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I am back from no man’s land and fully connected to the real world -again. I wish I could totally disconnect from all the bad news but it is simply impossible… Unless I lived in a cave, like a troglodyte. Anyway. I have been writing a lot those past weeks and what was once a script has become a book. I realized each scene was so detailed that it would be too frustrating to cut them because a script needs to be clear, without extra long descriptions (but mines are not as long -nor as good- as Flaubert’s ones). So I rewrote the whole thing and the script should be released as a full book, although it may change, I don’t know yet. I guess I got so inspired by my ‘retreat’ I couldn’t stop writing, the flow of ideas just kept coming… Good thing! But I didn’t spend all…⇒ READ MORE

First time I heard Hugh ‘Peanuts’ Whalum was a year ago, autumn 2006. I already shared with you what I felt when I first heard him sing: ‘I’ll Close My Eyes’ (When I heard Hugh “Peanuts” Whalum, I closed my eyes…), and I mentioned several other (mostly jazz) singers I use to listen to. Among them are Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Dinah Shore, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole… But I’m also listening to more recent artists such as Luther Vandross, Michael Bolton, Harry Connick, Jr, Diana Krall, Robin McKelle, Norah Jones and Dianne Reeves (Dianne Reeves: Good vibes, and Good work). So beside being all renowned jazz singers/musicians, what do they have in common? Some of them have made covers of the same songs, which is frequent in jazz music. But it always takes me by surprise when I hear the first…⇒ READ MORE

Working hard on my next exhibition (a few more days left before the big night), I needed to take a break and listen to good music, the kind that really brings your spirit somewhere else during busy days. So two days ago, while I was looking at this huge pile of CDs I have, to find something ‘new’ (actually I mean something ‘else’, other than the artists I use to listen almost everyday like Hugh ‘Peanuts’ Whalum or Dean Martin), I finally found something ‘old’. Dianne Reeves‘ album: “New Morning” (Blue Note), recorded live in the pre-eminent jazz club of Paris in 1997. I couldn’t find this CD I had for years when I was first looking for it last year. I was then watching “Good night, and Good luck” (I mentioned the movie in this post) when I heard Dianne Reeves’ warm and deep voice. The movie recreated the…⇒ READ MORE

Last time I talked music was in my post about Hugh ‘Peanuts’ Whalum. In this post I mentioned some of the singers I enjoy the most listening to and the very cool Dean Martin was one of them. First time I heard Martin’s sublime voice was on a CD, singing with Rat Pack friends Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. Two decades after I listened to him for the first time, his easygoing attitude and velvety voice still captivate me. But Dean Martin is not only a voice as some of my friends may think. In the late 1940′s he formed a music-comedy team with Jerry Lewis, he was an actor in Rio Bravo, Toys in the Attic, Ocean’s Eleven (starring the five Rat Packers, in the original movie of 1960) to name a few, and he also hosted a successful TV show in the mid-1960s: The Dean Martin Show….⇒ READ MORE

I like jazz, mostly ‘old jazz’ as many would say. When I draw, I listen to these beautiful voices from the past such as Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Dinah Shore but also Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra (and Dean Martin), Nat King Cole among many others. I’m also listening to more recent and varied artists like Luther Vandross, Michael Bolton, Harry Connick, Jr, Diana Krall, Robin McKelle, Norah Jones… I know Kirk Whalum for a long time, obviously one of the most influential contemporary saxophonist of his generation and last year I was browsing the Internet about his latest album. I got to his Myspace page and then I read something about a mysterious 75 years-old Hugh “Peanuts” Whalum. One click away and I was on Peanuts Whalum’s Myspace page. The Real Three Tenors started to play while I was reading with much interest the introduction note…⇒ READ MORE