During the festival, thanks to the friendship we had forged with the team at the “Théâtre du Chêne Noir” following our collaboration on the show “La tête rétrécie de Pancho Villa,” the Free Jazz Workshop (with Jean Méreu) spent a full month in a venue that could accommodate an audience. It was made available to us by Gérard Gélas (from the Miss Madonna era).

We performed three concerts a day: one in the morning with François Tusques*, then another in the afternoon with the Workshop—or vice versa, depending on the mood—and a final one in the evening: a major concert in several parts.

This final session was shared for a week with the trio of Franck Wright, Bobby Few, and Mohamed Ali**.

We were paid by the hat, and after the last concert, we’d settle into a late-night café terrace. Franck Wright told me then that I’d become a good drummer if I took vitamins… I was satisfied with that. Meanwhile, Mohamed Ali was flinging coins—not bills—into the air on Place des Carmes, shouting that money was shit! Bobby Few was picking them up…

It was hot; the night was splendid.

* pianist, a key figure in introducing “free” music to France ** African American musician