Via Los Angeles Times I came across an article about Bob Popescu, founder of one of the most popular Jazz Clubs in L.A. Mr. Popescu passed away few days ago, but the article describes his work and fame in the Jazz music community in the U.S.

“Bob was a visionary,” said bassist Richard Simon. “This town hasn’t always been hospitable to ventures such as his in a niche as fraught with uncertainty as jazz, but he managed to create a space that was hospitable to both local musicians and the name groups that visit from other parts of the world.”

The entire article can be found here.

Which reminds me I would love to open a jazz club/bar sometimes in Romania…. hopefully this will happen in some years.

Saas Fee (in Switzerland) was really nice – a very pittoresque atmosphere, nice slopes and a some nice clubs and restaurants. Unfortunatelly, it was not so much snowboarding, but as it was it was really nice.

As Switzerland is very far aways, some nice tracks got me going and here comes the part to share with you – Prodigy vs Enya – Smack My Bitch Up Orrinocco Flow. One of the few remixes I like, but I like it a lot !

And some pictures here.

Throughout the time, there have been very few French songs which I liked. Maybe because I don’t like the language or because I never felt a connection with the French, but except for some Joe Dassin and some Carla Bruni I wasn’t a big fan of the french music.

Still, recently I came upon another one which made the playlist for some days in a row and I still like it. It comes from Tarantino’s “Grindhouse” movie – a pretty silly movie but with a nice soundtrack.

The song is named Lasser tombe les fille and is sang by France Gall. A great song, here it is for you to listen: France Gall – Laisse tomber les filles. It was also covered by April March in an English version, but surprisingly I prefer the original French version :).

Probably one of the most important releases of this year comes from Wyclef Jean, one of my most favourite artists of all time. 10 years after his solo debut with Carnival one, here comes the Carnival, Vol. 2: Memoirs of an Immigrant album.

The album sounds, as expected, amazingly good. On each track Wycleaf invited some friends to sing with, therefore you can also hear Shakira, Norah Jones, Mary J Blige and so on.

One of the best tracks comes from what would seem like an odd combination – Wyclef Jean feat Serj Tankian (from System of a Down) – Riot into the most rock sound of the album.

“Sweetest girl (dollar bill)” is one of the most played tracks on the radios, featuring Akon and Lil Wayne. Then there’s “Any Other Day“, with Nina Simone, featuring a more peaceful sound in order to adapt to her great voice. Paul Simon sings on “Fast Car“, reminding of Tracy Chapman’s track while Mary J Blige puts the passion she’s renowed for in “What about the Baby“.

All in all, a great album and an amazing journey through a diversity of musical genres.

And as you are used to, here is one song to download: Wyclef Jean feat Serj Tankian – Riot.

As it seems a lot of people felt in love instantly with this song just after it was featured in the Dorna commercial in Romania, I thought I would make everybody’s life easier and put it up for download. Therefore, here it is, the full version – Conjure One – Tears from the Moon.

And a few words about Conjure One – their are a Canadian electronic music band. They released 2 albums until today, Conjure One (2002) and Extraordinary Ways (2005). Tears from the Moon appeared initially on their first album and then was released as a single also in 2003. You can find more about them on www.conjureone.com.

Bran Van 3000 plays some of the best “chill-out and driving” music, according to my taste. I have loved them since the beginning and I’ve been listening to Glee, their first album, religiously.

Unfortunatelly, they did not released too much ever since so I had to stick to that one – until recently I rediscovered their 2007 album, Rose.

Quite a different sound, more profound, they dropped some of the rapping they were using on the first one and overall a more consistent music. Gets closer to Buddha Bar or Hotel Costes. Still, I prefer it to the above as it is more dynamic and has more substance.

One of the tracks I liked best out of Rose – House Lights. You can buy the album on Amazon.

After the first snow, today was the first ride – in Sinaia. The slope was quite ok, but boring as I knew it. Quite a lot of wind and fog and only 2 rides were possible as afterwards the cable broke down and you could not go up anymore. But it was really nice to go snowboarding in November….looking forward for more.

And a friendly advice to the drivers going to the slopes: get some winter tires, forget about your fancy car, it will be usless in the snow with slicks….:P. You’ll just manage to annoy everybody who will have to rescue and wait for you.

No pictures, unfortunatelly, I was there alone (sadface) and with no camera. Luckily, SHE just bought a ski suit so maybe she will join from now on :D.

Last weekend I managed to reach Balea Lake – and it was the first snow of this year! Not too much snow on the ground, enough snow on the street but it was sooo nice to see it again after almost one year.

Damn, I miss snowboarding. Can hardly wait…another 55 days….till then – Snow (Hey Oh!).

Update: Today (12.11) it also snowed it Bucharest, at about midnight. Most likely, next weekend I can go to the first snowboarding of the year ! 

2 days have passed and it’s still hard not to think about the Deep Purple concert on Wednesday.

Of course, the excitement was huge as until some months ago I would have never expected to see them playing live. It is hard to imagine a band which made history in the 70s to be still playing, touring and moving crowds just like 40 years ago.

The concert started at about 8:45 and they played for about one hour both old and new tracks. Towards the end, the focused mostly on old tracks, probably seeing the enjoyment on the people’s faces.

Overall, it all sounded great. Gillan still has a great voice, even though he cannot scream as he used too. This is also the reason why they did not play Child in Time, most likely. Steve Moss did an amazing job on the guitars, he had a lot of solo parts and the crowd enjoyed it to the full. Paice and Glover also had some solos, but rather short.

Unfortunatelly, the show was little disrupted by the power on the sound going off few times – luckily, it only lasted for some seconds and the band went though this really easy, they just kept playing and having a good time.

All in all, a great show from Deep Purple, for the first time in Romania and playing in front of 10.000 fans. Personally, I think it was the concert I enjoyed the most and way better than Rolling Stones. It was for sure less show but much more passion and much more … music.

“Je ne veux pas travailler…je ne veux pas dejuner” – this is what I was singing out loud Saturday evening, after the Pink Martini show in Bucharest.

Pink Martini came to Bucharest for a great show at Sala Palatului, in front of a full room of people. It seems that this took them by surprize a little, as they said “How did you even hear about us, they don’t have our albums here, do they?” :)

Still, despite the lack of presence from the Romanian music market, they put up a great show which made happy the entire audience. It was a great sound, ranging from more alert and dance-friendly tracks like Je Ne Veux Pas… to more complex violin or trumpet sets. It was also a nice atmosphere with Thomas Lauderdale translating everything he could from English to Romanian.

Overall, a great concert, which confirms to me again that the shows at Sala Palatului are probably the best you can have :)

P.S. And it was not at all cold outside ;)