Carlsbad Reads and Listens Together on April 17

On April 17 at 2 p.m., enjoy an afternoon of French music performed by Patrick Berrogain’s Hot Club Combo, featuring Lou Fanoucchi on accordion, and special guest musicians. Hot Club Combo will perform a tribute to French composers and artists including Edith Piaf, Django Reinhardt, Henri Salvador and more.

This free concert is part of the Carlsbad Reads Together program, a community reading event featuring "My Life in France" by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. Child's book recounts her years in France when she found her passion for cooking and teaching.

“Being a French native, this event is bringing me back to my roots,” comments Berrogain. “The afternoon will be a tribute to some of the most prominent non-classical French composers and entertainers from the thirties to the sixties. Like American standards, those tunes have become French standards, and they can be performed instrumentally or they can be sung. At our show, we will put the Gypsy jazz stamp on it, which is traced back to the “French” Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. Incidentally, Django was friend with most of those French composers and performers and has made several renditions of their work in his recording career.”

Born in the south of France, Berrogain moved to America in 1984 to study jazz. He has performed around the world and formed his Gypsy jazz group, Hot Club Combo, in 2007. A resident of Olivenhain, Berrogain says, “It is always very special for me to play for the Carlsbad City Library because my four-year-old son and I frequent it on a regular basis. I also have a wonderful memory of a concert we played there in 2006 with my previous band, and the people of Carlsbad are a great audience.”

In addition to the April 17 concert, other upcoming Carlsbad Reads Together events include a Culture Craft activity for kids on April 12, “Big Night” film screening April 13 and “My Life in France” book discussion on April 14.