I know I've said this before but as much as I enjoyed planning the wedding, I really am relieved that it is finally over. I have this huge chunk of free time, allowing me to tick items off of my massive to-do list.
Saying that, I have recommenced my project to discover the Parisian jazz life of my dad's mother Stella, or as I call her the other crazy grandma. Good Lord, if it's not a living grandmother calling off a wedding vendetta style, it's a late grandmother haunting me through hipster French radio stations. I could never say that I come from a boring family, that's for sure. I still can't help but wonder if this is one of the reasons why I came to Paris - as if she gave me a little push somehow. She passed away in 2008 (which I found out early 2009 from a Youtube comment of a since removed clip of her performing on French television in the 70s) which was right around the time that I randomly decided to move to France. Who knows...
At this point, I'm piecing together what I can find online, remembering stories my father had told me, and reaching out to remaining living relatives. On the Woodstock '69 footage, I can see my uncle Sean standing on stage during Santana's set where it's rumored that he was a family friend, and Chick Corea worked on a track of a strange album called We Are the Levitts that my entire family (including my father who is on the cover) released in 1968. Knowing well that I must look like a lunatic, I disregarded my inhibitions and reached out to Carlos for confirmation that he knew my family, and to Chick to see if he remembered any stories during recording. Naturally they didn't write back, but it was only my first try.
Several weeks ago, I had a meeting with the French label Heavenly Sweetness who re-released the track 'Notes So High' on a compilation of obscure Parisian artists called Freedom Jazz France. During this meeting, I was also introduced to the head of a jazz Japanese label who not only wants to re-release the track, but wants to release several other pieces of my grandmother's work.
I feel like I have a lot of bit pieces of information but no real direction of what I want to do with it, or why I'm even doing any of this in the first place. I guess this I'm just going to have to follow my heart on this one. I've done it before and look where it got me...living (now for good) in Paris, France.
Bon week-end à tous!
