Jazz in Paris, Vol 3 -"Saint-Germain-Des-Prés (1946-1956) 3 x CD, Compilation, 2004 (Gitanes Jazz Productions )

I love everything French ever since I was a tot and my dad took me to see a Bardot movie in Larkspur  California.  Over decades my love of Parisian aesthetic came to fruition with the music of Serge Gainsbourg, Boris Vian, Les Rita Mitsuko, and many others.  I also love French Jazz, which sometime sounds like American Jazz, but with a French twist to the sound.  In 2004, they released a "Jazz in Paris" series that is excellent.  Eventually, they then made CD boxsets with an additional book in the package.   One can't go wrong with the quality of the book as well as the music of course.  Volume 3 is "Saint-Germain-Des-Prés (1946-1956), and it's a compilation that goes beyond excellence.

Saint-Germain was the focal point of those years for writing and music-making.  Think of it as Liverpool in the early 1960s or Height Asbury in the Psychedelic Era, or NYC from the 1930s to 1970s.  It seems that brilliance was from the air and landed on the grand boulevard of Saint-Germain.

Boris Vian and some others introduce American Jazz into Paris, by releasing recordings as well as arranging tours for various Jazz artists such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and others.  This collection mostly focuses on French jazz musicians like Django Reinhardt, René Urtreger Trio, and including my hero Boris Vian. 

There are also Americans such as Sidney Bechet And His Feetwarmers,  Don Byas, and so forth. Still, the magnificence of the playing and the communication between the two cultures are breathtaking. Beautiful moments of time and this boxset takes you to ground zero of French greatness.  

Maurice Lemaître - "Poémes et Musiques Lettristes et Hyperphonie" Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, 2014 (Alga Marghen)

I first discovered Maurice Lemaître's work in a Paris bookstore; I think somewhere in the Marais district.  It was a booklet that came with a CD of him reciting his 'letterist' poetry.   Once I got home, I was hooked on him and the entire Letterist movement, which was the first step that eventually leads to Situationist International.  Not really speaking a word of French, I was more in tune with Lemaître's voice and pronouncement of the words.  For me, it's music or sound that brings up the era of the Boris Vian's Saint Germain des Prés then anything else.  

Letterism or sometimes spelled out as Lettrism is an off-shoot of DADA, that focused on literature, painting, and films.  Isidore Isou is the most famous member of the group, but Lenaître was very much the public face of Letterism.  He even appeared in an Orson Welles documentary on Paris nightlife.   Still, this vinyl edition of his recitations is a marvel.  One can see traces of hip-hop in "Quatre Lettries Sur Des Thèmes Rock" which is him reciting his poetry over a French rock n' roll record.  Very primitive recording, yet a total delight.  I know very little of his paintings, and these recordings are my main entrance to the world of The Letterists, but still, it's a magnificent and fun approach to a Parisian culture at its height.   I find work produced in the Paris 1950s of great interest. To me, it's the bridge between post-war European years to the Hippie movement.  It's a fascinating journey to go on, and this album is very much a suitable soundtrack for that trip.  

Sacha Distel - "La La Song" 7" 45rpm EP, French, 1964 (RCA)

The Last of the International Playboys, if that were a social club, then surely French singer/guitarist Sacha Distel would have been a member.   I discovered him through my obsession with the world that surrounded Boris Vian, the author I published with my press TamTam Books.  Distel was a guy who was in the right place, Paris, and to be specific, at the Saint-Germain des Prés nightclubs and had an obsession with be-bop jazz.   Studied under and pal with the great Henri Salvador, Distel played guitar with artists like The Modern Jazz Quartet, Dizzy Gillespie, as well as with top French jazz musicians.  In the late 1950s, he became internationally famous for being Brigitte Bardot's lover, which in turn introduced himself into a favourite vocalist.

When I think of Sacha Distel, it is in two separate compartments.  One as a massive French pop singer star, and the other as a great jazz guitarist.  Rarely did the two forms of music met on his recordings.  For the casual fan, he is probably thought of as an entertainer who sings.   It's much harder to locate his work on vinyl/CD of his Jazz-leaning guitar work.  I went to Amoeba yesterday and found this French issued 7" EP, of Sacha singing  "La La Song," which is not fantastic, but nevertheless a good French pop song.  The other three songs on the EP are based on Amerian songs with French lyrics written by Maurice Tézé, who worked a lot as a lyricist with Distel.   The best song on this EP is J'aimerais Être Là (I Wanna Be Around) which is based on a Johnny Mercer tune.   The real stars of these recordings are the arrangers.  Three songs are arranged by the Boris Vian/Serge Gainsbourg associate Alain Gorgaguer (as well as doing the futuristic soundtrack to the animated "La Planète Sauvage) and Michel Colombier, another artist who worked with Gainsbourg.  For those in the know, when you see those names attached to a recording, it is usually a good sign that they're good. 

Boris Vian - "Boris Vian á Saint-Germain-Des-Prés" - "Pauline Julien Chante Boris Vian Box Set"

Boris Vian - Boris Vian Á Saint-Germain-Des-Prés - Pauline Julien Chante Boris Vian

3 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Box Set, France, 1978

CBS

In theory this 3 LP set captures the magic of Boris Vian’s early fascinating with playing traditional jazz in smoky bars that are located in the Saint-Germain des Prés area of Paris.  So there is a great deal of romance with respect to listening to this album and reading the jacket as well.  You can smell the existential angst off the vinyl!

For those who want to investigate and enjoy the early years of Vian making music, this box set is pretty much all you need.   The first two disks focus on small jazz combos that he was in.   The first disk is Vian in the Claude Luter band, and the other is with Claude Abadle and his jazz orchestra.  Both recordings are from 1944, so it was slightly before Vian started writing his novels - both the Vernon Sullivan and the books under his name.   What is interesting is that during this time there were two parts of the Jazz world in Paris at the time.  One totally into playing New Orleans jazz and other grouping was into Be-Bop.   Vian was unique in that he played New Orleans jazz but was a champion critic for the Bop scene that was making noise in Paris, as elsewhere.  As usual,  Vian was doing several things at once and just taking the whole Jazz music world in one gulp.   His jazz criticisms are excellent and actually for its time it sort of reminds me of Lester Bangs or punk-era critics writing about music. 

The third LP in this box set is a set of songs written by Boris Vian, all of them classic works, done by Quebec citizen Pauline Julien, a feminist and pro-Quebec personality.  The beauty of having a rebel doing the songs from the ultimate rebel is simply fantastic.  These recordings were made in the mid 60’s as Vian’s writings became better known through out the French speaking world.