#72 Jonquil

A Take Away Show is a musical moment to be carried in the streets, a moment when your eyes are wide open (and your ears too). But mostly, it is an uplifting moment when the musicians and the people around them feel like they’ve been brought elsewhere by the smiley faces they met. In Jonquil’s magical countryside, not in Oxford where Jonquil were born, by the Isis, near Cowley road, but some place where there’s an imaginary tradition, somewhere with soil left on the ground, and trees. Some place that only exists in their songs.

The guys from Jonquil rehearsed around Hugo, the multi-instrumentalist accordionist singer, in the garden of La Flèche d’Or. The songs played during this walk across the 20th arrondissement are all from the new album Lions, and they got the last retouching in this garden to become true ‘street songs’. The rhythms warmed us up and we were ready to let the folk overflow us.

So marched the band, before the eyes of eager Parisians, enthusiastic about “Pencil, paper”, “Whistle low” and the fantastic “Lions”. There started the Jonquil’s adventure, in a different Paris, in another century, surrounded by children with laughing eyes and cheerful parents. As we were getting well-advised instructions from the watchwomen of the garden where the Take Away Show was shot, a little crowd began to gather and followed us alongside the Père Lachaise walls.

Jonquil’s music is made for these kinds of places. Ben’s violin resounded perfectly, windows opened, Jody and Robin’s guitars mixed together and ladies applauded, while Kit’s percussions put rhythm into our walk. Seriously, since I’ve been living in Paris, I had never seen so many people open their windows, so many smiles from strangers than this day. There was something magical, and the pleasure Jonquil took out of busking in Paris must have been floating a few more days on the walls of the alleys that hosted them. Then, Hugo’s voice smoothly accompanied us to their night’s performance at la Flèche d’Or.

“We have a garden to close” the watchwoman yelled, during “Pencil, paper”. Our improvised choir clapped hands, the children resumed their soccer match, and we could not help but feel happy yet a bit melancholic in the midst of the flowers left by Jonquil between the paved stones in the streets of the 20th arrondissement. « In the shade, when no one knows, in the shade we whistle low ».