Derniere semaine au M.I. et projet de Documentaire / Last week in M.I. and Documentary's project

English Version Below...

Ca y est! c'est la fin!! La derniere semaine est arrivee!! Ca ete une TRES GRANDE experience de vivre ici pres de 7 mois!! Je le conseille a tout le monde! Tout cela n'aurait jamais ete possibe sans le Rotary et les Rotariens et j'en suis tres conscientJe me suis fait plein d'amis de partout sur la planete: Europe, Amerique du nord et du Sud, Asie... notamment avec les etudiants du M.I. et ceux du Rotary. Sans oublier surtout les membres du Rotary Club d'Hollywood, Ferris et Debbie, Benedikt et Silke...
Et puis, ca m'a permis de faire de tres bons contacts professionnels egalement. L'un des meilleurs est certainement celui de mon prof de fusion Jeff Richman (photo) http://www.jeffrichman.net
Jeff vient de terminer l'enregistrement d'un album des musiques du groupe Steely Dan avec des invites incroyables!! Il y a notamment Vinnie Colaiuta a la batterie (Sting, F. Zappa), Steve Lukather (Toto), Mike Stern, Jimmy Haslip (Yellow Jackets), Ernie Watts le pianiste Peter Wolf, Al Dimeola, Robben Ford, Jay Graydon, Elliot Randall, Jimmy Herring, Frank Gambale...
Jeff a rearrange les chansons de Steely Dan d'une facon incroyable! Ce qui est cool c'est que j'ai joue ces arrangements avant les musiciens du CD, etant donne qu'il les amene en classe pour les tester avec nous!...

Et puis, cela m'a permis de faire egalement des projets. Marcus Nash, qui est le frere de ma colocataire et egalement realisateur de films et de documentaires, m'a propose de travailler sur un projet tres interressant avec lui! Ci-joint le lien de son dernier film:
http://www.trippingforwardmovie.com (aller sur http://www.trippingforwardmovie.com/TFTrailer.mov pour voir le trailer)
Et de plus, ce projet rentre en plein dans le mille de la raison pour laquelle j'ai obtenu une bourse du Rotary!: le theme est "La Musique Apporte la Paix".

Ce documentaire sera une journee de decouverte et de comprehension de la musique a travers mes yeux, c'est a dire d'un musicien independant, curieux du monde qui l'entoure, et ayant sa propre philosophie de la musique . On commencera a Montreal pour montrer l'univers dans lequel je vis et j'evolue. Puis, nous ferons mon parcours inverse pour nous rendre en Europe. Dans chaque lieu traverse, je ferai des interviews des personnes locales, celebres ou non, musiciennes ou non. La premiere question que nous poserons a chacune des personnes interrogees sera "Comment la musique a-t-elle transformee votre vie?" Et ainsi, nous deboucherons vers une entrevue plus complete adaptee a chaque personne.

Les racines de la musique contemporaine, rock, jazz hip-hop etc... vennant d'Afrique, continent a la base de la musique et de l'humanite, notre histoire nous amenera donc vers la destination de cet enorme et mysterieux continent afin de montrer de facon honnete et peut etre parfois meme naive, la beaute et la culture de ce peuple, mais aussi les souffrances et l'oppression que nous serions amener a rencontrer. Si tout se deroule comme convenu et que nous reussissons a obtenir des fonds suffisants, le documentaire pourra peut-etre egalement continuer au Moyen-Orient, et plus precisement au Liban.

Cette journee de decouverte n'imposera jamais un point de vue politique ni meme religieux mais capturera des histoires personnelles qui apporteront au spectateur une comprehension de la perception de la musique dans differentes cultures que nous rencontrerons.

L'idee est aussi a caractere humanitaire, mais plus base sur le point de vue culturel. Nous essayerons d'apporter avec nous des instruments de musique afin de les donner a des associations locales, le but etant de promouvoir la musique, donc la paix.

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Here we are!! it is the last week!! :-(
It was a VERY good experience to live here for 7 months! Everybody should do that at least one time in his life! I have some friends from everywhere now!: Europe, North and South America, Asia...
And also, I have some very good contacts in music! One of the best is certainly Jeff Richman, my Fusion ensemble's teacher! (photo) http://www.jeffrichman.net
Jeff is had recorded and produced a new Steely Dan tribute which is almost finished and includes a core band of Jimmy Haslip (Yellow Jackets) VInnie Colaiuta (Sting, Zappa) Ernie Watts and Keyboardist Peter Wolf with guitar performances by Al Dimeola, Robben Ford, Steve Lukather, Jay Graydon, Elliot Randall, Jimmy Herring, Frank Gambale and more.
The best is that I played all of these songs before the musicians who play on the cd because Jeff used to bring these arrangements in class to test them with us!!!

My staying here was very good to make also some projects! Marcus Nash, who is the brother of my roomate became a very good friend. Marcus is a director of commercials and is finishing his first movie: http://www.trippingforwardmovie.com (clic on http://www.trippingforwardmovie.com/TFTrailer.mov to see the trailer...) and proposed me to work on a documentary with him. The theme of the project is: "Music brings peace". This is incredible because it is at 100% the reason why I obtained the Rotary's scholarship!

This is one man’s journey of discovery.
The staff from L.A. will first meet me, as a French drummer, in my new home town of Montreal and begin to share in my life as a professional musician before I take the staff back to Europe where my passion for all styles of music began. Along the way we’ll meet some of my musician friends and contemporaries who will explain how music has truly impacted them and has helped break down some of the barriers they have been faced.
From Europe, we will travel to Africa, the origin of my music of choice.

In Africa we will see the beauty of the countries and its peoples shown alongside the abject poverty and suffering caused by decades of war and unrest.
We will travel to some of the remotest parts of this truly fascinating continent meeting some of its extraordinary people.
We’ll listen to their music, which in some cases truly emancipates both the musicians and those the music reaches.
We will meet some of those people who through their musical talents have not only entertained but have had a profound influence in the shaping of their people's culture in a way that legislation or political activism can not.

We will delve further into such stories [or similar] as: how music may have brought about a coup in the Ivory Coast; how in Zimbabwe the Zanu Freedom Fighters used songs as morale boosters and how the governments in some of these African countries have realised the strength in music and have subsequently banned many songs from radio stations.

The intent of this journey of discovery is to capture personal stories that give a true understanding of music in different cultures. It is not about making political or religious statements.

We hope to get to meet some of the success stories of those whose amazing talents have taken them from the war-ravaged villages of Africa to the modern metropolis of Europe and Northern America.

We will attempt to also secure interviews with some famous humanitarian leaders who have a particular interest in music.

If this documentary goes as planned we hope to then travel to the Middle East to continue this musician’s journey of discovery

Monies raised from marketing such interviews would be used to provide instruments to needy local associations encountered during the journey, always keeping in mind the promotion of music, and therefore peace.