreciate his great fingerpicking playing as I heard the Gibson from the room PA and not from the stage monitor amp.

Justin and I later went up for a second set during which he played bass along to my songs, although he had never heard them before. He learned as we went along. Actually, not quite true: He did know “Crazy Love,” by Van Morrison, and that was cool just to slip into doing that perfectly.

Justin then played with a Frenchman whom he did not know and whose songs he did not know either. There were some cool things to come out of that too. In all, I’ll be returning as often as possible to the Mazet….

The Mazet Open Mic in Paris Goes at it Again

November 4, 2011
bradspurgeon

The Mazet pub Paris

I wrote about the Mazet pub open mic on this blog some months ago. It is a very cool pub on the Rue St. André des Arts in the Latin Quarter, and the first time they decided to try an open mic they did it on one of the most popular days of the week for open mics: Wednesday. That did not work out as well as it might have because the Highlander, about four minutes walk away, had a loyal and longstanding crowd. Now, after taking a break throughout the summer – a deadly thing for an open mic to do – The Mazet has learned its lesson, and has chosen Thursday night to run its open mic. There is no really good classic open mic on Thursdays, except now there is.

I went last night, and the pub was full of spectators, and there were a fair number of musicians. The sound system was excellent and compact, and my Gibson J200 worked perfectly with no fuss and little effort to work out the details of the best sound settings. I met an interesting Canadian by the name of John R. Lester, who decided to join me on my two sets and play harmonica – he had five in his pocket – and hitting a stool for a drum. Unlike the evening before at the Highlander, I felt perfectly at ease and happy, and the whole thing fell together very well. Because it is a new open mic, there were not so many musicians that you had to play two or three songs only. In fact, if there was one thing to criticize, it was that everyone got about a half hour on stage – cute little stage too, by the way, overlooking the street – and we had to wait a long time to play, some of us. But then many of us went up a second time. Really nice atmosphere in this clean, cool and well-attended pub. I hope it continues this time!

PS, I was a little pissed off when someone else sang before I went up my very popular song, “What’s Up!” What right have they?!?!? No problem. I sang it again later.

Truncated Highlander Night, Milan-Bound

September 8, 2011
bradspurgeon

I went to the Highlander open mic last night but got there late and ended up about 15th on the list. So I listened to a few performers and left, deciding I would do better to have a good night’s sleep before my early flight to Milan, and the challenge of trying to find an open mic or open jam in this soul-less – musically – city.

I saw an interesting and different woman with a ukelele at the Highlander – Jessica – and left shortly after that. I did drop by the Mazet, not far from the Highlander, where before the summer they started another open mic on Wednesdays. I tried to persuade them not to take Wednesday again when they restart the open mic in the next week or two – but I don’t know if I succeeded. I suggested Thursday. After all, Paris has multiple open mics on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and just one jam and a “live karaoke” on Thursday. So that is the ideal day. But bar managers all like to do the same thing – obviously relating to the amount of business they attract on a given day.

Having arrived in Milan, I seek desperately a jam or open mic. There are such things here, just not necessarily at this time of year, since the summer holidays extend right into October, it seems….