France - Paris - Part I

 Aahh Paris!  City of love, street cafés, sitting in a wicker chair, sipping Ricard or a glass of wine, accordion music spilling out onto the streets.  We start with jazz accordionist extraordinaire Ludovic Beier and a tune called Waltz in Paris, which features on the 2010 compilation The Rough Guide to Paris Café:

He often collaborates with Gypsy jazz guitarist Angelo Debarre and this tune, I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight, features on the same album:

Singer/songwriter Marianne Feder combines traditional chanson with jazz and sometimes gypsy and Balkan influences.  This is the title song from her 2019 album L'Hiver du Poètes:

Sadly singer and accordionist Belle du Berry, front woman of the fusion chanson band Paris Combo, died last month of cancer.  The band has been blending chanson with pop, jazz, swing, gypsy and North African influences since 1995.  They attribute their wide range of influences to the cosmopolitan nature of Paris and their popularity grew beyond France with multiple tours of the USA, Europe and Australia.  Here is a jazzy live number, the title track to their to date latest album from 2017, Tako Tsubo: 

Contemporary folk musician and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Yacoub started as a founder of Brittany folk band Malicorne in the 1970's.  In 1978 he launched his solo career, still drawing on traditional material, but giving them a contemporary twist.  He only seems to release new album every few years and his last album was in 2008 entitled De La Nature des Choses.  This is a song from that album called Le Café de la Fin du Monde:

In 1986 American underground cartoonist Robert Crumb came to Paris craving real Musette, the urban dance music of Paris of the early 20th century mixing folk dancing of the Auvergne with swing, gypsy and polka.  He went on to found Les Primitifs du Futur together with guitarist Dominic Cravic.  Having a cartoonist in the band also makes for fun album covers.  Here's a live version of their song Ivresses featuring on their 2008 album Tribal Musette:

And talking about Musette, Beltuner have been playing this style since 2001.  Some of their music is featured on the bonus CD on the 2010 album The Rough Guide to Paris Café.  Here's track from that album called No Comment:

We shall linger in Paris for wee while longer, but more for another day.  As usual you can follow my virtual travels on my tripline map.