Back to the atmosphere of jazz clubs last night where I attended a fun show by french crooner Dany Brillant.
His style is yet uncertain (a lot of this, a bit of that), although you can definitively feel the influences of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr on the one hand for the swing and of Charles Aznavour on the other hand for the lyrics. The man (with a look closer to a life guard than of a poor jazz musician in St-Germain...) jumps around stage, talks about his life, and performs well. I noted a key difference last night from when I used to see him perform on TV a few years ago: the man now has a real voice, and can definitively deliver, although he should stick to french lyrics (comparison with the other guys is a bit hard), and learn how to dance something else on some of his tunes than Jive and Rock n' Roll (salsa and rumba would be great candidates). He had a weird indian-ish song (difficult to sing and not well suited to his style), but also an arab-ish style song from his native Tunisia which he delivered beautifully. The rest was really more in the jazzy note, with some of his greatest hits, which made people really want to dance, although difficult in such a small club.
He reminded me of Harry Connick Jr quite a lot when I saw him perform at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées a couple of years ago with his big band (if you ever get a chance to attend one of his performances, go!). Interestingly, Dany Brillant recorded his last album with the producer and musicians of Harry!
So if you like listening to Jazz in a small club (hey... the Village Vanguard is not next door), surrounded by mid-thirties ladies in adoration :), with a small band (keyboards, bass/electrical bass, drums, percussions, teno sax/clarinette/flute, trumpet, electric guitar), you can still catch him tonight at Le Petit Journal Montparnasse at 21h30-ish, for 30€ with a drink. Enjoy it.
