Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Vumiko]

Past large scale shows were maybe 2% live: the live parts being drums, percussion and bass. Everything else was playback (or in some cases, played at such low volume under pre-recorded tracks that no one could hear). Keep in mind I'm a musician myself and I can tell the difference in sound and performance when an artist actually plays a piece live.

Monaco had plenty of little live bits and pieces over pre-recorded material, but in terms of JMJ's performance: he didn't play any lead melodies live (Oxygene 4, Chrono 1, 2 & 4, Rendez-Vous 4, Vintage, etc). What he actually plays live are the following:

Keytar solo's
Laser Harp
Therimin
Sound/Sample pads
Little incidental pieces
Variation 3 improvs

For example the main lead melody for Chronologie 4 was not played live by Jarre, but the synth solo at the end (on the Nord Lead) was live.

His "partners in crime" are a bit harder to pin down (because the camera isn't always on them); but for Monaco:

-The guy who replaced Dominique is mostly doing the "side solos" that embellish/compliment the main theme (RDV 4, MF 2, for example) and he was adding some live sequences to other tracks. I believe he does some pads and bass as well.

-Francis does pads, bass and some lead melody playing (to which JMJ is miming). Sometimes he seems to "fake" sequences; but he's the real keyboard virtuoso in the band. Past shows like China and Gdansk basically had him mime the whole performance, which is a huge waste of talent in my opinion.

-Claude does the percussion and seemingly not much else. You'll notice he's surrounded by synths but those are only for show. Variation 3 is probably the only song in which he adds synth playing of value. During the In Door tour he was in change of staring and stopping the payback of every song (from what I remember).

La Defense was all playback synth wise. But the drum, percussion and bass players were excellent and I would love to see him work with those guys again. Musically it was one of his best shows; the arrangements were superb and full of life (even if not performed entirely live).

Here's what Jarre played live at La Defense:

-Camera click sound during Souvenir Of China (he presses a little button on the side of the keyboard)
-Laser Harp during Calypso 2 (you can hear his playing on the audience/radio broadcasts)

That's it. Everything else was for show.

The other synth players weren't playing anything that we (audience/TV viewers) can hear. (With the exception of Dominique's keytar solo at the end of MF2, which I believe was live. And he looked terrified.)

It's all part of the show; the overall experience. Jarre is giving the audience an "impression" or "illusion" of live performance without any of the risk. His band was simply another facet of the spectacle; not meant to be the main focus.

On the current 2011 tour you'll still find him mimming the lead synth parts, but hes paying the more improvised parts live (keytar solos, laster harp etc)-- hes more comfortable with this.

Other shows:
China 1981: He plays some parts live
Houston/Lyon: JMJ mimes the entire show
Doclands: JMJ mimes
La Defense: Mimes
EIC: Plays some parts live; mostly playback (on his part)
CPLT: Plays some parts live; mostly playback (on his part)
Oxy Tour 97: Plays some parts live; mostly playback (on his part)
Moscow: Plays some parts live; mostly playback (on his part)
Egypt: Playback
Greece: Plays some parts live; mostly playback (on his part)
Denmark: Plays some parts live; mostly playback (on his part)
China: All playback
Poland: Mostly playback
Oxygene Tour: PLAYS HIS PERFORMANCE LIVE
In-Doors/2011 Tour: Mix of live playing and playback (for JMJ).

End.

[Robi]

"For example the main lead melody for Chronologie 4 was not played live by Jarre, but the synth solo at the end (on the Nord Lead) was live."

I believe that was live.

Anyway read Finaero's post above.

[Finaero]

The other synth players weren't playing anything that we (audience/TV viewers) can hear.

I found two interesting links on the subject

SHARPBLUE's thread
Christophe Deschamps interview

I swear I remember one other source that mentioned the players playing some silly tunes between the songs for their own amusement. Even though those links don't exactly state that the drums were live, well, try playing acoustic drums yourself without making a sound. Or just take a listen to the radio broadcast or the (much rarer) transmission channel recording.

[Vumiko]

The other synth players weren't playing anything that we (audience/TV viewers) can hear.

I found two interesting links on the subject

SHARPBLUE's thread
Christophe Deschamps interview

I swear I remember one other source that mentioned the players playing some silly tunes between the songs for their own amusement. Even though those links don't exactly state that the drums were live, well, try playing acoustic drums yourself without making a sound. Or just take a listen to the radio broadcast or the (much rarer) transmission channel recording.

Yes, drums were live at La Defense but the synths were not.

[Vumiko]

"For example the main lead melody for Chronologie 4 was not played live by Jarre, but the synth solo at the end (on the Nord Lead) was live."

I believe that was live.

Anyway read Finaero's post above.

I stand by my assessment.

[Finaero]

Whoops, sorry, didn't mean to aim that drum comment at you. Just a general note! Also, there was a recording from the Monaco rehearsals where you could hear the Chrono 4 lead played live, and it also sounded a bit different from the sound used in the actual concert.

[Vumiko]

Whoops, sorry, didn't mean to aim that drum comment at you. Just a general note! Also, there was a recording from the Monaco rehearsals where you could hear the Chrono 4 lead played live, and it also sounded a bit different from the sound used in the actual concert.

I've heard and seen the rehersals; but during the actual show, Rimbert was probably playing the lead with JMJ miming. With the way JMJ was jumping up and down and moving about there's no way he could have played the lead live without making mistakes; and there are no mistakes on the track, thus leading me to conclude that JMJ wasn't truly playing.

He does play the Nord Lead solo live though.

[thhedk]

Keep in mind I'm a musician myself and I can tell the difference in sound and performance when an artist actually plays a piece live.
End.

I aggree 100%, it's easy to hear and see, when it is live and when it is playback.
And in Jarre's case, it's VERY easy

But how do you feel about it, isn't is it a bit sad, seeing them standing among all those great synth, not to play more live?
I can start my Rendez-Vous 4 cover in Propellerhead Reason, and play the lead sound perfect all the way through, why can't we expect this with a 90 Euro ticket to professional musicians with 2 Elka Synthex on the scene?

Of cause the advanced sequencer things are playback, those are impossible to play, the same are the "glissando" stuff Francis plays in Equinoxe 5 and 7, those are NOT live.
But all the simple leads and chords should be.

How does other musicians do when performing big shows?

BTW: Christophe Deschamps was on the scene in Hamburg, he really gave some special to the concert. La Defence was by far the best drums ever! I and love the way the drums are played on Calypso 1 on the record too.

[Robi]

How does other musicians do when performing big shows?

Tangerine Dream even does not switch on their synths!
I mean, seriously, I read.

Vangelis did playback. So did Mike Oldfield. So do other electronic acts. So non-electronic acts. So...

[Vumiko]

How does other musicians do when performing big shows?

Tangerine Dream even does not switch on their synths!
I mean, seriously, I read.

Vangelis did playback. So did Mike Oldfield. So do other electronic acts. So non-electronic acts. So...

Tangerine Dream was famous for their improvised live shows in the 70s/80s. I don't follow them today so I can't say how much they play live these days, but they wern't known to mime like JMJ did.

Vangelis is also famous for his live playing skills. One JMJ style performance of his was mimed (rotterdam).

Pretty much all music is "electronic" or have "synth" elements these days; including modern rock bands. When you see a band playing drums, guitars, bass, keyboards/synths in concert all musicians are generally playing live 100%. Massive Attack plays live, for example.

Sticking with electronics based musicians of JMJ's era: Kitaro always played live; Mike Oldfield played live during his peak; Ryuichi Sakamoto/Yellow Magic Orchestra always played live; Kraftwork used to play live in their old days (I haven't seen any recent shows of theirs);

...there are many more examples of true live performance by electronic music artists. The difference is that none of them staged shows on the scale that JMJ did: he needed a safety net for these one-off concerts: everything needed to be perfect; hence the playback. We all know JMJ is not the best keyboard player in the world, he's more of a studio composer than a live performer. But he loved to play the part of a synth virtuoso on stage and non-musicians believed in his illusion.

JMJ is a true artist in the sense that he created audio-visual illusions for his audience to appreciate and ponder. he gave people a piece of his imagination. I cannot fault him for that. But as a musician myself, I fault him for "pretending" to be someone/something he was not (live synth virtuoso) rather than putting effort into improving his skills and growing as a live performer. It wasn't until the recent Oxy Tour that I started to gain respect for his musicianship and boldness to FINALLY play live.

[Finaero]

Which leads me to question the claim that Jarre doesn't know how to play the simplest of tunes. As Radek Tymecki once pointed out, Jarre becomes very concentrated when he's playing for real. Throughout his career he has, rather sadly at times, chosen to focus on a perfect performance rather than a perfect live performance. Perhaps it's, as Joachim Garraud stated after a fan asked about the playback in The Twelve Dreams of the Sun, due to stress. Maybe even stage fright, for reasons like that I can mostly accept it (and it also explains why the definitely smaller Oxygene Tour 2007-2008 venues were fully live). Even if the tunes are so simple that a "2-year-old" could play them, just choosing not to play them live doesn't cancel out actual skills. As mentioned before, Vangelis - a notorious live performer (hell, he even remade Chariots of Fire on the spot to prove the courts that he had composed the thing) has performed "mime" gigs.

However, the whole miming factor could be seen as one of the reasons why he hasn't had any concerts outside Europe (with some exceptions like Morocco and Lebanon), even if the actual reasons are probably related to funding, interest, money, bucks, dollars, euros and so forth. But just take a look at Milli Vanilli and, well, that gives some kind of foreshadowing of how a sloppily handled Jarre gig would fare in the U.S. Then again, Jarre isn't exactly adored by the press (Ke$ha's laser harp performance a while back didn't, simply put, captivate the American masses) but it could be a factor. I personally believe it's more a funding related issue (the fanbase, while extant, might not be enough for a Jarre gig in the U.S. to be profitable, since there might not be that many casual people interested in a synth gig by a Frenchman), but I think it's still something to think about.

But I think Jarre fans are still on a more pronounced "defense mode" when it comes to this subject. As I mentioned earlier, Kraftwerk's laptop gigs would gather high praise even if they just showed up in their pajamas (with robot figures on them, of course). This whole ordeal also reminds me of that one artist (sadly I can't remember his name, he was active in the early 1970s if I recall correctly, similar to Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Ian Curtis?) who was a great live performer but had such stage fright that he faced his back to the audience to perform well. And recent gigs certainly show that Jarre wants to elevate the audience to embrace the music by jumping and running on stage, with lots of eye contact (perhaps something he missed with the 3.5 million Muscovites?) and (sadly) cymbal crashing. While there was a time when bum notes on the laser harp and stuff like that were gracious due to all the miming in the past (I have to admit, the laser harp malfunction in Helsinki two years ago got me excited!), I guess I'd also be very happy if there was a fully live Jarre gig with a few mistakes there and there (in Turku a few weeks ago, I was more than glad that there were no laser harp hijinks this time).

(I think this is the most I've written on the subject since the Jarre.net Forums shut down, this place was such a sanctuary against the whole topic for quite a long time!)

[Vumiko]

Regarding the U.S.

I think he would do well in large markets like New York City and LA; small intimate venues, not arenas.

Canada:

Montreal (obveriously), Toronto and Vancouver would work. These are large multicultural cities with immigrants from all over Europe and Asia (where JMJ is known).

My feeling is that if "smaller" yet renowned artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto and Kitaro can tour North America, so can the much larger and influentual JMJ.

My personal opinion is that he's "scared" no one would show up for his tour; but if he did it on a much smaller scale with the proper support, I believe people would come to see him. (I'm American). I do sense that he truly wants to return to North America, but he's going to have to put a lot of effort and concentration into making it a reality. Otherwise it will remain a pipe dream like the 1997 Oxy "World" Tour.

[Kanta]

No comment.

[Robi]

Oxygene 12 in Brno

[jeanbatman]

Nice oxy12 video, Robbie!