MARVIN PARKS, FOUNDER
Welcome to the website of JazzduMétro Media!
JazzduMétro is a brand and media project that I created in 2017 as an extension of my engagement with the daily riders when I am singing in Paris’ subway. JazzduMétro is NOT an agency or project of RATP Group.
I am a jazz musician and standup comedian who performs locally in Paris. Concurrent to my activities as a comedian and singer, I am one of 300+ artists who participates in Musiciens du Métro, one of several cultural endeavors by the city’s transit RATP. Participation in RATP Musiciens du Métro is on a volunteer basis and on the basis of having passed an audition.
Note: My appearances in the Paris subway are not for a lack of opportunities to perform otherwise.
In 2015, I had created the one-man show Marvin Parks: American Jazz Singer and performed versions of it from January 8, 2015-August 18, 2017; May 11, 2018 and continued to use the métro as a means to engage people and personally invite them to my gigs, jam sessions, to listen to my music, but more importantly, to build an audience for specifically for this show. The show Marvin Parks: American Jazz Singer(or its successors The Marvin Parks Show and The Kim and Marvin Show)was not performed in the Paris subway. It was performed in various jazz clubs like Bab-i-lo and Café Universel and for nearly two years(September 1, 2015 to August 18, 2017) at Cave du 38Riv.
Not only did this engagement in the métro result in attendance in my audiences, but it yielded me other performance opportunities(weddings, special events, etc.). I had gained some attention from the press, as well as social media follows, CD sales, merch sales, and some interpersonal relationships beyond Paris and its subway system. Those who are not normally part of the jazz listening audience had been coming to my performances to listen and learn.
When I began performing on Paris’ local English-speaking standup comedy scene, in late 2017, the people who pass me regularly in the métro, who follow me and this brand began to support me by showing up in the audience and continue to do so.
JazzduMétro began with me posting about my experiences in the Paris métro in my Facebook statuses. With the slogan Métro=People, and managed, for now by my Instagram account, I decided to post about the people I meet in the métro, some local organizations and businesses, and also about my artistic interests, which include jazz music and comedy. I also aim to encourage people to find jazz and comedy programming–not exclusive to my own performances–in the city of Paris. I feature notices about pickpockets in the métro and other concerns of the métro, even making short interviews with commuters during the transit strike in early 2020 under the hashtag #strikedumetro. I often post one minute videos featuring commuters where they display their own talent.
JazzduMétro is not in its totality a “Marvin Parks jazz singing” project. The trajectory is to launch a full-on media company(i.e. Konbini, Topito) to produce and market video content that informs, inspires, and entertains, to present live jazz and comedy programming that is thoughtful and creative in its presentation and its marketing, and to launch a street brand(OBEY, Thrasher, The Hundreds, Anti-Social Social Club) that would be the first brand of its kind created by both a jazz musician and a street musician.
When you pass me in the métro at stations Bastille, Gambetta, Madeleine, Place d’Italie or La Motte-Piquet Grenelle, it is for the sake of this brand’s promotion: to ask you to watch and share my content; to follow the brand on social media; to learn how you can get a JazzduMétro branded item.
Instagram @jazzdumetro.media
Facebook: @JazzduMetro
Hashtag: #jazzdumetro
JazzduMétro Media 