December 25

Oh boy! A bike for Christmas! (just because):

Don we now our gay apparel.
Spanish soldiers in gayest military uniforms ever (inexplicable):

Save the best gift for last (inexplicable):

Actually, my best gift was not even anything in leather, much less a saddle. My favorite Christmas gift was pianist Alexandre Tharaud’s latest album: “Le Bœuf sur le toit.”

When I told a friend how much I enjoyed a recital by gay French pianist Alexandre Tharaud at La Maison Française (here in D.C.) last October, he must have tucked away that info for future use, because Taraud’s newest CD found its way under my Christmas tree. I was delighted to find out that it contains Gershwin’s “The Man I Love,” which I heard Tharaud perform live on that concert program. The album title refers to Le Bœuf sur le toit*, a 1920s jazz age Parisian night spot that is still going strong today.

The Man I Love.
Tharaud playing a jazzed up paraphrase of Gershwin’s own arrangement of this song.



The entire album contains 28 tracks of popular songs from the 1920s; among the collaborators are singers Madeleine Peyroux and Juliette, but there are also piano duets and even a guest banjo artist. I can’t get enough of it.

*Named after a surrealist ballet (1920) based on Brazilian popular songs – music by Darius Milhaud with choreography by Jean Cocteau – Le Bœuf sur le Toit is now a popular and touristy Parisian restaurant. The French slang term for “jam session” is “faire le bœuf,” taken from the name of this jazz cabaret. Appropriately, there are still jazz performances on offer, usually on Mondays. “Le Bœuf” – as it is known by regulars – originally opened as a cabaret that moved five times during its first twenty years, finally settling into its current location just two blocks north of the Champs-Élysées in 1941. The restaurant at 34 Rue de Colisée is a large and handsome Art Deco space graced by original fixtures, and in this instance the food actually improved by becoming part of the Brasserie Flo group. Open until midnight 7 nights a week (do not ask me how I know this).

Trivia: The late jazz pianist Dave Brubeck studied under Milhaud while a student at Mills College in Oakland, California. Because Milhaud was of Jewish heritage, his family fled France for the U.S. when Paris came under Nazi occupation. Milhaud, who lived for two years in Brazil, loved jazz and used jazz idioms and rhythms in his classical compositions. In a meaningful tribute, Brubeck named his first son Darius.

Bonus trivia point: Burt Bacharach was also one of Milhaud’s students.

A promo video for Mr. Tharaud's album is at the end of the post. 

Note to my blog readers: I'm boarding a midnight flight to Istanbul to celebrate the New Year in Turkey, but I've prepared posts to tide you over until my return next year. Enjoy the holidays, gentlemen.