A place to play: How a Williamsburg jam became a home for jazz manouche

By Sarah Gassel

On a Thursday night, right off the Bedford Avenue station, the sounds of Paris fill the walls of Williamsburg’s Bistro So. The noise is coming from the small circular table at the front, surrounded by five guitar-wielding musicians.

They’re there to play jazz manouche, a French-based genre known for its romantic, fast-paced acoustic tunes. Leaning back in their seats and watching for each other’s count, the five musicians let their fingers loose. Then, a quick, rhythmic song swings about the packed room.

After the applause, a flannel-clad Alex Simon steps away from the circle and makes his rounds about the dim-lit space. Simon, who has been a jazz manouche guitarist for over 20 years, is the host of these weekly jams. Many of the players in the circle are his students, but the event is open to everyone.

“It’s a party,” Simon said. “You never know who’s going to show up.”

A moment later, a woman rises from her seat to belt out Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.” The jaunty song turns up the heat, and suddenly the crowd seems to grow rowdy. A violinist enters, and someone pulls out a trumpet. The table is topped with three half-drunk beers, then four, then five. “Do you know which one is mine?” one musician half-shouts to another. The space is alive.

This is exactly what Simon envisioned when he began holding the jams in 2011. The artists flood the air with “La Vie en rose” from 8-11 p.m. on Thursday nights at Bistro So. Then, from 6-9 p.m. on Sunday evenings, they cap the weekend at Greenpoint’s Retro Polish Restaurant and Wine Bar, where the musicians hold what they call the family night jam.

With 15 years under its belt, the sessions have fostered the collaboration of hundreds of musicians. In turn, they’ve built something much larger.

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