The language of music knows no barriers.
It happens very often where you don’t understand a single word of the song and yet it makes you happy. The rhythm takes you over. That definitely applies to this performance of French jazz!
It doesn’t matter if you speak French or not—the catchy tune will have you up on your feet in a blink of an eye.
Avalon Jazz Band is inspired by the Parisian jazz style in the 1930s and ’40s.
Django Reinhardt, the famous jazz guitarist, founded a jazz club in Paris called Hot Club de France.
That’s where the French audience could enjoy the original sound of jazz, which later became known as “Gypsy Jazz.” This band takes a lot of inspiration from those times and they’re proud of their technical bravado, virtuoso skills on several instruments and their singer’s delicate voice. The official Avalon YouTube channel’s got 166,000 subscribers. Fewer people follow them on Instagram, but the fact remains: the community enjoys old classics with a twist influenced by the American culture. The main goal is to celebrate French, love and music, and that’s exactly the vibe we got in the video.
The band has got some incredible instrumentalists.
What you’re about to hear is the performance of a French song “Ménilmontant,” written by Charles Trenet in 1938.
The song title is the name of a famous neighborhood in Paris, but there is also a 1926 movie that goes by the same name. Django Reinhardt recorded an instrumental version of Trenet’s song in 1949. The historical background is quite impressive here.
Then again, it’s not as impressive as the band members!
We’ve already mentioned the singer, a lovely girl with an amazing voice and a stage presence that reminds you of another era. The other female in the group is the accordion player. She’s doing an awesome job of carrying the catchy sound. You’ll also see the violinist, the cello player and the guitarist. Don’t even get us started on how classy and elegant they all are.
It’s a video that’s both beautiful to watch and to listen to.
The porch they’re playing on seems like a portal where you enter the past and go to see an awesome jazz show from the ’30s everyone’s been talking about.
What a lovely reincarnation of jazz from almost a hundred years ago!
The band’s name Avalon comes from the Arthurian legends and carries the symbol of rebirth. Since the band tries to revive the swing era, we get that kind of the name.
Let’s just say that it suits them perfectly because they’ve probably revived many memories among people who’ve seen this.
Since it was posted, nearly five million people have watched the performance on YouTube.
Despite what you might think, the band is actually based in NYC.
Yes, they sing in French, they celebrate French jazz, but they live in the United States—and that’s where they’re contributing to the swing renaissance.
We must say that we completely loved the whole performance!
It made us listen to more songs from their channel, and we would love to see them live. The current pandemic situation doesn’t allow it, but we’ll keep an eye on their schedule.
We wish them all the success in the world going forward—they deserve it! Check out the full performance in the link below:
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