A friendly confrontation

The encounter was not frictionless, and it would be dishonest to write it otherwise. Jean-Pierre Mels came from an eighties culture, musically wide open; Carl De Moncharline arrived with house, techno, energy and the confidence of a musical break that refused to share space with other currents. There were tensions, the kind that play out between a son and a father figure, when you want to impose your vision on a house that already had one.

Jean-Pierre Mels never slammed the door. He listened, he took it, he stayed generous, and he let the new generation through. Looking back, Carl De Moncharline knows what that demanded in patience and perspective. We never thank enough those who let us make our mistakes without letting go of our hand.

One common ground was never in question: live music and jazz. In 2000, asked by Le Matin how he saw nightlife, Jean-Pierre Mels pointed to the StudioLive at Who's Who's Land – « When I get to the Studio-live and see the musicians, I love it. I feel the same excitement as twenty years ago. » In the same interview he spoke of his love of painting and jazz, of the music programming he shaped at the Cyber Théâtre, and of his wish to open a jazz club. That is precisely where the two men always met.

More than thirty years later, the two men are still in touch. The friendship and respect have remained intact. That may be the finest proof that those confrontations never touched the affection.