Olivier Campana, Emmanuel Cottalorda of Dog and Bone; courtesy of Claire de Filippis

The music season is winding down on the Cote d’Azur just as the days shorten and sun-glazed tourists check traffic conditions for the long drive home.  There’s plenty of music all year of course but you have to actually go inside to hear it. No more dancing or dreaming under the stars. Bummer.

When I talk about summer music on the Riviera, I don’t just mean the famous festivals, the Nice Jazz Festival and the Jazz a Juan at Juan-les-Pins. There’s also the Nuits du Sud at Vence for “world” music and the first-rate classical concert series at the Cloister of the Franciscan monastery in Cimiez. A little further afield, there are the  classical concerts at the Festival de Musique in Menton and, up a few price tiers, pop-rock concerts at the Monte Carlo Sporting Summer Festival. These are all paying concerts but here’s where you’ll hear your major stars: Wynton Marsalis at the Nice Jazz Festival; Santana at the Jazz a Juan; the Spanish Harlem Jazz Orchestra at the Nuits du Sud; Brigitte Engerer at the Cloister concerts; Leo Nucci in Menton, Tom Jones in Monte Carlo.

But you don’t need to come down to the coast to listen to music! Far from it. Each year regional and local authorities sponsor free concerts in dozens of villages in the hinterlands. Whether jazzy,  lightly classical, French or vaguely exotic, the programming plays it safe. Still, it’s a good way to catch up with rising talents like the soprano Amy Blake singing in a fetching hilltop village like Clans. You can get the schedule at this site.

Other free concerts in the summer include the Fête de la Musique where musicians (mostly dreadful) bang away on every square or streetcorner, the weekly Prom’ Parties in Nice (so-so music) and the “off” concerts (fun) surrounding the jazz festivals of Nice and Juan-les-Pins.

Then there are more obscure concerts that are not so well advertised. The town of Sospel hosted a Baroquiales series which featured a group (Doulce Memoire) that combined Renaissance dance music with Spanish flamenco dancers. OK, it was odd, but definitely listenable and watchable.

My most fun free concert was this past Saturday at Breil-sur-Roya. For a rollicking hour and a half, Dog and Bone shook the trout loose from the lake with covers of greatest hits from the Stones to the Beatles to Motown. I almost didn’t go because I often find that French bands don’t quite “get” rock; the phrasing isn’t right, the rhythms aren’t precise, the words are learned phonetically. This band got it all right, helped no doubt by lead singer Olivier Campana‘s years with London bands. They played with such verve and musicality, I found myself wondering, “who are these guys”? and “why don’t they play longer”? (ever notice how you can’t get amateurs off the stage but the pros always leave you hungry?).

It turns out that they weren’t playing for free (the local Velo Club sponsored them) and they have quite a list of songwriting, recording and performance credits among them. Toulon-born Campana (performing as Olivier Chamber for some reason)  has recorded with a number of bands over the years and now showcases his Springsteen-ish voice on his solo album, My Starlight (available on iTunes). Breil-born lead guitarist Emmanuel Cottalorda  has written hit tunes for the Quebec singer, Marilou, and has worked with singer/songwriter Pascal Obispo. Joined by drummer Laurent Pomares and bassist Ronald Houweling, this newly-formed group shows real promise. Wonder what original material they may come up with. Anyway, I’m glad that my musical summer ended on such a high note.