Guitarist Pascal Muller, double bassist Nicolas Pautras, accordionist Rene Sopa and percussionist Mickael Correira visited Hyderabad from France recently as part of the Beltuner band, performing for Alliance Francaise.
Says Nicolas “It’s been 15 years since we have integrated French Gypsy music with Jazz to showcase Paris Life. The inspiration for this has been the one and only legend, French guitarist Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt. It’s amazing that even after his fourth and fifth fingers were paralysed after getting burnt, Reinhardt used only his index and middle fingers of his left hand to create magic on the guitar. He created a unique style of jazz guitar technique within the French Gypsy culture and collaborated with musicians from all over the world.”
He adds, “Though the younger generation is taking to traditional music, there is a lot of influence of the computer and electronic music, which has become a part of the new age.”
Says Pascal, “Our music is all about ‘energy’. At every concert, the energy levels among us vary from time to time when we go live on stage and there is a lot that gets transmitted between us and the audience. Today, professional artistes in France face a threat of cancellation of the support from government when artistes do not have continuous work. I strongly feel that there is a need to create support mechanisms for artistes world over so that they do not even dream of taking up any other odd job during lean seasons.”
Mickael adds, “India has been a great surprise. In Bengaluru, we had the audience dance along with us, while in Trivandrum it was an audience which heard us with pin drop silence.” Says Rene Sopa “Accordion has been very popular in France. The world’s best accordions are made in Castelfidardo in Italy and my instrument comes straight from there.”
