Motifs - Paris Combo

Remember that evening when you’ve just had it with the world and you just want to indulge yourself with some quality time alone (or perhaps with a loved one). The weather is beautiful with a clear starry sky, the martini is perfect, and the ambience is surreal. You have this nagging feeling that something is missing? I know the answer - Paris Combo’s motif CD!

Who are they? Unless you are French or European (or aspiring to be one), or just love Jazz in any avatar, you probably haven’t heard them. Although they are into “Manouche Jazz”, if you are into Lounge, Tango, Gypsy, Swing, Bossa Nova, you really ought to get your hands on this. There is even a whiff of Arabic and Flamenco music. Those French don’t like to be stereotyped into any one genre or style of music for sure!

Although the name suggests otherwise, Paris Combo is really a combo of non-French folks (Australia, Algeria, Madagascar), who got together to please jazz-lovers’ ears - . And their music in one word is, well, elegant. And upbeat. And stirring. And uplifting. And soothing. And flirtatious. Phew!

The group’s leading Chanteuse Belle Du Barry must have worked in a Cabaret, because her voice is so mesmerizing yet seductive, that you have no choice but to surrender to it. The music transports you to a world of Moulin Rouge, where you feel like the French gentleman whom lovely damsels serenade and tease invitingly with their subtle but overpowering movements while you puff on your cigar and sip cognac (Ladies can perhaps visualize themselves as the singers!)

High, Low, In is a blast from the past with its naughty yet quaintly elegant music that invokes nostalgia, although I presume lyrically, its more like a morning hangover.

Some songs weave a beautiful French affair - If Calendar is a mischievous dalliance and an ensuing intense affair, Etoile Pale is a reflection after heartbreak on a rainy night by the window. Ennemis Siamois is letting it all go, scrubbing one’s heart clean, ready for a new beginning and Aleas is the latest seduction, the start of a nouveau affair. Baron de chaise is that lovely feeling the morning after when the dark clouds of misery clear the way for a bright radiant sun of love and happiness. And Prete a porter is the declaration of love all over again. And this circle of life is celebrated by Discordance with its soulful overtures (thanks to the gorgeous rendition by David Lewis, the group’s trumpeter and pianist, and other singer – Potzi).

The music takes you on a vicarious trip of repetitive cycles of falling in and out of love, thanks to its carefully manicured musical notes, not one of which is out of place. Only if one knew French so well, one would love to sing along, although I hear that the lyrics are mostly removed from the subject of love or relationships. Every member brings his/her own history and idiosyncrasy, incorporating disparate elements seamlessly and carving out the music’s identity as a nouveau, refreshing French (or world) innovation.

It’s not one of those CDs with one winner and ten losers, so once you pop it in, throw the remote somewhere and let ‘er rip (Although you may just have to find it an hour later to replay the CD, that’s all).

So sit back, turn up the music, turn off the light, pour the drink and let Paris Combo do the singing.