There was a sax concert in Nogaro last night, put on by the Conservatoire de Musique in Tarbes; sure to meet people there who I know, I went along. The poster said eight saxophonists, but perhaps French saxophonists’ counting skills are similar to those of French cyclists – a ride billed as 50km turns out to be 80km.
The stage was full of saxes (and saxophonists) of all shapes and sizes, a keyboard, drums and three singers. They were joined at various points in the evening by the choir from the local primary school, who made up for what they lacked in tunefulness by raw enthusiasm, as they pushed and jostled for position on the front row, two little girls nearly coming to blows at one point. The teenage sax players from the Nogaro school of music also put in an appearance and were rather better behaved; the stage of the cinema-cum-theatre was absolutely packed!
They played an eclectic variety of music, from Carmen to a piece by Offenbach to jazz numbers and Singing in the Rain, or “Seenging in ze Ren”. A good evening’s entertainment, even if the music was rather more structured than I’d hoped.
It was a far cry from the sort of stuff we play in EtCelterra, the Irish band I’m in, which is so laid back it borders on the horizontal. Although everyone joins in with Nellie, the soloist, on some of the choruses, they all sing the melody; so I suggested putting in some harmonies. They thought that was a great idea and I could write harmonies to anything I like; this doesn’t take into account that my music reading is of the “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” standard! It doesn’t help that the French music notation works on the “Doh Ray Me….” system, so when Alain tells me what key a song is played in, I have to refer to my translation list! I’ve written a harmony to one song so far, but working out the notes on the guitar too took such a long time that it took me about 4 hours to do two lines of music! So I’ve bought a mini keyboard and have labelled the keys, in English and French, with the notes; maybe, one day, I’ll be able to remove the labels.