Browse by Label: DISCOGRAPH (FRANCE)

Artist:	GAINSBOURG, SERGE
Title:	Le Claqueur De Mots 1958-1959
Label:	DISCOGRAPH (FRANCE)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	DISCO 3228762

This record is a collection of the tracks written and recorded by master of the French chanson, Serge Gainsbourg and other singers from 1958 to 1959. Notice in passing how the singers of Gainsbourg's early material all had in common a deep and low-pitched voice. From then on, he would try his best to push his songs as much as he could towards the higher notes. Previously-unreleased track "Les Mots Inutiles" was written by Julien Grix (Gainsbourg's first pen-name) in 1955. The lyrics were first modified in 1958 and again in 1962, when this version was recorded for a TV show in Vienna. Interpretations on CD2 by Juliette Gréco, Jean-Claude Pascal, Hugues Aufray, Michèle Arnaud, Alain Goraguer, and Les Frères Jacques. Packaged within a full-color hardcover 36-page book in English and French, with extensive historical liner notes.

Artist:	NOUGARO, CLAUDE
Title:	A La Recherche Du Son Qui Fait Sens 1955-1959
Label:	DISCOGRAPH (FRANCE)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	DISCO 3228772

This record is a collection of the tracks written and recorded by French songwriter and singer, Claude Nougaro and other singers from 1955 to 1959. Nougaro began his career boldly presenting his lyrics to Marguerite Monnot, Édith Piaf's songwriter, who put them to music. During his career as a cabaret singer at the Lapin Agile in Monmatre, he became friends with accompanying pianists Jean-Michel Arnaud and Jimmy Walter and singer-songwriter Jean Constantin, and together they wrote new songs for Philippe Clay, Cyril Dalin, Colette Renard, Stephen Bruce, and the legendary Jacqueline François. Tenaciously, Claude Nougaro tried to place his songs like a salesman flogs encyclopedias -- door-to-door. He could write anything, on command. For Paul Roby, a singer who had made a name for himself by covering swing and Latino hits from the 1900s, he wrote the subversive song "Coupez-les Moi au Rasoir." He concocted "La Folle Chanson" for a Jamaican named Zack Matalon. At the time, it was still fashionable for a song to be shared between several singers, meaning that a single song could be released in a dozen different versions at the same time. Many of Nougaro's lyrics were sung by two, three or even four artists simultaneously. Nougaro was finally able to find his voice as a writer. Thanks to two of his favorite singers, Philippe Clay and Marcel Amont, Nougaro forged his own style: that of a film-maker: he imagined characters, invented situations by imagining how they would unfold visually, jostling words about to accommodate Amont's very strong accent and Clay's Parisianisms. These were the two singers who got Nougaro his first hits, "Le Jazz et la Java" and "Il y avait une ville," respectively. Some of the songs bordered on spoken/sung sketches, others played on onomatopoeia, alliteration and tongue-twisters. Soon, Nougaro would be ready to sing his own songs, and soon, he would supersede a whole generation, washed away by the yéyés. He would emerge victorious, establishing himself as a poet singer thanks to jazz, his chosen field of expertise. Diving into it with a vengeance, he glorified those small sequences that were to make French chanson history. Presented in a deluxe 2CD digipack with a 36-page hardcover booklet, with French and English liner notes and rarely seen pictures. Contains an unreleased bonus track: "Jésus" (from a 2002 recording session, though written much earlier).

Artist:	BREL, JACQUES
Title:	Des Perles De Pluie 1954-1960
Label:	DISCOGRAPH (FRANCE)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	DISCO 6149382

Discograph releases a 2CD set of music from Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel. Having left Brussels at the age of 23 to conquer Paris, Brel's first triumph came six years later with "Ne Me Quitte Pas," a song elevated to legendary status with over 900 versions recorded throughout the world. Presented in this compilation on CD1 are his first lyrics, slightly naive and clumsy, as well as later tracks showing how he asserted his style, eventually becoming a popular yet rigorous artist: "Les Flamandes," "La Valse À Mille Temps" and "Quand On N'a Que l'Amour" are just a few examples of Jacques Brel's talent, both as a songwriter and singer. Many of the tracks featured here have never previously been published in CD format, including many songs performed by artists who were the first to realize how great they were on CD2, including renditions by Dalida, Simone Langlois, Renée Lebas, Barbara, Juliette Gréco, Yves Montand, Marc Et André, Yoland Guérard, Pia Colombo, Anny Gould, Jacques Hélian, Florence Véran, Michel Frenc, Michèle Arnaud and Jean-Claude Pascal. This 2CD set features 48 tracks including a 36-page booklet with original liner notes and rare documents illustrating the early days of this major artist's career, with scores, covers, photos and more.

Artist:	BRASSENS, GEORGES
Title:	Gare Au Gorille 1952-1960
Label:	DISCOGRAPH (FRANCE)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	DISCO 6149392

Discograph releases a 2CD set of music from French singer/songwriter Georges Brassens. With the release of "Gorille" in 1952, Georges Brassens became a household name, as this shy, debonair artist in his 30s enthralled French audiences with his way with words, audacity, humor and sense of poetry. Patachou, Barbara, Juliette Gréco and Sidney Bechet were among the first artists keen on taking the songs of this chanson craftsman and making them their own. 2011 marks the anniversary of both his birth (in 1921) and death (in 1981). Here is an opportunity for you to rediscover his early hits as well as the versions by the first performers of his songs, some of which have never previously been published on CD format, such as the startling "Vendetta" written for Christian Méry, a Corsican comedian who used to share the Trois Baudets stage with Brassens. The 36-page booklet features photographs by Pierre Cordier, whose parents were Brassens' friends in the '50s, which beautifully enhance this richly illustrated set of original liner notes. Other artists include Les Quatre Barbus, Les Cinq Pères, Les Compagnons De La Chanson, Pia Colombo, Michel Frenc, Marc Et André and Joss Baselli.

Artist:	MIRABASSI, GIOVANNI
Title:	Adelante
Label:	DISCOGRAPH (FRANCE)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	DISCO 6149572

This is essentially a solo album by "canto piano" aficionado Giovanni Mirabassi. His only guests are a trio of musicians who cut their teeth playing with Irakere and feature on "Yo Me Quedo" by the iconic Pablo Milanès, as well as singer Angela Elvira Perez -- the mother of his current drummer Lukmil -- who features on a more incandescent version of "Hasta Siempre," an entire people's anthem, which already featured on Avanti! in 2000. Giovani Mirabassi is committed, body and soul, to the 88 ebony and ivory keys, a beautiful palette of chromatic movements and the rhythmic fervor which emphasizes the melodic sparkles of a repertoire centered around Spanish songs. "I wanted to perform the melodies as they are, to let myself be guided by their sense of urgency, conviction and intrinsic freedom." These qualities are to be found in emblematic South-American songs, such as Mercedes Sosa's "Gracias A La Vida," as well as in those honoring the enduring memory of the Spanish Civil War. Of course, the Paris-based Italian has also conjured up a handful of charming French tunes of old, such as "Le Chant Des Canuts," "a slogan that revitalizes the notion of the working-class struggle" as well as several lyric-free versions of chanson classics: "Graine d'Ananar" by Léo Ferré, and "L'Affiche Rouge" by Aragon, two splendid authors that he just wanted to celebrate, not imitate.

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