A shot from outside during my 2-hour gig at TLR in New Delhi.
This alley in Pari looked alive to me after I played a nearby open mic.
A shot from outside during my 2-hour gig at TLR in New Delhi.
Latest News
New Protest Song: What's All This Talk?!
PARIS - Seeking for a way to express my disbelief at the current world situation of the last four years or so, with despots, would-be dictators and other populists trying to grab power everywhere, I wrote a song just before the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, with Donald Trump in mind. But not only Trump. All the leaders seeking to divide and conquer the frustrated of the world. I called the song "What's All This Talk?!" I then sat on it for a while as I worked on other projects. Until on 6 January 2021 and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building gave me the idea that here I had everything I was singing about represented in images. So I sat down and spliced together a video with the song as soundtrack. This is the result.
The Escargot Underground Interview
PARIS - A full 50-minute interview with me on camera, with Brad Spurgeon, all about my music? One of my favorite open mics in Paris, the Escargot Underground, has slowly been developing from an open mic into first an internet radio station, and now a series of video interviews with some of the "Escargot Musicians," people who have had a long association with this cool group of open mic people. They invited me to be interviewed on camera, and here I am as the second of the series of interviews. And much to my surprise, they decided to keep online a full 50-minute interview of me, talking about everything in my life and music - or practically. Come check it out! Oh, but beware, the interview was entirely - except for a brief moment of forgetfulness at the start - performed in French!
Since You Left Me 4k Video
PARIS - For the seventh in a series of videos for my album, "Out of a Jam," I filmed in 4k using my DJI Osmo steady cam. The background, the "dream ground," was shot in a park with jugglers and acrobats and musicians, while the singing part was done in the Noctambules bar on the Place Pigalle in Paris. The video presents a mindscape of contrasts between happy dancers and sad lyrics, but the whole filled with hope and dreams. Dreams of a new life, a new way of life, life moving on in the craziest ways.
Mad World - around the (mad) world
PARIS - With the recent absolutely MAD events around the world – such things as the Donald Trump election, Brexit, Italy, who knows what in France, and goodness knows how many surprises to come in the future – I thought it was a good moment to make a video of as many of the “Mad World” videos that I could find of me playing in open mics and open jam sessions around the world. The idea was to join them all together at the lip, and use as the common thread the recording of “Mad World” that I have on my album, released this year, “Out of Jam.” (Which is available now on all the basic downloading sites, such as iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, and who knows how many others!)
Rebellious Youth Documentary
PARIS - For her film school, l'Ecole de la Cité, just outside Paris, my daughter Emily had to do a 5-minute documentary portrait of someone. She chose me, deciding to focus on the mix of my career as a Formula One racing journalist for the International New York Times by day, and musician by night. From there, in only five minutes she had to focus on one particular aspect of this double life, and she chose to look closely at the idea of an older man playing music with people one half or more his age. I'm putting it on this music site because most of the film has to do with me playing music at open mics.
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