Call it fracas, franglais or force majeure, French music is a part of today's world music market. Thirty years ago it was Hurricane Camille, women's trouser outfits, and the end of a British music invasion. Today it's Hurricane Floyd, women's underwear as a fashion statement, and voilá--a veritable pirouette of French music! Let's start with a French traditionalist, Julien Clerc.
As the race heats up to become another hip-hop nation, France retains its integrity in Julien Clerc (pronounced "Clair"), who stands apart, refreshingly cool and, well...so French! Here is a real crooner with a gentle vibrato who specializes in power ballads and intimate songs. Clerc's music is a delightful change of tempo from the usual frenetic fare called "world music." With emphasis on the lyrics and their careful pronunciation, this chanteur de charme is in the same league as the dramatic Italian singer, Eros Ramazzotti, and the oft-compared Americain, Bruce Springsteen.
The English liner notes reveal Clerc's allure in these lyrics from his signature song, "Femmes...Je Vous Aime (Women...I love you)"
Never easy, always fragile
and difficult, yes difficult...!
The album's 12 songs offer us a dreamy look into this 30-year professional who reveals: "I am a French singer. I try to write good melodies, find beautiful words to accompany them, then sing them well. That is my job." Clerc is the contemporary face of la chanson francaise, and he knows his job! Listening to Clerc is an intimate experience not unlike sitting on a cafe terrace with a close friend over an aperitif. If you missed his inaugural U.S. Spring '99 tour, or you love listening to thoughtful love songs spun through beautiful melodies, treat yourself to Rendez-vous with Julien Clerc (Tinder Records).
The debut of Saga's Face a Face (Tinder Records)
is sure to attract an American audience that will love his back-alley charm and shadowy voice. A Montepellier version of Tom Waits or Dylan, Saga easily alternates his husky vocals with punchy electric
guitar runs and a bluesy harmonica. There is an uneasy familiarity here that makes Saga accessable, yet foreign--like french fries with mayonnaise!
Saga crosses world music frontiers with hints of hip-hop on Sax, a paen to musicians everywhere, and North African drumming on "Au nom du quoi" (In the Name of What), written in memory of slain Algerian singer Lounes Matouh. For blues fans, there is the melancholy "Devil Blues" and a swampy tribute to the South on "Baton Rouge".
If you like your French lyrics with a little fuzz guitar, you'll enjoy the masterful work of guitarist Georges Bodossian, who, along with harmonica player Matthieu Fromont, provides the tension needed to ignite Saga's edgy moods and smoldering voice. An auspicious start for the vocalist who originally forsake music to become an actor.
"I did not think much of my voice," confides Saga in a recent call from Marin County, California. (He divides his time between San Francisco and Paris.) When com- NOTE: Look for the following titles by some of the more interesting artists that France has to offer to world music fans here in the United States.
pared to contemporaries like Clerc and Francis Cabrel, Saga admits, "They are like the big freeways in France and I am like the little side road. Right now that is where I want to be."
Face a Face (pronounced fas-ah-fas) should appeal to rock and blues fans alike on both sides of the Atlantic!
Mix equal parts funk, hip-hop, elements of R&B and soul, then add musical influences from the Fugees, Zap Mama and Sade. Helene and Celia Faussart, part French, part Cameroon, make for a ready-mix sensation.
on KBBF 89.1 FM listener-supported radio, Santa Rosa, California
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