Customer Reviews

Du Jazz Dans Le Ravin

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Work of genius from a very versatile artist. I think this is his best album. I don't know how he does it -- sensitive yet callous, superficial yet intense. Sorry to sound corny but there it is. I hear his songs in my head, they are hard to shake off, they are so right-on. You think it's just for fun and then you realize later, this stuff is deep!

Gainsbourg dabbled with many styles, but he loved jazz and produced a lot of jazz works, particularly in the earliest parts of his career. This album is the product of his admiration for and emulation of jazz. It is clear he is trying to carve out something original. Indeed his work is quite distinctive... vintage Gainsbourg with its roots clearly in jazz. Still the same tongue-in-cheek Gainsbourg (if you understand French, a pretty funny set of lyrics is to be had in the tune "Du jazz dans le Ravin".) All recorded in the early 1960s, this record is a collection of Gainsbourg's experiments with jazz. While some of the music sounds standard and repetitive, there are moments of originality and brilliance. My personal favourites are "Requiem pour un twisteur", "Chez les Yé-Yé', "Black Trombone" (which sounds sort of a like a lounge singer's act), "Quand Mon 6.35 me fait les yeux doux" and "Machins choses" (which strikes me as somewhat melancholy for some reason.) This is definitely a worthwhile listen/purchase.

For more Serge-related stuff (tribute albums) check out the Serge Gainsbourg CD of the Great Jewish Artists series and also the Mick Harvey CDs (with English language musical interpretations of many Gainsbourg songs).

This is the font of 60's french beat-jazz-pop, lyrics french but anglified in the then-current fashion, liner pictures of Serge drinking coffee alone in a parisian cafe (so much ennui!), assuredly having just been left by Brigitte Bardot or some other of his string of gorgeous internationally-famous mistresses (see Bardot's own comp recording "Bubble Gum" for the more voluptuous & free-spirited side of the parisian spectrum. If you never liked Serge before, and assuredly you have been given every reason not to ("Harley-Davidson", my god), I guarantee you'll love this. "Comic Strip", in this same series, is also very good, although the third volume "Couleur Cafe" is way too faux-ethnic for my taste.

Jazzy songs are selected from few albums from 1958 to 1964. Some are recorded by trio including Elek Bacsik on guitar and Michel Gaudry on double bass. You can find some intrumentals too, like Angoisse, Black March {from movie L'Eau à la Bouche},...
My favourite song from this album is Black Trombone.
Put it on, open some wine, invite the girl, and you're gonna have an unforgettable evening.
Believe me....

It's amazing to me that only 4 other people have reviewed this CD. This just goes to show how little known Gainsbourg is outside of Europe. Although I have studied French for translation, I am not fluent in that language and so probably am missing many of the "puns" that Gainsbourg is known for in his lyrics. However, this becomes ultimately irrelevant for an ear that is strongly attuned to melody -- the music in itself ends up being what is most moving, exciting, inspiring, and bittersweet on this CD (and with Gainsbourg's compositions in general). My favorites on "Du Jazz Dans Le Ravin" are the instrumental cuts, including "Black March (perfect background music for a clown); "Black Trombone", simultaneously joyous and melancholy featuring a counterpoint via solo trumpet, and a chorus of trumpets à la "big band"; "Generique", with its interplay of percussion and trumpets; "Some Small Chance" -- featuring the xylophone / vibes contributing to the sad yet sassy melody; and "Wake Me At Five", in which the pseudo-ominous march-oriented percussion provides a base that is complemented by electric guitar, moody clarinet and trumpet choruses jumping in at intervals. Another highlight is "Quand Mon 6.35 Me Fait Les Yeux Doux" -- a lyrical and instrumental avant-garde number. I also recommend "Couleur Cafe"-- another by Gainsbourg from the same era -- for its Latin and "world music" flavours and humour.

Stephen C. Bird, author of "Hideous Exuberance: A Satire"