Blaine Bar: Elements Jazz at a Champs-Élysées Speakeasy

Blaine Bar: Elements Jazz at a Champs-Élysées Speakeasy

Blaine Bar

2016 – 2017

Inside a hidden Prohibition-style speakeasy off the Champs-Élysées, Elements Jazz held a 2016–2017 Wednesday-and-Friday residency of swing, Latin and bebop.

Programme (PDF)

Musicians

• Arnaud Quercy — piano
• Elliot Langlois — double bass
• Romain Courty — drums

Guest stars

• Jeremy Quentin — guitar
• Lucas Piler — trombone
• Julien Droz — double bass
• Nicolas Gautier — tenor sax

Behind an unmarked door at 65 rue Pierre Charron, steps from the Champs-Élysées in Paris's 8th, the Blaine Bar mixed Prohibition-era theatrics, Marek's cocktails and hot jazz on Wednesday and Friday nights. From 2016 to 2017 Elements Jazz held a standing residency here, the core quartet of Arnaud Quercy on piano, Jeremy Quentin ("fingers") on guitar, Elliot Langlois ("junior") on double bass and Romain Courty on drums turning fully-packed rooms loose on "Caravan," "So What," "Watermelon Man" and Pee Wee Ellis's "Chicken" until people were dancing on bebop.

Across more than twenty documented nights, guests sharpened the edges: bassist Julien Droz, saxophonist Nicolas Gautier and, one New Year's Eve, guest-star trombonist Lucas Piler joining the jam. Now closed, the speakeasy remains one of the band's favorite rooms.

Performance dates

documented from the Instagram archive — a subset of all performances

Repertoire highlights

• Caravan — Duke Ellington
• Chicken — Pee Wee Ellis
• So What — Miles Davis
• Watermelon Man — Herbie Hancock