Search - Raquel Bitton :: Paris Blues

"PARIS BLUES" is the musical story - sometimes joyful, often melancholy, and always hopeful - of a beautiful city in a time of war and liberation. It's the evocation of an era that produced some of our most gifted composers and performers, Parisians by birth and by adoption who sustained and redefined their city's sense of romance and excitement in the years before, during, and immediately after World War II. For generations, composers, writers, artists of every temperament and from virtually every country in the world have been irresistibly drawn to the City of Light, where they could share and refine their superb talents in an atmosphere of acceptance and celebration. And even after the misery of the Occupation, the Mars Club in Paris was one of the many nightclubs that featured African American musicians, who were instrumental in resurrecting Paris jazz after its glory days in Montmartre. "PARIS BLUES" ranges from the music of the American Sydney Bechet (Petite Fleur); Belgian Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt (Nuages); Billie Holiday (Je suis folle de t'aimer); the queen of Portuguese "fado" Amalia Rodrigues (Paris s'eveille la nuit); Argentinean Tangoist Tino Rossi (Ecris moi); French crooner Jean Sablon, who teamed with Django and violinist Stephan Grappelli (Il ne faut pas briser un reve); band singer Lucienne Delyle (Jai chante sur ma peine, Pour lui, malgre tes serments); and sultry Jazz chanteuses Leo Marjane (Je suis seule ce soir) and Suzy Solidor (Escale).