Nice Jazz Festival

---

For the past week, the annual Nice Jazz Festival was held. We were lucky enough to have tickets to two different events – one last Sunday night and one last night.



Last Sunday night we saw Dee Dee Bridgewater (a.k.a Baldy Mc Swing Swing according to Nick) and Erykah Badu at the Scene Massena stage. It was a fun relaxed festival atmosphere and we enjoyed plenty of glasses of rose as the sun set and we waited for Ms Badu to come on.. We wriggled our way right up near the front and waited while she took her sweet time coming on stage (none less than 45 minutes late). After much anticipation, she finally came on… Only for us to realize a few moments later that she (and in fact, the whole band) we miming. Boo! What a let down! It was so blatantly obvious… The maracas player wasn’t even shaking the damn maracas on time! Nonetheless, her music IS wonderful so we went right up the back so we could no longer see the miming and closed our eyes and tried not to feel robbed and just enjoy it.



We must have been a little scarred or something because we then ended up visiting Wayne’s Bar (the biggest expat pub in the old town) for the first time. Not usually our cup of tea, however last Sunday we found ourselves there until the lights came up and then we left with our new Italian friends, Federicco and Alessandro from Milan.



Then last night we were off to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, part of my birthday present from Nick. She was playing in the amphitheatre so we got there when the gates opened to nab a seat up the front. We saw the Vainqueur Tremplin band play first, then Robert Randolph & The Family Band. The latter were amazing! Robert played this incredible slide guitar and did an incredible job of getting the crowd all fired up! He even invited a bunch of girls to come up and dance on stage.. Then for the finale, the band members did a three way swap! The drummer played the slide guitar and Robert played drums, and then they swapped again and Robert played bass guitar and the bassist played drums. Insane!!



Then at 10:30pm the Dap Kings came on, followed a few minutes later by the star of the show… Miss Sharon Jones. We saw her play once in Melbourne, and it was the most energetic, up lifting gig I’d ever seen. Her show last night was a little different… She was really grumpy! First the head set didn’t work and then her shoes broke! Never mind, she still played my favorite of the songs she performs… You’ll have to watch the video (and watch the FULL) video to see why. It’s awesome!!

---