SwingDJs

Looking to get some Jazz and Swing from French Artists while I'm out in France next month. I've heard some rare tracks (at least rare in the US dances) from one or two US DJs, but would love to get some input so I'd know what to look for while I'm out there.

Keep in mind, I already own and know about these artists French songs:
Blossom Dearie
Joe Carroll w/ the Ray Bryant Quartet

I also saw KitKat had a thread from 2-3 years ago about Foreign Languages, but thought it was worth being a little more specific.

Thanks

actually, the thread you mention is pretty specific to french.

i unfortunately have nothing useful to add to what was already mentioned there.[/i]

lipi wrote:actually, the thread you mention is pretty specific to french.

I understand that, but the subject line wasn't as specific. I figured a more direct query might bring new and different responses.

Bands that immediately spring to mind:

Phillipe Brun, Alix Combelle (also big in the early French rock scene), Tony Rovira, Jacques Helian &, of course, the Hot Club. De Ramblers, Ernst van't Hoff, Dick Willebrandts & other Dutch Bands also recorded in French, and perhaps Belgium's Fud Candrix & early Johnny Claes before he went to England

Cheers

FWIW - Duke Ellington did a beautiful album of all French songs. All instrumentals and mostly ballads, but not entirely.

It is a stunning and musical album. I think it it/was called "Under Paris Skies". It was reiisued a few times here and overseas. It is hopefully on CD by now.

Great current French jazz combo is a group named Honeysuckle Rose. Some stuff in English some in French and some instrumentals. Highly recommended. I use their stuff a lot. You can get them from Swedish site hepcat

http://www.hepcat.se/product_info.php?p ... 090dc40382

They have another earlier CD as well:

http://www.hepcat.se/product_info.php?p ... 090dc40382

django reinhardt
stephane grappelli
dany brillant

that's just some names that come up in my mind when i think to french jazz'n swing. the first two have done lots of other stuff as well, but some swing songs, and dany brillant has some really nice swing tunes.

luh

russell wrote:Great current French jazz combo is a group named Honeysuckle Rose. Some stuff in English some in French and some instrumentals. Highly recommended. I use their stuff a lot. You can get them from Swedish site hepcat

http://www.hepcat.se/product_info.php?p ... 090dc40382

They have another earlier CD as well:

http://www.hepcat.se/product_info.php?p ... 090dc40382

Unfortunately Honeysuckle Rose split up last year... We had the chance to be able to dance on their live music once a month during a while here in Toulouse... It is really great.

I also use their 1st album a lot

There's the "Blue Stars" of France. They recorded a french version of "Lullaby of Birdland". (I'd use it more for Foxtrot though).

Manu wrote:Unfortunately Honeysuckle Rose split up last year...

Awwww, that's too bad. I wanted to get back someday and dance to your good Toulousain bands.

There are a lot of French bands on this French site which lists current swing bands worldwide. I think it's pretty up to date -

http://perso.orange.fr/swing.time/swing_orch.html

As far as I know, most of the vocals are sung in English, but there may be some in French.

There is a song called "Dixie" by Harmonium. It has a Dixieland feel and it's good for Lindy, Charleston & Bal.

Harmonium is a Quebec Rock band from the 1970's. Most of their music songs use the acoustic guitar and the piano. In Dixie, a clarinet is also used.

This is a link to "Les Cinq Saisons"

http://www.cdconnection.com/cd_and_dvd/ ... wXXAbqetuc

Note that the other songs on the album wouldn't be considered "swing" music. You might still like their music though.

Posted in the other thread - several people mentioned Blossom Dearie, but nobody mentioned the specific French language numbers from her CD:


Blossom Dearie's French tunes:

Comment Allez Vous (kind of on the slow side)
Tout Doucemont ("groove" medium tempo)

Also - there was mention about that number by Pink Martini "Sypathetique?" - as I recall it's all about smoking cigarettes. But Pink Martini is not actually a French group any more than Blossom Dearie is a French swing performer.

But, I suppose as long as a song's lyrics are in French, the song counts.