$0.00
This item is not currently available.
This item is currently out of print.
Just copy this code and paste it where you want the link on your website:
CHARLES TRENET Vol.3 'Le Coeur de Paris' Original 1948-1954 Recordings Now immortalised by "La mer" (a nostalgic evocation of coastal scenes near his native...
CHARLES TRENET Vol.3
'Le Coeur de Paris' Original 1948-1954 Recordings
Now immortalised by "La mer" (a nostalgic
evocation of coastal scenes near his native
Narbonne) Charles Trenet was a creative
chansonnier with 'a painter's eye for detail.' A
performing legend on a par with Piaf, Chevalier
and Sablon,Trenet influenced several
generations, while the self-appointed 'clown' of
French cabaret was also a showman whose
larger-than-life antics masked a broader
spectrum of artistic activity and an unflagging
professional dynamism. Born in Narbonne, in
Aude, South-Western France, on 18 May 1913 he
always had, first and foremost, a talent for words
but from an early age was inclined to vocalising
and musical improvisation. Reputedly, at kindergarten,
when quizzed by his nanny over his
singing, he replied 'Je chante ce que j'invente'.
In 1922 Charles' parents divorced and with
his brother Antoine he moved to Perpignan,
where their father was a practising lawyer. At
fifteen, encouraged by the Catalan poet Bausil,
he published his first verses and through this
genial but eccentric man-of-letters, who also
edited and published the noted sporting
chronicle Le Coq Catalan,Trenet met such
avant-garde figures as Giono, Giraudoux,
Mauriac, Maurois, Saint-Exupery and the painter
Fons Godail, a noted cabaret set-designer under
whose influence the young Charles was to
exhibit, in 1927, various examples of his own
work. In 1928 he joined his mother and
stepfather (former silent-screen set-designer
Benno Vigny) in Berlin and there aspired, if only
briefly, to become a film-director! His father
wanted him to be an architect, but the artistic
Charles devoted himself instead to writing his
first novel: Dodo Manières.
In 1930 Trenet moved to Paris and worked
as a graphic artist at Pathe's Joinville film
studios. Quickly settling down to life in the
capital, he frequented the nightspots of
Montmartre and Montparnasse (notably Le
Boeuf sur le Toit) and there, billed 'Le fou
chantant' (= singing clown, or fool, à la Jolson)
soon found cabaret stardom, while his
associates in intellectual circles included fellowwriters
Antonin Artaud, Jean Cocteau and his
literary mentor and hero Max Jacob (1876-
1944). During 1933 Trenet's songwriting and
performing duo with his partner, the Swiss-born
lyricist-composer Johnny Hess (alias Jean
Laurent, 1915-1983) took off - with assistance
from Josephine Baker - and they subsequently
co-wrote many successes, including 'Rendezvous
sous la pluie' (1935) and the 1936 Grand
Prix du Disque-winner 'Vous qui passez sans me
voir'. As 'Charles et Johnny' they recorded for
Pathe and worked the cabaret circuit until both
were drafted into French military service, in
1936.
Taking his lead from Mireille and Sablon and
other exponents of the new-style chanson, by
mid-decade Trenet was in the forefront of
composer-performers who, inspired by the
recently imported transatlantic idiom, had rechannelled
Jazz into Swing. His musical gifts
were complemented from the outset by a
prolific, if sometimes unequal, poetical instinct.
The author of three novels and copious reams
of verse (in style at first surrealiste, in imitation
of Max Jacob), the songs he penned from the
late-1930s onwards captured the spirit of the
age. Like Prevert and few others, he skilfully
distilled nostalgia both musically and verbally
with an amazing economy.
Signed by Columbia, in 1937 Trenet made
his first solo commercial recordings several in
collaboration with Paul Misraki (born 1908),
including the title-song of his first film Je chante
(1938), soon to become an early signature tune.
Written during his military service,'Y'a de la
joie'was his greatest hit to date and brought an
invitation to write and appear in two films, of
which La route enchantee (1938; this included
Grand Prix-winning 'Boum!' - see Naxos
Nostalgia 8.120530, Charles Trenet: La mer) was
the most successful. In 1943, with more limited
success, he returned to the screen (as co-writer
with Jacques Prevert) in Adieu, Leonard and
spent the rest of World War II maintaining
French morale with his songs, most significantly
'Douce France' (1943).
In 1945 Trenet moved to the USA where for
several years he worked mainly as a writer.
Where credited as lyricist, he penned the words
to virtually all of his own songs; the tunes
themselves may not all be his own creations,
although he often claimed that they were.
Many of his recordings were issued in the States
and although none made the popular charts Top
30 several enjoyed wide circulation, assuring
Trenet a circle of ardent admirers. 1948
brought his biggest hit of all,"La mer". A
personification of the sea hauntingly recorded
in laid-back style by Trenet, it is now a key song
of the 1940s, although the tune may be by
pianist-composer Albert Lasry,Trenet's regular
arranger and conductor. The song has since
been recorded by a wide range of other
performers (4,000 times, according to one
estimate) and has long featured in the
vocabulary of nostalgia, most recently through
the medium of TV advertising.
By the early 1950s Trenet was again
domiciled in his native France, but made regular
return trips to the USA and Canada. His
compositions continued to be wide-ranging in
mood (frequently reflecting themes and events
in his own past life) and his recordings included
a remake of his 1930s hit Vous qui passez
sans me voir (a collaboration with Hess and
Paul Misraki, 1908-98) and numbers from his
1953 film Bouquet de joie. Energetic and
dynamic at every public appearance ('Je suis ne
poète, je mourrai athlète'was the oft-quoted
motto which he jokingly styled for an epitaph),
he continued a rigorous performing schedule in
France until his official retirement in 1975. As
yet unwilling to retire, however, by the late
1970s Trenet had embarked on a series of farewell
tours in Canada. In 1978, in collaboration
with his mother (who died shortly afterwards)
he published a memoir and until the late 1980s
continued to make occasional tours of Europe
and Canada. In 1993, in London, he appeared
in a BBC radio tribute. Awarded the Legion
d'Honneur in 1989, he was later variously
created a commander of the Ordre des Arts et
des Lettres and President of the French
Ministry of Culture's Commission for Song.
Never wanting in creative energy, in 1992
and 1995 Trenet published new collections of
songs and during November 1999 gave three
concerts in Paris. The following year he
returned, apparently undaunted in spirit if
physically challenged by a series of strokes, to
sing at a concert staged by Charles Aznavour.
He died in a hospital on the outskirts of Paris
on 18 February 2001, aged 87 years, and the
following day was hailed by French President
Jacques Chirac as: 'a great artist, poet and
national institution.'
Peter Dempsey, 2005
Formidable (more info)
-
Formidable - 2:41
France Dimanche (more info)
-
France Dimanche - 2:30
Berceuse (more info)
-
Berceuse - 2:49
Grand'maman, c'est New York (more info)
-
Grand'maman, c'est New York - 3:16
Grandmama, It's New York (more info)
-
Grandmama, It's New York - 3:23
Dans les rues de Quebec (more info)
-
Dans les rues de Quebec - 2:51
Voyage au Canada (more info)
-
Voyage au Canada - 3:01
Mes jeunes annees (more info)
-
Mes jeunes annees - 3:16
Quand descend le soir (more info)
-
Quand descend le soir - 2:27
L'ame des poetes (more info)
-
L'ame des poetes - 2:45
Ou vas-tu chaque nuit? (more info)
-
Ou vas-tu chaque nuit? - 2:53
Dans les pharmacies (more info)
-
Dans les pharmacies - 2:25
Madame la pluie (more info)
-
Madame la pluie - 2:28
Le Coeur de Paris (more info)
-
Le Coeur de Paris - 2:50
Vous qui passez sans me voir (more info)
-
Vous qui passez sans me voir - 3:21
Je marche au bord de l'eau (more info)
-
Je marche au bord de l'eau - 3:28
Marie-Therese (more info)
-
Marie-Therese - 2:21
En avril a Paris (more info)
-
En avril a Paris - 2:50
En ce temps-la (more info)
-
En ce temps-la - 3:08
Bouquet de joie (more info)
-
Bouquet de joie - 2:15