It might be cold in France currently, but Paris Combo will be bringing the heat and swoon with their fun loving, genre-bending mix of cabaret, French pop, swinging gypsy-jazz topped with Latino and Middle Eastern rhythms to Australia.
Together for more than 20 years, the band have travelled all around the globe performing songs from their six albums that showcase their versatility. “It’s very exciting," Belle du Berry says about the group's impending visit of Australia.
"The last tour we did in Australia was very nice and very successful, so we are very excited to come back and to perform in Australia,” Belle says. This will be Paris Combo's fifth Australian tour, and they are looking forward to sharing new music with everyone.
“The release of the new album is in February in Australia,” Belle says. “We are going to play new songs and songs from the previous CDs, so I think we’ll have around six or seven new songs to play.”
Belle says it’s hard to pick just one favourite on the new album, or any album for that matter; she loves all of them. However, defining a genre that Paris Combo most identifies with? That’s another story.
“It’s not so easy because there’s a little bit of… we have some old influences [such as] swing, we don’t play [just] swing we play groove-swing influences, so it’s from the past, it’s from now, it’s songs in French but it’s not. I don’t know, it’s quite difficult to classify… maybe, maybe I can’t do it!” Belle laughs.
“What I can say there’s a sound... there’s a Paris Combo sound and it’s from the group, from the four of us… it’s clearly a Paris Combo sound but I can’t tell you more than that.”
Before Belle began performing with the band, she was studying cinema technique in France. She always enjoyed and loved listening to music, but didn’t expect she would be walking down the path to become an international performer.
“I loved to go to concerts and was listening to live music a lot in Paris, seeing a lot of little groups at this time,” Belle recalls.
“I made some friends in the groups and some people said ‘come and play with us’ and you know I didn’t even know how to play an instrument or vocals, but I tried to and it was just like this and I didn’t stop.”
Paris Combo’s music takes you to a place of love and adoration, with flavours that you can only understand once you have heard such unique sounds, where you can almost imagine yourself standing in the window balcony of a studio chateau in Paris itself.
– written by Emily Oswin
Paris Combo Tour Dates
Sat 18 Mar - City Recital Hall (Sydney)Mon 20 Mar - QPAC (Brisbane)
Wed 22 Mar - Ten Days On The Island Festival (Burnie)
Thu 23 Mar - Ten Days On The Island Festival (Hobart)
Sat 25 Mar - Melbourne Recital Centre (Melbourne)
