Margeaux Lampley Chirping Out the Lyrics Below with Racey Gilbert on Drums (r.)
“I should hate you
But I guess I love you
You’ve got me in between
The devil and the deep blue sea”
For jazz enthusiasts in France comes calling the melancholy reflection that there is a diminishing number of “boites” to take in the classic standards.
So what high excitement to hear – piecing the slanted rays of crepuscule which bleed the azure Provencal sky of its pigments – the unavoidably sentimental strains of Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver and other great composers of jazz.
On Saturday, August 10, the setting is a Jazz – Apéro at the Maison de la Truffe and du Vin in Ménerbes, or a Pianocktail, the portmanteau word (mot-valise) invented by Boris Vian in his novel L’Ecume des Jours. Vian came to mind this evening as he extolled only two love objects in life – les jollies filles and the jazz of New Orleans and Duke Ellington – and these two inspirations were incarnated in the single personage of the American chanteuse Margeaux Lampley, whose delicious voice waxed lyrically, accompanied by Jazz Apéro, a five-member group playing its third season of standards in Ménerbes.
Margeaux got a jones for gospel, jazz and soul when passing her formative years in Oakland, California – in the Bay Area where music is absorbed deeply as if by incantation.
She then leaned in on a legal career by picking up a law degree from Columbia University, before giving into her grande passion for music – un retour aux sources. Margeaux seeded her new dreams in a bohemian Paris, taking up jazz at the CIM music school and the Studio des Variétés.
With a métier in full bloom as a singer-songwriter whose compositions sway under the gravitational pull of jazz, pop, soul and latin music, Margeaux performs frequently in Paris and has dropped two albums.
In the Luberon, she is taking on a new adventure with her family with the recent purchase of a house and vineyard. Will a silhouette of Miles Davis grace a new wine label?
The group Jazz-Apero is organized by Racey Gilbert, of Westport, Connecticut, and the Luberon. The group plays a series of six “pianocktails” from April to September in the garden of the Maison de la Truffe and du Vin in Ménerbes. The final performance is on Saturday, September 28, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Basics:
Margeaux Lampley: Website
Jazz-Apero Band: Organized by Racey Gilbert, Percussion, with Philippe Perathoner, Piano; Pierre Fayole, Bass; René Fortuné, Saxaphone, and Olivier Migniot, Trumpet, Website
The final Jazz-Apero of the season on Saturday, September 28, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Maison de la Truffe et du Vin; 20€ entrance includes two glasses of wine; Children under 15 at half-price, under 10 free; Reservations: 04 90 72 38 37
Maison de la Truffe et du Vin: Getting around the Luberon appellation for tastings at the far flung wineries can eat up days as well as petrol. On the lower floor you can taste Luberon wines from about 50 vineyards; the wine shop sells bottles at the same price as you would pay at the winery. The ‘Maison” also has a shop on the main floor offering olive oil and delicacies of the region. Lunch and dinner (two nights a week) are served in the sculpture garden. The Wine Bar / Restaurant and Wine Shop are open daily from 12:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Monday and Thursday evenings. Place de l’horloge, 84560 Ménerbes, Tél 04 90 72 38 37 Website