Jazz Club Maison Margiela 2013

It probably depends on one's personal birth date what each person imagines the atmosphere in a jazz club to be like. For me, it's a small establishment, perhaps even just a basement room, with a small stage where the musicians play. In front of it, a few tables with seating, along the walls (leather) sofas, mostly a standing and wandering audience. The murmur of voices and music merge into an acoustic sea. Drinks are being consumed, toasts are made, smoking, laughing, flirting. It's hot, bartenders and waitstaff are bustling around, the air is thick. It smells of tobacco smoke, a little sweaty, of perfume and alcohol.

How does one turn that into a fragrance?

Well, quite simply: A decent portion of smoke like "By The Fireplace" from my perspective, plus a boozy alcohol scent wafting over from the bar, and wood and leather from the furnishings. Or what? No, too simple, that's not sophisticated...

Sophistication at Maison Margiela seems to work like this: Replica Jazz Club fragrance is dominated by a spicy herbal scent accord that comes across as almost biting in a way. It's sharp, but not burning like pepper or chili, rather like a highly concentrated plant extract. One also perceives something bitter, scratchy. This accord is constantly in the air, always in the foreground. Underneath, there is a kind of alcohol sweetness, a hint of leather, and a trace of smoke as a supporting base.

What is supposed to be jazz club about this, I had to ponder. In the club, a herbal note, I never thought of that during my club days, except maybe when drinking Jägermeister. This spice suddenly reminded me of TF's Black Orchid. Total confusion: Snappy tropical rainforest as a motif, what's going on, strange club, I wouldn't go in there! Suddenly, the penny dropped: This snappy spice represents that burning, scratchy, hoarse feeling one has after hours in the club, after talking to a thousand people all night while still smoking or standing in the smoke. Then there's the aftertaste of many alcoholic drinks one had, which settles in so sweetly. And then for the finale: it's early morning, you step out completely overheated and stand in the fresh morning air: and it smells sweet! Does that come to mind for you after such a night? Sweet! That's how one always stood in the farewell circle: scratchy throat, sweet morning air, clothes and skin smelling of the club. And that is exactly what this fragrance represents in my opinion: It describes oneself when one has been in the (jazz) club. Not the club, oneself!