Search - Patricia Kaas :: Scene De Vie

Mixture of nightclub jazz and blues from French songbird

Daniel J. Hamlow | Narita, Japan | 10/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Who are some notable French singers? Yes, there's Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Charles Aznavour, Serge Gainsbourg, even Brigitte Bardot did some singing. But that was then. In the 1990's, one name came out and that's Patricia Kaas. In her debut album for Columbia, Scene De Vie, Patricia sings torch songs, blues, nightclub jazz to bring about a haunting atmosphere. The CD jacket helps in that the lyrics are printed in French AND in English.After the haunting instrumental "General Theme", which opens and closes the album, she goes into the bittersweet "Les Mannequins D'Osier" (Wooden Mannequins), about the wish of forgetting the haunting memories, symbolized by the title objects, and thrown off a high bridge. Her voice has a ragged Bonnie Tyler edge when her voice rises, though not as rough, as it does when she sings "Et les regarder passer/sur la riviere gelee" (And watch them pass by/on the frozen river).It's Jazz Time, or "L'Heure Du Jazz" She handled nightclub style piano blues-jazz very well, and the piano, guitars, double bass, and trumpet bring in that sound. Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, and Kind Of Blue are mentioned in this song, from one A.M., when one's soul reels to the feel of Charlie Parker to 3 A.M., when the last cigarette is smoked, another strawberry champagne is imbibed, and you forget your name."Ou Vont Les Coeurs Brises" or Where Do Broken Hearts Go-no, not the Whitney Houston song has a slow melodic sax and piano that recalls Coltrane's albums. At one point, she asks, "Is love in such a hurry/that it always want to leave." The sad and tragic moral is, "Because in the end, broken hearts/still whisper I love you."The bitter blues of "Regarde Les Riches" replete with harmonica and sax is a harsh look at reality between the rich, "rolling through the Riviera in their Rolls Royces" and poor. When she sings "Stop knocking yourself for nobody... nobody gives a damn about your blues, so baby stop cryin'" it's like a bewildering slap in the face.The torch ballad "Les Hommes Qui Passent" is a mental photo album tour through The Men I've Known, be they artists, musicians, or actors. According to her observations, they "have ocean-sized urges but their heart's at low tide" and "have kept the heart of a lost child." Yet what they have in common is that they give her money and nothing else. Something definitely wanting there.The mid-paced synth-supported "Bessie" is a sad tribute to Bessie Smith. Kaas sings that Smith's skin colour doomed her life during her fatal car accident in 1937, where she bled to death "in front of a hospital for whites." She lovingly describes Smith "with her beautiful Sudanese voice/and her overpowering emotion" but wishes that she had lived in today's times where the two of them could've done a great duet in Paris, but not in Madison."Tropic Blues Bar" is another night life song, full of poetic and vivid descriptions of "panther-skirted prostitutes" and women described akin to "gazelles when the lions are no longer hungry." Kaas sings of a pianist she longs for, wishing his fingers would go from those black and white cars and on her hips."A l'enterrement d'Sidney Bechet" describes the funeral of jazz great/sax and clarinet player Sidney Bechet, who died in Paris in 1959. Another tribute to a jazz musician, as she says "he surely has the seat in an orchestra that remembers."The slow "Black Velvet"-like blues tune "Kennedy Rose" is about Rose Kennedy, and she sings how she wouldn't want her sons to aspire to or become presidents of the U.S. Instead of being musicians or mathematicians, JFK, RFK, and Teddy Kennedy became "living challenge[s]," two of them at the cost of their lives."Une Derniere Semaine A New York" or One Last Week In New York is more a guitar pop ballad and asks what one would do with her if they had only one week to live."Patou Blues," or Patty's Blues, is upbeat Belinda Carlisle-style pop-rock with more guitars and a steady beat, spiced with some blues harmonica.Calling her the French Bonnie Tyler is vocally accurate, except that her voice is smoother and full of more emotion and scores the best on haunting blues and jazz numbers. C'est tout. A bientot, et bravo, Patricia-vous etes merveilleux!"