Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[AERO62]

I suppose I'm just not very fond of the versions played in this world tour. Although, it's true that we shouldn't judge based on a recording, but then I think an average bootleg can capture the overall impression of the sound pretty well. Take the moscow bootleg for example. Tv and radio versions don't always convey this 'live' feeling as you get from recordings made by someone who was standing in the crowd.. That said- I will always prefer the older late 80s and 90s mixes. Modern sound is just so different these days..

[Analog-Umph]

Never judge anything from recordings.

Yes and No is the answer to that.

Because the radio does not change sounds timbrally enough that they sound bad in comparison to the album.

Nor does the radio say to itself, well I'm gonna play around with the composition and take out a piece here a piece there. A note here a note there. I'm gonna move this part up so it doesn't sync, oh yeah, just like that....
I am so going to make this guy sound like he can't play live to save his life.


That kind of thing just doesn't happen, maybe in China though...

[chronos]

Even though it in reality, it sucked live.

Even though you never heard the actual performance, you make this statement

I know, there are recordings. But they are poor and from radio and recorded by who knows with nobody knows what kind of equipment and reproduced on the net from who knows how many generations of cassette tape. Nobody here is in the position to say what they actually sounded like. I bet 1981 China radio wasnt exactly top of the line. I also bet that, knowing JMJ's standards, the concerts didnt sound as awful as the radio transmission. JMJ re-recording the titles doesnt mean the stadium mix and sound sounded exactly like the radio transmission.

Never judge anything from recordings.

From what I've read in the past...

That china radio recording from the first night of the tour, JMJ had power problems, not enough electricty was obtained to power up the equipment properly.


Also, the album (CiC) was recorded not in China, but back in Jarre studio in Paris, i Kid you not.

Most of us here have seen Europe In Concert and can remember how powerful the noise was, then we get the utter cack that was the CD, Hong Live (which was really Barcelona Live with a bit of La Defense chucked in for good measure, see souvenir of china.) Thanks for that Michel Geiss, properly ballsed that album up, golden ear my arse.

As for this Indoor/Outdoor World Tour covering mostly Europe, well I cringed when JMJ was playing the solo during Ind Revolution 2, bum notes played by a professional musician, not good.

I agree with the original poster that the music JMJ is playing is akin to some cheap arse copy band, have heard better on You Tube. Sorry Jean Michel.

Get "Le Tribe" back together and put on show thats worth me parting with hard earned money, other than I doubt I will bother seeing him again. Which is sad really from a fan for 26 years.

[haaplaj]

22.10.2011 Jarre was in Finland, I somewhat liked the solo played with moog liberation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FGqFCZRy08&feature=related

I miss the "old" sound also. I was in the 1997 tour and I liked this tour more, couse Jarre interacted more with the audience and at least tryed to play himself. I agree that he's not an keyboard virtuoso. There was some bum notes on the laserharp, so I guess its the true thing with the Synthex.

[Robi]

Lack of interaction?
He interacts quite enough in 2011 as always, I'm not sure you are talking about JM.

[thhedk]

As for this Indoor/Outdoor World Tour covering mostly Europe, well I cringed when JMJ was playing the solo during Ind Revolution 2, bum notes played by a professional musician, not good.

I agree with the original poster that the music JMJ is playing is akin to some cheap arse copy band, have heard better on You Tube. Sorry Jean Michel.

I totally agree. I don't get why he can't play those simple scores that every fan has played for 25 years.
I can make an almost perfect cover version in Reason 4, a 250 Euro computer program, and play all the notes to perfection live. Then I go see the master and he fumbles over every note he tries to play live.

Still love the mans music, but I don't get it! ...who played on his records????

[Robi]

I think it's a practical thing. He simply could play the easiest notes, but he doesn't want. He may wants observ reaction on audience and/or having some rest after the previous tiring track...

[Jon]

As for this Indoor/Outdoor World Tour covering mostly Europe, well I cringed when JMJ was playing the solo during Ind Revolution 2, bum notes played by a professional musician, not good.

I agree with the original poster that the music JMJ is playing is akin to some cheap arse copy band, have heard better on You Tube. Sorry Jean Michel.

I totally agree. I don't get why he can't play those simple scores that every fan has played for 25 years.
I can make an almost perfect cover version in Reason 4, a 250 Euro computer program, and play all the notes to perfection live. Then I go see the master and he fumbles over every note he tries to play live.

Still love the mans music, but I don't get it! ...who played on his records????

I have always perceived it to be Jarre being too active in his concert surroundings. You have only got to see how he reacts to the crowd and music. Jumping up and down, rushing this way and that, clashing about on cymbols. He gets too embroiled in the texture of the music that he forgets to take a step back and be accurate with his performance. It's unique, but also off-putting at the same time. As you point out, fans can turn out one of his tracks to almost perfection, yet the man who composed them can have troubles with the simplest of melodies when playing lve. I still cringe (big time) during his keytar solo in Monaco.

[Pat Gleeson]

I have always perceived it to be Jarre being too active in his concert surroundings ......Jumping up and down, rushing this way and that, clashing about on cymbols.

I agree completely.

... he forgets to take a step back and be accurate with his performance. .

Which is why the 2007-08 Oxygene Tour was such a revelation. He did step back from the histronics and concentrated on what's important: the music. In one fell swoop he dispelled any rumours on his musicianship.

I still cringe (big time) during his keytar solo in Monaco.

I'm not alone then .....

[jeanbatman]

I like Jarre making bum notes rather than 100% playback show... He's really improvising and that's what make the show evolving...

[thhedk]

I have always perceived it to be Jarre being too active in his concert surroundings. You have only got to see how he reacts to the crowd and music. Jumping up and down, rushing this way and that, clashing about on cymbols. He gets too embroiled in the texture of the music that he forgets to take a step back and be accurate with his performance. It's unique, but also off-putting at the same time. As you point out, fans can turn out one of his tracks to almost perfection, yet the man who composed them can have troubles with the simplest of melodies when playing lve. I still cringe (big time) during his keytar solo in Monaco.

I think that is a poor excuse, of cause you can't play the Equinoxe 4 "plugs" that perfect when jumping around like he do, but he is standing very still and concentrated when playing those handheld keyboards, and he still fail big time on melodies every keyboard player in the world could play.
I have a full time job, a kid and a Wife, so I have some of my evenings to practice playing Jarre songs and learn it very fast. JM Jarre should have had time through 2½ year, to practice those "hard" things like the Industrial Revolutions solo

I still don't get it.

...Incredible that no one in 2½ years have told him, that the Keytar solo sounds horrible, so he could stop it.

[Robi]

If keytar solos were perfectly the same as to the albums, then that would be the problem. That he can't compose/vary on the concerts...

[Jon]

I think that is a poor excuse, of cause you can't play the Equinoxe 4 "plugs" that perfect when jumping around like he do, but he is standing very still and concentrated when playing those handheld keyboards, and he still fail big time on melodies every keyboard player in the world could play.
I have a full time job, a kid and a Wife, so I have some of my evenings to practice playing Jarre songs and learn it very fast. JM Jarre should have had time through 2½ year, to practice those "hard" things like the Industrial Revolutions solo

I still don't get it.

...Incredible that no one in 2½ years have told him, that the Keytar solo sounds horrible, so he could stop it.

It's not an excuse, that's just how I see it, it's an observation. I also like to point out that JMJ is 63 years old. Two years time he will be classed as a pensioner. We're younger, we can consentrate longer.

But I agree his keytar solo's of late are bad. Oxy 5, Indust Rev. As I posted above, I cringe at the keytar solo's at Monaco. Bad for someone who has been playing keyboards for the better part of 40 years.

[thhedk]

It's not an excuse, that's just how I see it, it's an observation. I also like to point out that JMJ is 63 years old. Two years time he will be classed as a pensioner. We're younger, we can consentrate longer.

But I agree his keytar solo's of late are bad. Oxy 5, Indust Rev. As I posted above, I cringe at the keytar solo's at Monaco. Bad for someone who has been playing keyboards for the better part of 40 years.

I know he is rather old now, but honestly, how much live playing did you see/hear when he was young?
Place de la Concorde: None, absolutly none
Concerts in China = well, none of us heard the original concerts.
Houston/Lyon: IMO None.
Docklands: IMO None - even the drumsticks hitting each other in "London Kid" is the same place in the concert as on the record.
Paris: Hmm, again I doubt it.
All the Aero plus copies with only two men on the stage: Do you really think?

All the old concerts sounded just like the records, down to the smallest little sound, suddently it's really live, and everyting sounds totally different.

Has he ever been able to play? Is it some kind of joke or scam?
Is there one day a press meeting, where he reveals that it was a test to see, if he could build up a name without beeing able to play?

I'd really really like to see an old clip, where JMJ plays some advanced stuff live.

[shadow]

Concerts in China = well, none of us heard the original concerts.
Houston/Lyon: IMO None.

I'm still hoping for the original actual recordings to someday be released, I know the equipment must have sucked and nothing was properly registrated. But we have the original "live" broadcast (not the useage of "") which I think are far better then the actual recorded material. Although the Magnetic Fields Part 1 track on that sounds a scary lot like the one that's on the VHS release.
Makes me wonder why that tracks was excluded from the actual album itself...