Friday Fun: Mademoiselle at Enoteca

This is turning out to be my favorite new combo for tunes and liquids: Mademoiselle’s brand of classic uptempo gipsy jazz mixed with Enoteca’s great wine selection On Friday May 8, 2009 starting at 8:30 p.m. It’s one HIGHLY recommended way to unwind and TGIF

Mademoiselle et Les Chinois

This is the most common incarnation of Mademoiselle in Beijing, a 3 or 4 piece band of high octane gipsy lounge jazz ( i think i just invented a music genre). I came across them last year when Marie-Claude, the Montreal minx, agreed to help out with a charity event i was involved in. As I walked into the event’s venue, I met this adorable shy looking lady looking for me and we started chatting. I was a bit busy with logistics and somehow ended up hosting the event without notice (but that’s another story). Mademoiselle took the stage in a venue full of folks that had been ignoring the shows in favor of food and drinks. She took the stage and the crowd took notice.
Within minutes, she had both foreigners and locals swirling around her little finger to the rhythms of an accordion, guitar and hand drum. The sounds were a mix of Gypsy Kings, Georges Brassens and Theresa Teng. And it was magic!!!
I’ve been a fan ever since, looking for chances to catch her act around town whenever possible.
Not content with covers, Mademoiselle has her own songs (listen on myspace) that stand on their own merit. My personal favorite is “Le grand mur”, a witty risque tale of love that really makes French as a language shine and conjures images of a scene from “as good as it gets” when Greg Kinnear’s character says: She’s not nude, it’s art.
Friday night’s affair is more intimate as Marie-Claude her accordion and a classical guitar will have you humming as you sip on that glass of beverage!

Enoteca

Beverage? of course, which brings us to the location of this little event! A gem of a wine bar, located in that monstrosity that is “The place”. I’ve been meaning to go there for quite some time but never actually managed to until a few weeks back when i finally made it there. I really like the place and that’s reason enough for me to go there! Their wine selections is quite spectacular with bottles starting at around RMB100 and a good number of them falling under RMB200.

I’ll go on the record and advise not to go there on an empty stomach as the food options are a bit limited but that said, come for the music and the wine or the company.

Mademoiselle on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mademoisellemali
Enoteca: http://www.enoteca.com.cn/