Love on the Left Bank

In Love on the Left Bank, actress and singer Louise Blackwell brings to life the inspiring story of French singer Juliette Gréco. It is a musical celebration of love, life and liberty as it occurred in the Left Bank of Paris at the time of its liberation from Nazi German occupation. Backed by a superb 6-piece band led by musical director Mark Simeon Ferguson and including Cuban trumpet sensation Lazaro Numa, Louise performs songs which evoke the joy and revelry of liberation as it occurred in the legendary underground clubs of Saint Germain des Prés, the bohemian district where Juliette found refuge during the war.

Charismatic, free-spirited and talented, she was adopted by the older guard of culture and ideas, it was indeed Jean-Paul Sartre who encouraged her to become a singer.

Philosophers, writers and artists gathered round Juliette as she made her debuts in cabaret nights that presented a myriad of different performers, poets and musical acts. It was here that American jazz musicians escaped the racism back home and where the love story between Juliette and Miles Davis played out.

Juliette became part of Paris’s most exciting new voices, promoting freedom and artistic expression and she is still known as the muse of Saint Germain des Prés.