Introducing Café Mouffe: Steve Lacy in Paris

Sunrise hasn’t happened yet in Yellow Springs, but it’s already Friday afternoon somewhere. Somewhere like Rue Mouffetard in Paris. Friday afternoon means jazz. When I get home from work on Friday, what I want most is to walk down the street to a funky little jazz club with a piano trio, bistro cooking, a coterie of lounge lizards, and some amiable conversation. A place like the Village Vanguard in New York or Snug Harbor in New Orleans. My village doesn’t have that kind of club, so I have to imagine it. I’d call it Cafe Mouffe. I know I’m blending places here – a village in Ohio, Greenwich Village maybe, Faubourg Marigny, the ancient village of Lutecia on the Left Bank. But hey, it’s my imagination, isn’t it? I need all these places to conjure the ambiance I want.

This YouTube clip of Steve Lacy’s sextet in Paris does the same kind of blending and conjuring for me. Lacy is joined by his wife Irene Aebi on violin and vocals, Steve Potts on alto, Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass, Oliver Johnson on drums, and Bobby Few on piano. The composition is called “Prospectus.” We know all the details thanks to the dedicated lounge lizards who commented on the clip. That’s a virtual jazz club for you. That’s Café Mouffe.

Like a lot of American jazz musicians in the 1960s, Steve Lacy left New York for the expatriate jazz scene in Paris. I dreamed of going there to hear him. Never thought he’d come here. Eventually he started coming back to the States every year to gig around. To my unending astonishment, he came to Yellow Springs in 1997, performing in Kelly Hall with the trio featured on Bye-Ya. It wasn’t Friday afternoon but a wintry Tuesday night. My friend Bob Grubbs dragged me out, insisting it was something that could only happen once in a lifetime. He was right. Hearing Steve Lacy in my laid-back little village remains the most incredible musical experience I ever had.

Coming next Friday to Café Mouffe: Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Arkestra