About
A Story at the Crossroads
“Put the lime in the coconut”…
We all know the lyrics of the song performed by Jimmy Buffett, featured in a Quentin Tarantino movie and still on air on all good stations. This song could have been written in Lefranc’s restaurant… after a couple of rum cocktails. And the BAZ Bar story started precisely when Jean-Marc randomly met Jimmy Buffett at a crazy pier party that could only have happened on the Caribbean islands.
It’s the late ’90s. Jean-Marc has just opened BAZ Bar when Buffett decides to extend his show, offering a two-hour extra gig… in the restaurant! No one will forget the performance that still belongs to Saint-Barth’s legendary moments. The restaurant logically became a showcase. All the best musicians, from the house of blues to the rarest folk, came to the island one after the other to play in front of an audience that grew larger every year.
The restaurant became a refuge, a residence for all of these artists. The people of Saint-Barth and visitors alike enjoyed discovering new music styles and were happy to extend their horizons.
“It’s as if a part of America was invited on the island.”
BAZ Presents
The Show Must Go On
Created in 2012, BAZ Presents carries on this long musical story: an exceptional music selection combined with full-service production. The platform presents a catalog of musicians selected by Jean-Marc and his friend, guitar player John Caban.
Together with its musicians, BAZ Presents celebrates music — and above all, rare, authentic, precious and ultimately exhilarating live experiences — with a full-service offer from music programming to event production.
The founder
Jean-Marc Lefranc
After classic hotel management studies and some of the most sought-after positions in the high-end French brasseries of Paris, Jean-Marc Lefranc did not choose the easy road. He chose freedom.
Born in Marseille in 1968, a lover of the sea, he had his first, decisive adventure while working aboard the Windspirit cruise restaurant. The twenty-year-old discovered the Caribbean: “I remember the amazing beauty of Saint Barth. I stared from my window as we were approaching the coast, early morning. It was love at first sight.” He settled there.
Gustavia welcomed him warmly. Marius Stakelborough, owner of the legendary Select, offered him the management of the bar right away — and with Jean-Marc’s brasserie savoir-faire and French touch, the Select was more than ever the place where everybody rushed to party. He then honed his island skills, running a fishing business for almost four years.
All the ingredients were there: a passion for hosting, a love of seafood, French culinary savoir-faire and an uncanny sense for creating the most exciting party atmosphere. Jean-Marc and his wife, Fanny, opened Bête à z’ailes — the local nickname for foreigners, aka BAZ — in early ’99. A Jimmy Buffett gig lit the first spark and launched a new concept: from then on, the restaurant would also be a live music showcase.
BAZ became an institution: a legendary meeting point where the US music scene was invited to play for a couple of weeks in a peaceful corner of the Caribbean Sea. BAZ Presents is the quintessence of those years of programming — engaged to promote new creations and to pass on authentic genres such as folk and blues, away from the industry and the globalization of music.
BAZ Bar has since been sold and closed its doors, after more than two decades of music. Its story — and the musicians it brought together — lives on through BAZ Presents.