Leïla Olivesi Quartet at the Institut Français

I was on a jazz blind date yesterday. When my flatmate mentioned going to a jazz concert at the Institut Français, me and Panos didn't ask long and agreed to come for a listen. We didn't know what we would hear. Even when we arrived at the Institut and met some of my flatmates friends, nobody knew who was playing. Man, we were in for a surprise...

We went in to the hall, and it was a big room, almost like a cinema. Wider, but with chairs like in a cinema. It wasn't really what I would want a groovy jazz concert to be in. I mean, no space to move and dance in. We settled down anyway. The place was filling up, a lot of young people too. A guy from the Institut spoke up, telling us how pleased they are about this concert and that there is good jazz all over the place, and there is good french jazz too, so here is some. He was right.

What we heard is the Leila Olivesi Quartet, with a grand piano, an upgright bass, drums, and electrical guitar. I don't know what label or classification is normally applied to their jazz. To me it's a very groovy, cool but dreamy sound. The electrical guitar reminded me a lot of some Pat Metheny tunes, but the overall sound was wider than that.

I appreciated the comfy seat, leaned back and enjoyed the tunes. It's music to dream away, let the thoughts wander and the alpha waves flow your brain. Just enough tension and spikes of action to keep you awake. There was this moment when every desire to go on in time stopped, I just wanted to let this moment hang around.

The concert did end at some point. No idea how long we listened. We went out and moved from Kolonaki to Exarheia, were we had dinner at the "Fasoli".