La Rochelle

Painting by Barrie Hill - La Rochelle 'New Orlens' Jazz Festival 2010

La Rochelle sits on the west coast of France, an ocean away from its sister city New Rochelle. Face-to-face communication between residents of the two cities is rare at best. However, the cities are connected through music, jazz specifically. Through the Sister City Initiative, New Rochelle sent 24-year-old musician Zachary Lipton to La Rochelle to both play jazz and to be an ambassador to represent the Queen City of the Sound.

1 - With René Bigot, my host and director of the La Rochelle New Orleans Jazz Festival
2 - With Jérôme Nicolas at the La Rochelle casino
3 - Les Deux Tours de La Rochelle
4 - Backstage before concert with Vitamine
5 - La Rochelle City Hall

Watercolor of the 2010 La Rochelle Dixie Jazz Festival by Barrie Hill, a talented artist passionate about music. Barrie's work is currently on display at Café, Chocolat, Thé near the old port in La Rochelle.

1) At educational event in La Rochelle
2) Zachary with Bernard Godon
3) With Malo Mazurié Practicing at 7am
4) Jérôme Nicolas pre-concert
5) Zachary With Philippe
6) With Didier, Jerome, and Robert in street performance.

April 30th, 2010. Zachary with Mayor Maxime Bono on the opening day of the festival.

It's midnight. I sit in the beautiful lobby of Hotel St. Nicolas in the heart of La Rochelle. Next to me is a new friend, D'Arcy, a warmhearted and sharp-witted Canadian expatriate, who I met between sets at a May 6th concert. This trip has been a story of chance encounters, new friends. It has been characterized by adventures both exhilarating and exhausting but also by the warmth and tranquility of home-cooked meals.

I normally find it easy to write about recent experiences, but I find myself struggling to process the last two weeks, and to contextualize it in the wild adventure that has consumed the last three years of my life.

As promised to my friend, Randy Xu, "Happy Birthday" played by a french gypsy jazz band.

Zachary Lipton - Tenor Saxophone
Jérôme Nicolas - Clarinet
Philippe Guignier - Banjo

Out the window of René Bigot's van, a view of the French countryside with original music and performances.

1) "Swinging with the Pope" by Zachary Lipton.
2) Free Improvisation with sounds of the sea by Jérôme Nicolas
3) Performance of 'La Mer' by Philippe Guignier and Jérôme

Zachary Lipton - Tenor Saxophone
Jérome Nicolas - Clarinet
Philippe Guignier - Guitar

Having fun at Ray Noble's expense during soundcheck with Jérôme Nicolas. May 6th, 2010

1 - Replica (under construction) of a frigate used by Marquis de Lafayette to travel to America
2 - Centuries old drydock in the old port of La Rochelle
3 - Laurent Rieu, talented trumpeter and professor
4 - My great-great-grandfather when he was in the Navy
5 - Philippe Guignier, great banjoist and guitarist

Video coming soon. Wifi dans la maison is too slow to handle the transfer. In the meantime, here's a few moments from the tour from the perspective of mon ami l'ordinateur (Professor Macbook).

1 - Robert Mendoche et Alain Rattier
2 - Jérôme Nicolas and Philippe Guignier
3 - Backstage in La Rochelle waking up, wiped after two hours passed in a van.

Photo by Michael Lardeux