WINEFOODMUSIC LIVE - MICHEL LEEB

Michel Leeb was born in 1947 in Cologne, Germany, to a German father and an Italian mother. He delights the French with his imitations, his theatrical performances and his love of jazz.

Gérard Bertrand: Hello everyone, this is the seventh Wine, Food and Music live, it's May 29th, we are at the Château l'Hospitalet, we have the privilege of having a multi-talented guest since he is at the same time a crooner, writer, comedian and man of the theater, welcome to Michel Leeb

Michel Leeb: Hello, how are you? 

Gérard Bertrand: it couldn't be better, I'm very happy to have you here and then I present to you our chef Laurent Chabbert who has been doing virtual cooking for three months, from Tuesday June 2nd he opens his kitchens and we can't wait. So if you're in the area because I know you're in Provence, you're not very far if you're in Languedoc, you're welcome. In fact, he did the spring, fall, summer and winter menus he worked a lot for four months

How is the lockdown going then? Or the deconfinement for that matter?

Michel Leeb: But yes because that's it, we've all been locked up for 2 and a half months but fortunately I put this period of parenthesis to the service of writing so I write, I wrote a play, I wrote my next spectra that I worked on a lot. I worked a lot and that's it, so now well we were out of confinement we will start again little by little to breathe to live to find friends that we love, our family etc etc and it will start again. So it's an incredibly curious, strange, resanctifying period for many people but now I think that life must start again, more than before probably.

Gérard Bertrand: So Michel, what can we do anyway? We have a tradition, which is to toast your future successes. We're going to taste the ballerine together, which is a rosé crémant de Limoux that I sent on slats.

Michel Leeb: I have some here.

Gérard Bertrand: So, let's start by having a drink, Michel, right? It's time.

Michel Leeb : Yes, I think it's time, that's what's most important.

Gérard Bertrand: Cheers Michel

Michel Leeb: Cheers

Gerard Bertrand : health

Michel Leeb: Health

Gérard Bertrand: and to the health of all the listeners who follow us

Michel Leeb: Here and who are watching us

Gérard Bertrand: exactly

So the chef started with the Michel amuse-bouche

What did the boss propose today?

Chef Laurent Chabert : So to accompany the ballerina, I made a vegetarian roll with carrot, cucumber, a little bit of garden salad, radish, beetroot that we made into pickles, there is celery too, in return we made a turnip that we cut very finely. And there, I will add nasturtium leaves for the peppery taste

Michel Leeb: we can't hear well, I prefer that he shows me because I can't hear anything

Gérard Bertrand: go ahead, come closer, he'll show you

Chef Laurent Chabert: So here it is a small vegetable maquis with lots of little nasturtium flowers and nasturtium leaves.

Gérard Bertrand : That's my little privilege, Michel, I'm sorry.

Michel Leeb: It's mean because I want it.

Chef Laurent Chabert: fleur de sel, olive oil, it's fresh, in fact it's for summer.

Gérard Bertrand: So it's very good to whet your appetite like that Michel, I remember an anecdote. My dad who died thirty years ago now, he was a fan of yours and so I was in a restaurant with him in Provence, I don't know where and my mom. And so he said to me, look there's Michel Leeb opposite, you gave him a big smile and that made his evening because already, that gives you a few years of career behind you. What fascinates me is that you were first known for humor. But music, is that what you love the most? What transcends you the most among all the talents you have?

Michel Leeb: You know, I really like what I do when I do it, so when I perform a play like for example, right now soon with Pierre Arditi, I enjoy it. When I sing at the Hospitalet with Big Bands, Dominique Rieux, I enjoy it. When I do a one-man show all by myself and I tell all kinds of stories, I do facial expressions, gags, sketches and all that, I enjoy it. When I eat good food, I enjoy it. When I drink glasses I enjoy it. When I live I enjoy it.

Gérard Bertran d: So who are you a disciple of? Epicurus?

Michel Leeb: And yes, and of course, and that's life, you have to make the most of everything you have.

Gérard Bertrand: But what did you start with, Michel, with theatre or with music?

Michel Leeb: I started with theater and then I did one-man shows. And the music that was part of my life, that is still part of my life, I said to myself, one day, I have to do something on stage but musically. So I did a jazz concert with two, three musicians and then there were four, five, six, there were Big Bands that I had the chance to meet when I was in charge of the Nice jazz festival.

Gerard Bertrand: I saw that.

Michel Leeb: Well, for several years I met all the musicians I loved when I was a kid. I was a jazz fan all the time, all my life, so when I had the chance to meet all these musicians and in particular the musicians from Cambezi, wow. Ask all the jazz musicians who Cambezi is, you'll see that the guys are going to do somersaults. So I went to see them, I said I'd like to make an album with them. He said to me "how?" I said I'd like to make an album with them. He said to me that's fine, go back to school. I said wait, wait, I'll give you two, three examples. I started humming stuff in front of them, they said well you know what if you have the courage, we'll take it on as they say the c****** and well listen, you see, we'll take you on tour. And I went on tour with them. We made an album and when we tour with the band, well listen afterwards, well afterwards...

Gérard Bertrand : So we are happy because you are in front of your piano there, can we go on tour right away?

Michel Leeb: yes, well, I'm going to play a little bit for you, wait, I'm going to do it like this, there you go, do you see the piano?

Gérard Bertrand : Yes, I see it very well.

Michel Leeb: But you don't see me anymore.

Gérard Bertrand : We can see you're doing well.

Michel Leeb: Wait, then I'm going to play you a little thing.

"It's Gérard Bertrand's blues, he likes it from time to time, he's a big kid, and his music is his tomatoes and carrots. Music is Chef Chabert's cooking, I like Bertrand, he whines all the time, it feels good to have a guy like that who brings happiness to all the people who come to eat here all the time, oh yeah"

Gérard Bertrand : Thank you Michel for this improvised intro, there you go, we can see you clearly. So that's what's great about jazz, is that improvisation is total. And even if there was a canvas, we have extraordinary examples. The one that made the biggest impression on me, right here, you know, was Maceo Parker who was James Brand's sax player and he came twice: the first time he came, he played for three hours. He did a 21-minute sax piece, everyone was in a trance, it was extraordinary. And you, among the Americans, what are your top two or top three references?

Michel Leeb: It's difficult, there's Coltrane, Rollins, Malzéville, Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich, all the Big Bands, Cambezzi, Duke Ellington. The singers, so there's one singer, there's no two and it's Sinata and he's the only one and all the others are kids. There you go and there are of course female singers, one singer and there's no two of them, it's of course the fidgerald Diana Kral who I like a lot and then there you go after French singers there are some great French singers. I had a wonderful friend who's no longer there who was Charles Aznavour and Charles Aznavour, he was, for me the French Sinatra if you can say so and well there you go musicians...

Gérard Bertran: I am impressed by James Brown's voice.

Michel Leeb: Yes of course I love it, I love it.

Gérard Bertrand : Did you see when he sang with Pavarotti?

Michel Leeb: Yes, it was magnificent.

Gérard Bertrand : It was extraordinary.

Michel Leeb : Magnificent and I like it when he moves on stage, you know, Michael Jackson was very inspired by James Brown, very inspired.

Gérard Bertrand : Exactly, and Michel they say that you move as well as James Brown on stage.

Michel Leeb : Yes yes yes of course yes yes yes. Mind your own business.

Gérard Bertrand : No, it's true, with your friend you were talking about, Dominique Orieut, so he did a tour with you and it's one of his best memories because he says that with you Michel, it's before, during and after so you have to keep this conviviality, this good mood and I remember that before the concert you had dinner with us at the Château l'Hospitalet in 2007 and you had a glass of wine. Is that something you often do before going on stage or not?

Michel Leeb : Yes, I always drink a glass of wine before going on stage because it's very good for the vocal cords. The tannin helps to grease, so to speak, the vocal cords, you know what I'm saying?

Gérard Bertrand : yes, so I have a lot of memories because after the concert we had the opportunity to have a drink certainly with the artists and then there were two in particular, it was with George Benson because he came he was extraordinary and he told me a little about his life and then he said to me: you know I only drink chardonnay. So we opened a bottle he finished it he was in great shape and so he told me about his life. After the concert he sang again in his dressing room it was a great moment. And the second was with Zucchero because in fact he said to me "I want to eat I'm hungry" it's because in fact he hadn't eaten and so we spent three hours eating. We brought him some ham because he's from Parma, or nearby, and so we had an evening like that and it's true that there's a lot of conviviality with the artists because when you've finished there's a kind of relaxation, isn't there? So you're hungry and want a drink.

Michel Leeb : When I was in charge of the Nice festival, we had set up a stage in an olive grove, a huge space where 10,000 people could fit and we had built the stage but obviously we had to be careful not to damage the olive trees and we had put the stage in a place where there was an olive tree that we couldn't touch. It was the only place where we could put the stage. And so the olive tree was in the middle of the stage, we went through the artists, lots of musicians, singers, Joe Cocker, Al Jarreaux, James Brown, all these people, all these people came and one of them came and said: well, I'm going to tell you, there's no way I'm going to sing with an olive tree on stage.

Gérard Bertrand : your friend from Toulouse

Michel Leeb : My friend from Toulouse, I tell him Claude, I can't do otherwise. There's no question of it, I tell him, but finally Claude I can't, he came, Joe Jocker he came, Phil Collins they all came honestly you can't do this to me. Well then I'll tell you I'm willing to sing on condition that you send me liters and liters of oil from this olive tree. And I kept my word, I sent him all the oil I could extracted from this olive tree, there wasn't a lot of it but I did it and he sang and he was a hit the dear Claude that we love.

Gérard Bertrand : We have a special relationship because in fact Claude Nougaro was also a bit Catalan and he had a house in Tautavel, in Roussillon, the man from Tautavel but as it is the wine that we promote in the world he often came there so this accent that you do, it is really him and we see the comedian who comes out.

Michel Leeb : And yes, I have done imitations, so many imitations that it's part of my thing.

Gérard Bertrand : So boss, what are we going to have now?

Michel Leeb : ah, the boss

Chef Laurent Chabert : So, I'm finishing my zucchini dish.

Michel Leeb : What's terrible is that we're not going to eat it.

Gérard Bertrand : So Michel, what is your favorite dish? What do you like to cook?

Michel Leeb : Well, I'm going to tell you, you're going to be very disappointed because my favorite dish is something really simple, it's Neapolitan spaghetti.

Gérard Bertrand : It's good, by the way.

Michel Leeb : Yes it's very good but obviously I'm not, so I have a friend, it's Pierre Arditi I can tell you that he's a great specialist, so you obviously know, he must have come to your place.

Gérard Bertrand: But he only drinks Bordeaux so he's nice but he should start drinking wines from Languedoc and Provence, shouldn't he?

Michel Leeb : But he has so many qualities, but in any case, he knows food, I can tell you that he is also gifted, because he cooks, I don't cook.

Gérard Bertrand : So Michel is going to come closer because, look at the beauty of the dish.

Michel Leeb : Bravo! So what is it exactly?

Chef Laurent Chabert : So the zucchini flower that was stuffed with a fine stuffing of meagre, it's a Mediterranean fish, then inside I added a little bit of smoked mullet, savory flowers, and chive flowers. There we steamed, rosemary steam, thyme, finally everything you find in the clap, a little lemon here, after a zucchini carpaccio on top and zucchini and olives just pan-fried.

Gérard Bertrand: So Michel, I'll tell you, these are local and garden products that are organic, that are grown biodynamically and that are in partnership with all the local producers, so he only works with organic products and it's true that it's better when you can do it.

Michel Leeb : my wine is organic

Gérard Bertrand: We're going to talk about it.

Michel Leeb: But that's not very nice of you because, we're here, we can't even taste it, I like the show but...

Gérard Bertrand : That's why we're going to invite you then Michel, we're going to toast with the white Château Hospitalet, there you go, the new vintage so here, in fact it's a wink to remind you of those good times in 2007 when you came. Because I remember that you had asked for a good glass of red Château Hospitalet so there you go, so, on the different estates you see we try to magnify these terroirs and it's really a magnificent terroir la clape.

Michel Leeb : It is truly magnificent.

Gérard Bertrand : It goes very well with the dish but I'm not going to be so rude as to taste it Michel because I can feel that you're salivating so if I taste it too... I'll taste it later but Michel, I've heard that you have a vintage as prestigious as the Romané Conqui, which is the most exclusive wine in the world.

Michel Leeb : So I'm going to tell you about it, I have one and a hundred hectares of a wine that I call the Clos du Tilleul, it's at my home, because there's a huge lime tree that protects this vine and it's a very rare wine, it's a wine that is not financially affordable and it's remarkable because it's a wine, it's Grenache and it's exceptional, it's a very rare wine, but there are still a hundred bottles for friends.

Gérard Bertrand : So you drink 4900 of them a year.

Michel Leeb : I drink 4900 of them a year, it's not me who drinks them, it's exploited by a big company.

Gérard Bertrand : friends of yours

Michel Leeb : this is called Oreto, it's a company that works very well here and a wine company and it's really very good and thanks to them I've been able to exploit this vineyard more, work it, exploit it entirely and they're giving me a hundred bottles as a gift but it's at my place.

Gérard Bertrand : Do you participate a little in the grape harvest?

Michel Leeb : No, because I'm always on the move and I'm never there. Sometimes I see them, they come because it's a sustainable culture, it's really very good, it's very serious, it's organic and roof, like you.

Gérard Bertrand : Clos du tes tilleuls is a pretty name.

Michel Leeb : the lime tree enclosure

Gérard Bertrand : about the lime tree, you could make a song about it one day, perhaps.

Michel Leeb: Yes, but I am not a songwriter.

Gérard Bertrand : in my opinion, you wouldn't have to force yourself too much to get there.

Michel Leeb : It's my son who composes, you know.

Gérard Bertrand : I know, he's not too frustrated that there was no ranking for the Eurovision.

Michel Leeb : Of course, but he said it's good because it's the only year where I don't risk losing.

Gérard Bertrand : yes, there were only winners.

Michel Leeb : There were only winners, so that's great, so maybe next year we'll see, in any case, it gave him a lot of publicity.

Gérard Bertrand : Yes, and between Tom and Fany and you, have you ever done public shows?

Michel Leeb : So with my daughter Fany, I sang a few times I invited her for example to Paris at the Casino de Paris where I sang and she came to sing with me Tom also he was on stage with me and besides next Sunday we are doing a special leb at Drucker and so it is recorded next Tuesday and it will be broadcast on June 28. I am doing a little publicity but anyway.

Gérard Bertrand : it's nice, it's good

Michel Leeb : and here we are doing a special leb Tom Fany and me

Gérard Bertrand : And are you going to play on stage there, all three of you, or not?

Michel Leeb : We're going to do something all three of us.

Gérard Bertrand : Ah, that's nice because there's also Julio Iglesias who has two sons who make music.

Michel Leeb : Oh yes, I know Julio very well, he is very nice, he asked me to come with him, he told me, come with me, come with me, come with me to Argentina when I was very young and I didn't want to go there because I don't know it well, I don't speak Spanish very well. But he was there, Julio, he told me, it made me happy and I like it a lot because I did the first part of Julio at the Olympia...

Gérard Bertrand : Oh yes and that's why I'm bouncing back on that because he's still a phenomenon too and what did that inspire you? Because he's really an extraordinary man of the stage.

Michel Leeb : But doing the first part, doing the first part for Julio Iglesias at the Olympia, it was extraordinary because I introduced myself, there was no presenter, I went backstage and I said: and now, ladies and gentlemen for you tonight exclusively in the first part of Julio Iglesias, the extraordinary, Michel Leeb. I arrived and there people thought that someone was introducing me, well obviously I was joking about that but it was nice, you have to manage at the beginning.

Gérard Bertrand : Because in fact, I really like his music and his songs and in fact one day I was looking, there you go...

Michel Leeb : I haven't changed, still the same holey socks

Gérard Bertrand : I don't know if you know the anecdote but one day he was singing in Cadiz in Spain and it was raining, and at 10 o'clock in the evening they said it's raining, we can't play but stay here Julio is coming and people were shouting Julio, Julio and they shouted like that until 5 o'clock in the morning, it poured with rain and the concert took place between 6 o'clock in the morning and 9 o'clock in the morning and he said it's the most beautiful emotion I've had in my life because I waited until nightfall waiting to be able to play and there were 5000 people who got rained on their heads.

Michel Leeb : and did he sing or not?

Gérard Bertrand : he sang yes.

Michel Leeb : at 5 a.m.?

Gérard Bertrand : yes, it's extraordinary, I saw this report, it moved me, it was extraordinary and people were just yelling and screaming.

Michel Leeb : I have other anecdotes. I arrived in Grenoble, I was singing and doing my show, it was raining so much on the Place du Général de Gaulle in Grenoble, imagine that people got into cars, they didn't get out of their cars because it was raining so much in front of the stage, there were, I don't know, 200/300 cars in front of the stage.

Gerard Bertrand : sunrise

Michel Leeb : But it was true and well then imagine me I had to tell people do you hear and hop he was flashing his lights, can you hear me? I said then if you applaud, you honk your horn okay and if you laugh you use your windshield wipers. I swear it's true, and in the end they wanted to leave there was no more battery in the cars.

Gérard Bertrand : yes it's not bad yes you have lots of anecdotes like that it's extraordinary.

Michel Leeb : Oh la la, well that's what this job is, if you knew, I could tell you about it until tomorrow morning but hey we have other things to do.

Gérard Bertrand : And you also did some improvised concerts like that which lasted forever?

Michel Leeb : well yes because, if you want jazz, what is jazz it is the exchange and if the exchange is done well, it can last hours and hours and hours. You were telling me earlier about Maceo Parker's 26-minute solo, that means it was good so it can last, I have never gone beyond 6/7 hours of show, never...

Gérard Bertrand : That’s already good, at least…

Michel Leeb : no no no no but hey…

Gérard Bertrand : Do you have the same preparation when you go on stage for the theater? Is it more difficult or easier than going on stage when you are going to make music?

Michel Leeb : making music, I have more difficulty getting on stage when I play in the theater rather than music because theater if you like, there is a real rigor which does not mean that there is no rigor in music but it is much more relaxed there are possible improvisations there are possible winks we can do 1000 things it depends, theater is rails on which we cannot move and if you fail yourself, you fail the others, well in music too by the way but the exchange is not the same, it is not the same thing

Gérard Bertrand : and aren't Arditi and the others a little scared that you're going to go live just to lose them?

Michel Leeb : Yes and it's a very good question, it's a very good question because I have a tendency to try to mess with my friends but it always goes very well because they have a sense of humor. Pierre has a great sense of humor and he's very fond of this kind of thing. He's a pleasure-seeker and he likes to have fun and on stage, the first thing he said to me two days ago, even yesterday, he told me very quickly that we're starting again that we're having fun.

Gérard Bertrand : It’s great, it’s great because indeed…

Michel Leeb : Because if you don't have fun, the audience won't have fun either.

Gérard Bertrand : Because I remember when you came for the, with the big bands brass, you were funny, you couldn't help but challenge the audience, our friend the sub-prefect who was there, you caused him some trouble so you are, you are in permanent interaction but in a rigorous framework like the theater, because the audience sees when you leave the room, they see when you improvise.

Michel Leeb : And he loves it.

Gérard Bertrand : He loves it because it actually makes the moment unique.

Michel Leeb : There you go, when you have fits of laughter and then you mess up, you know there are times when you can't move forward, there are times when you can't move forward because you laugh so much that you can't move forward and the audience is in heaven, they're like crazy and I remember something, imagine we were at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris, I was performing a very funny play called 3 partout, a very funny play with lots of funny stuff it was a hit and imagine that at one point, at one point, I shake the hand of a boy you know well, who is on television every day called Gérard Hernandez, he's in a show on M6 called I don't know what I think it's about couples arguing who I don't know how, well, I shake his hand and when I shake his hand I was very elegant very well dressed I say hello, my name is Jean François Thibault, and he says to me "pleased to meet you" and when I shake his hand, I fart and I fart well. On that, him, what do you want him to do? He says to me "pleased to meet you" and he starts laughing out loud but uncontrollably and he says to me, he says this sentence to me because opposite, on the theater and opposite on the other side of the boulevard, there was Jean Lefèvre who was performing a play and he says to me: oh my gosh, and there is a lady in the front row who says: well bravo, Jean Michel Lefèvre he must have heard it, we lowered the curtain, we lowered the curtain because we could no longer continue to play. So these are moments you will tell me it is not very subtle but at the same time when it happens, that you cannot hold back from laughing and well...

Gérard Bertrand : You know, I have a background as a rugby player, we didn't always just play with finesse either.

Michel Leeb : No, but there you go.

Gérard Bertrand : and these are the best moments because we remember them and they become legends afterwards we tell them to each other. So Michel look, the chef continued, look what he cooked for you.

Michel Leeb : ah it's beautiful, it's beautiful, it's beautiful so what is it?

Chef Laurent Chabert : So there, we cooked the pork cheek from Catalonia, Catalan, near Perpignan, there we braised it with thyme from La Clape for about 6 hours and with red wine, then a piperade that I made with yellow pepper, red pepper and tomatoes, a little bit of onion and sebête and here is the juice at the end that we reduced a little with a honey caramel.

Gérard Bertrand : so all these dishes will be on the menu Michel, and I know that you are coming in September with Pierre Arditi to Narbonne.

Michel Leeb : in October

Gérard Bertrand : So in October when you, if you stay with us, which we hope, you will be our guests and therefore the chef, all his dishes will be on his menu this fall, so you will be able to truly taste them.

Michel Leeb : and you ride a bike Mr Chabert?

Chef Laurent Chabert : a little bit yes

Michel Leeb : Oh yes, that's good because you have a nice cap and I thought it was a cyclist's cap.

Gérard Bertrand : And yes, you know, first of all he is from the ally. So his parents are farmers, they are breeders, so that's why he knows meat.

Michel Leeb : Ah well that's good, keep it up.

Gérard Bertrand : So Michel, we're going to have a little drink. So it's the last drink of the evening.

Michel Leeb : go

Gérard Bertrand : So it's the Château la Soujeole which is in Malperre. So it's a great wine from the city of Carcassonne, you know, this estate, it's special because we have Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec like in Bordeaux and if you travel on Air-France; we're going to advertise them right now because they really need it. You can drink it in business like the Sigalus or the Château Hospitalet. So a little nod to our friends at Air-France hoping that the lines will open very soon so we can travel a little. Cheers Michel.

Michel Leeb : Thank you for welcoming me into your home.

Gérard Bertrand : So can we just finish with three little musical notes Michel before we leave? First I would like to say a big thank you Michel, to tell you that it is a great moment and that I hope to welcome you, both the man but also the musician and the man of the theater since you are coming to Narbonne. I also wish you a good recovery with Pierre Arditi. You have, we can say perhaps a next play with Fany Cotennsson unmentionable which will start soon no?

Michel Leeb : which starts on November 14 in Paris

Gérard Bertrand : So, you have a very full news list and I suppose that in 2021 you

go back to the festivals a bit.

Michel Leeb : Absolutely, so I'll play you a little piece.

Gérard Bertrand : Thank you Michel, so we'll finish with some music and see you very soon.

Michel Leeb : see you soon, goodbye Mr. Chabert, thank you Gérard.

Gérard Bertrand : see you next Friday

Michel Leeb : So I'm writing you 3 little notes to say goodbye.

Gérard Bertrand: see you soon: thank you, see you soon

Michel Leeb : hello