Original Broadway Cast- Jacques Brel is Alive and Living In Paris

Hands down, this is my favorite thing this month.  Probably my favorite thing all year.  I have been trying hard to find some Jacques Brel records proper, but to no avail.  And every trip I take ends up in about $50 of records.  Anyway, this double album was $3.00. It was owned by one Jerry Powell who proved that French chansons could be popular in Pasadena.

Jacques Brel, the Belgium born French singer, was perhaps one of the greatest performers of the last century.  A terrific song writer and singer, his songs had a theatrical approach to them.  His songs were dark and gritty.  His stage style brought out every inch (or cm) of emotion in each tune.

Jacques Brel is Alive and Living In Paris was an off-Broadway revue of Brel’s music.  It was born when writer Eric Blau’s wife, Elly Stone, turned him on the Brel.  Upon hearing his music, Blau became obsessed.  He started translating Brel’s work and together with Mort Shuman, put together the musical which debuted at The Village Gate Theater  in 1968.

Featuring some of Brel’s best work, performed by Stone, Shuman Shawn Elliott, and Alice Whitefield, the show ran for four years.  International versions were also quite successful and revivals still go on today.  A movie version featuring Stone and Shuman along with an appearance by Brel came out in 1975 to mostly negative reviews.

The translation of Brel is no easy task.  It is a balancing act trying to keep rhyme and rhythm scheme together with the content and ideas of Brel.  Rod McKuen was one of the leading transcribers of Brel’s work.  Blau and Shuman’s work is considered among the best of the translations, keeping all these elements in play.  Also, it should be noted that this was  one of David Bowie’s favorite albums.

The album is quite good.  The writers and performers did a great job keeping Brel’s spirit within the works.  I would say, though, I enjoy listening to the English versions to get the theme/story of the songs and then watching Brel sing them in French on Youtube.  They kind of go together.  That is my only real criticism of this album.  Obviously, you don’t get the visual you get from Brel.

For samples, I wanted to go in many directions but ultimately decided on the following.  First, we have “The Port of Amsterdam”, which is one of my favorite songs of his before I listened to this album (although I still feel Liesbeth List’s version is better).  Next, we have “Jacky” in which the singer laments about returning to his childhood.  Finally, we have “Matilda” which became my new favorite off this album.  I like t because you never truly know how the singer feels about the return of his former love.  I put the live versions of all on this post so you can see Brel’s emotions on these pieces of works.

Ah, this post suffered from falling on a Saturday and is probably much shorter than I originally planned.  Oh well.  Satisfactory.

 

 

Charles Aznavour- Le Grand Charles!

Winding the month down with yet another French singer.  I got this album for $4 at Half Price Books in Sugar Land, while killing time.  Unfortunately for the music loving community of Houston, HPB-Sugar Land has decimated their foreign records section.

Charles Aznavour, born 1924 in Saint Germain-des-Pres, Paris, to Armenian parents, is one of the most respected pop/chanson singers in France.  Known as the French Frank Sinatra, he was written over 800 songs and sold more than 200 million records. He was discovered by none other than Edith Piaf, who used him as an opening act. Known for his wide ranged voice, he has performed all over the world and in front various dignitaries.  He also has stared in over 80 movies.  Among his many honors Aznavour was given a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016.

This album, released in 1967, boasts of newly recorded songs from Paris, but my bet is this is a compilation album of sorts.  Pretty good stuff.  All the songs are either written or co-written by Aznavour.  12 songs, all in the pop/ chanson style.

For a sample, I went with “J’en Depuis Que Je T’aime” which Google Translate puts as ” I Have Since I Love You”.  I am sure it is something else, but for the purpose of getting this post done, we will leave it at this.

Satisfactory

VA- La Chanson Francaise Grand Moments Vol 3

Three years of doing this blog have made me jump on anything French I can find.  However, it is hard to find a lot of good French music for less than $8.  Well, here is this.  I got it for one dollar.

The Chanson.  The French ballad.  Is there any finer music?  Well, some but the Chanson is still a good music form.  From the early French epic poems to the Nouvelle Chansons of the last century, the lyric driven songs have been an integral part of the country’s culture.

Here is this record, the third volume in a collection of how many, I do not know.  It came out in 1973.  It features such luminaries as Gerard Lenorman, Sacha Distel, Marie Laforet, Gilles Dreu, and the Greek superstar Nana Mouskouri.  Decent stuff.  I liked the French versions of “Go Tell It On The Mountain” and “Where Do I Go ” from the musical Hair.

However, the song I felt was the best was by one Hugues Aufrey.  “Moi Et Mon Camion” or “Me and My Truck”.  Really rocking stuff compared to other tracks on this disc. Aufrey, born in 1929 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, in an accomplished French musician, who among other things was the first to translate and perform Bob Dylan’s songs in French.

Decent enough record.  I may not have felt this way had I paid much more for it though.  Satisfactory.

Liesbeth List- Liesbeth’s Beste

Hey, more of the records I bought in Amsterdam last trip with this one, or two I should say.  A “Dubbelalbum”, I bought this for 5 Euro.  Seemed like a decent purchase.

I have been going to Amsterdam for the good part of 12 years now and there are not too many places close to town that I have not been or at least mistakenly wandered into.  So it was pretty cool that I went to two new places.  First, I took a walk around Westerpark, a huge park on the North West side of town.  I had been on the outskirts of it many times, by Willemsbrug road but stopped as it looked like a place a slightly drunk tourist should not wander into.  Well, this time I finally broke that invisible boundary and ventured forth.  It is a huge park and probably quite nice in the summer.  However, the day I went, it was covered with snow.  That was still pretty cool.  It reminded me of childhood winters spent wandering in Saskatoon.  Not a whole lot of signs in English so I am guessing this is a heavily local area.  There also were what looked like a couple of cool businesses/ restaurants/ cafes in the park which again would probably be open in better weather. I also ventured for the first time to North Amsterdam, which requires a ferry from behind Central Station.  I had heard a lot of great things about this area.  I also talked to a few folks who worked in town and lived in that area and they spoke highly of it.  It was a nice enough day when I went but alas, I went to early as most things up there were closed.  Oh well, perhaps next time.

Liesbeth List is a Dutch singer/actress/ TV personality born in 1941 in the Dutch East Indies.  In 1942, when the Japanese occupied the area, her father was sent to the coal mines as she and her mother were sent to a camp.  The life there was very hard and shortly after their release and reunion with her father, her mother committed suicide.  List and her father returned to Holland and her father remarried.  However, List and her step mother clashed repeatedly.  In 1948, during a trip to Vlieland, her step mother found a hotel owner who was looking to adopt a daughter. She was adopted by the couple and took their surname, List.

Intrigued by music, art and fashion, she moved to the big city, Amsterdam and bada bing bada boom, found her self on tv singing chansons. She started by collaborating with other singers and would eventually develop into a solo act.  She continued what looks like a pretty good run of success up into the late 1970’s with sporadic activity in the decades that followed.  She is still alive today and from what I can tell, still somewhat active although I could not translate her web page for some reason.

This album, a greatest hits compilation from 1973 is a collection of ballads and chansons marked by List’s beautiful vocal.  Pretty good stuff, most of it is solo performances but there are some duets such as “Pastorale” with Rames Shaffy, one of her early collaborators.  Most of the songs are in Dutch I believe but there are a few in English and French.  Really good double record.

For a sample, I wanted to go with a couple of songs that I really liked.  Well, I liked a lot of songs, but these are the ones that I went with.  First, there is “Amsterdam” which sounds like a beautiful song about the city, but in actuality, it is about drunken sailors on leave. It is a tune by Jacques Brel and the lyrics follow Brel’s version somewhat but are a little more grittier.  Next , I went with “Victoria”.  Third, here is “Vivre Pour Vivre”, which I believe is in French and translates to “Live For Living”.  I have heard other French artists do this song and I believe the opening was sampled by Cibo Matto.  Finally, if you want something in English, here is “Now You Want To Be Loved”.

Great little album.  Satisfactory.