Jazz And The Underbelly Of Paris

IN the Netflix miniseries ‘The Eddy’ we live through the personal struggles of artists in the underground jazz scene in the underbelly of Paris.

The show unravels the toils of relationships and broken hearts that seemingly heal through jazz.

The show is far from the glittery aura in Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning film ‘La La Land’.

We are immersed in a world of gangsters and immigrants, a melancholy-induced world similar to ‘Whiplash’, but this time we’ve given up our seats at preppy music conservatories and traded them in for front-row seats to catch a glimpse of the bedevilling lives of the emotionally tormented artist.

The show centres on Elliot Udo, a club owner and acclaimed jazz pianist from the United States, who found himself in Paris hoping to start anew in the city of love after the untimely death of his son.

The city proves to be far from the idyllic world he imagined. He is soon plunged into an underground world of thugs and counterfeiters that insist on getting their pound of flesh to repay the debts of his business partner and deceased best friend, Farid.

The only sanguine character that evidently looked the other way when things hit the fan tragically caught his last breath in a dark alley. Elliot is forced to play substitute in a game of Russian roulette he didn’t even know existed.

If that isn’t nerve-wracking enough, Elliot’s 16-year-old daughter, Julie, is relegated from her bourgois lifestyle by his resentful ex-wife to live with her struggling father in Paris.

She is a wild card.

Played by the gorgeous and sassy Amandla Stenburg, we feel the hurt and cry for attention. Cries to amend the heartbreak that comes from a broken home and the absence of her father.

The show features a blend of French and English dialogue allowing for a truly atmospheric experience in the multicultural landscape of Paris.

The eight-episode series takes us into the lives of the main characters, which include Jude, a cello player and recovering drug addict, as well as Marja – the lead singer of the band, and Elliot’s occasional squeeze.

There are no stunning shots of the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, rose petals and chocolate are far from what to expect of the gritty world in this Parisian series.

Love takes a subtle form. At some point, Elliot gives his daughter, Julie, a copy of James Baldwin’s ‘The Price of The Ticket’.

An interesting quote in the book reads, “the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all we do”.

This is what ‘The Eddy’ is all about.