On my vacation recently in Paris I went down to the Metro. A train must have just pulled out because there was no one on the platform except for a man. He was lanky and tall and seemed to be contemplating the wall. Suddenly took out a black marker and begin to draw on an advertisement. It took him perhaps thirty second.
In bold, black strokes he was shaping something.
It took a moment, but soon I could see that it was a trumpet. When he turned and saw me standing there, he was clearly upset. He thought his action had gone unseen. He stared at me with a gaunt face, but there was something playful in his eyes.
I made a motion with my hands. "It's a trumpet?" I asked.
Relieved that he wasn't going to be arrested, he nodded yes.
"Where's it playing?" I asked in French.
"Everywhere," he replied. Then with a shrug of his shoulders and a wry smile he disappeared on to the train that had just appeared. He took it one station; then I watched him slip away.
But he was right. I began to see his trumpets everywhere. And I began documenting them. Here are all the ones that I found. I liked the statement he's making on all the subway ads, but mostly I like his trumpet. It was always the same.
And clearly at least in Paris as another graffiti below says, jazz is not dead!
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