A year in Paris

I became disillusioned with living in Melbourne towards the end of the 90’s. The famous ‘tyranny of distance’ causes many Australian musicians to feel that they are missing out on all the real action and I was no exception, notwithstanding the fact that I had played around the world quite a few times with Billy Cobham.

I wanted to leave Australia and live somewhere else for a year and since I have always had a love for France and all things French, I took my wife, Fiona, and daughter, Olivia, to Paris. There was another agenda. I wanted to have lessons with a great classical piano teacher by the name of Massimo Bertucci in Italy. So from Paris, I travelled to Naples once a month for a couple of lessons.

Whilst in Paris I checked out the main clubs and began to meet people. I wanted to find out whether the grass was any greener here than at home. I soon realised that Paris wasn’t going to provide a remedy for the frustrations I harboured as a jazz musician. I found that many of the best musicians in France dream of being in New York with the same passion that many of their counterparts in Australia do. It seemed clear to me that as far as creating an international reputation in the jazz world was concerned, the only place that counts is New York.

Now, the very reason I wanted to have a break from the Australian music scene in the first place, was to get away from the tiresome notion that only Americans can play. And here I was, in the one of the most celebrated cities in the world whose people have a formidable reputation for loving jazz, and the same dull prejudices prevailed. (Upon hearing that there was an Australian jazz pianist in town, one ignoramus was compelled to inquire “Do they have pianists in Australia?’). I learned a disappointing but useful lesson, that is, on the world scene, if it doesn’t happen in America, it doesn’t happen. So, even though towards the end of my stay in Paris, some good things were starting to happen (I played several gigs with Christian Escoude, who asked me to join his band. Boulou Ferre wanted to do an album, which he eventually did with Alain Jean Marie), I decided to go back to Australia. Anyway, my year was up.