Melodies coming from Philly Joe`s bar warmed our hearts and gave us an unforgettable music joy one cold Friday night, 30th of October in Tallinn. A French Jazz band, Duo Petite Vengeance, came to visit the town, full of energy.
The venue was full of people waiting to hear their unique style of music. Raphaël Quénehen with his saxophone and Jérémie Piazza with his guitar and drums were ready to amaze the audience. The performance was leaving people hypnotized for 2 hours. Philly Joe´s cozy and intimate atmosphere brought the audience and performers closer and increased the joy of the show for both sides.
With their partly emotional and poweful performance, Duo Petite Vengeance got full points from the audience and due to the demand came to perform once again for one last song, although they had already ended their show.
While happy and satisfied people were slowly leaving the venue, I had chance to have a little interview with the members of the band.
Thank you for this amazing show. Although you have plenty of performances around Europe, it is so hard to find information about you. I need to ask how did Duo Petite Vengeance start?
Raphaël Quénehen: Yes, we have lots of performances. However, we are doing everything on our own so we are not good at market advertisement. I really don’t remember how we started. We were playing as a trio for a long time: we also had a bass player. Then he needed to move to another part of France. We had a break for a year but then decided to continue playing together.
You are also playing with Papanosh and you are member of Les Vibrants Defricheurs. Can you give some information about these projects? Are they related to Duo Petite Vengeance or are they different?
Quénehen: Les Vibrants Defricheurs is an artists collective. We are the members of this collective and there are musical and visual artists as well as technicians in this collective, all together 13 people. Papanosh is our band and it is quite famous. Petite Vengeance is a parallel project with Papanosh. We are the same guys but the music with these two bands is totally different. They are different stories.
You combine jazz, blues, and rock melodies in your music. How do you define you music type?
Quénehen: It depends on the concert. We have had a lot of concerts and we thought maybe it is not that good to play same songs every night. Especially while we are having a tour like this we feel like we need to surprise ourselves. For example tonight we played two new songs.
Are there any specific musicians that you are influenced by or is this your idea to combine different types of music?
Jérémie Piazza: It always depends on the time. But lately I like to listen to David Hidalgo. He is a Mexican American singer from the band Los Lobos and he is great.
Quénehen: I think me and Jeremie are not coming from the same path. Jeremie is really involved in Western and rock music and I am more touched by the traditional Mexican music. What we have here is a combination of these all.
During your show you also sang a Mexican song called „Raphael“. What is this song’s story?
Quénehen: Yes. The name of the song is Adios Mi Chaparrita. It is a well known traditional love song about one immigrant guy in Mexico.
Jeremie, you were using a toy pig as an instrument during the performance. How did you come up with this idea?
Piazza: I saw a guy who did that. He was a French musician who played with a lot of toys and he gave me a pig. Now I am playing with this pig.
Quénehen: It is another love story. (laughs)
What about the name of the band? Petite Vengeance means A Little Revenge. Why this name?
Quénehen: We have been friends with Jeremie for 15 years. We are great friends and we always play like children while on stage. In music and our daily life we are always joking and fighting. But the name comes from my nephew. When she was 12 years old she came and said I did something to my curtain and it is a little revenge. Then I thought this could be a great name for us since it reflects perfectly our relationship on stage and in life.
Did you like the atmosphere here tonight? What kind of venues do you prefer and have you ever had street performances?
Quénehen: Yes, we had a lot of street performances when we were young and poor. The music that you play is not the same with every venue. We loved playing here because it is a club which is amazing for us. Also, people are one metre away from us so we can feel their enegy and they can feel us, which is best for us. But we also love to play on big stages.
Is this your first time in Tallinn, Estonia? How do you like it here? Do you have a future plan to come here again?
Quénehen: Yes, it is our first time. Yesterday we played in Viljandi and now we are here.
Piazza: Yes. We especially loved the fish soup.
Quénehen: We would like to come here again. We have already plans about coming here with Papanosh in 2017.
Duo Petite Vengeance played at Autumn Jazz festival on 30th of October at Philly Joe’s jazz club.