From the oldies to the Nouvelle Vague...
Tell us more about the French music you've liked, discovered;
the concerts you're attending and any info linked to this subject...
As long as it put rythm into our lives!
Francophone-American Hip Hop Artist
Hello everyone!I'm Céline from Taste of France and we are organizing a major two-days event in September called Taste of France Show aiming to promote France in all its aspects.We would like to have an area dedicated to Francophone hip-hop culture. Do you know if there is a francophone hip-hop artist living in New York (or near the area)? All francophone-american hip-hop artists are welcome!Let us know if are thinking to special artists or if you would like to be yourself involved in this…
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The theme was "Bergamasque."
The piano music of Claude Debussy was featured together with works by Symbolist poets and artists from that period. Dr. Thomas Mastroianni of Catholic University of American and President of the American Liszt Society performed works of Debussy at the piano and Dr,.Stephen Ackert of the National Gallery of Art in Washington lectured. The music was gorgeous and the overall presentation simply grand.
http://www.bbbrunes.fr/Interview disponible sur le site de Couleur 3, podcast de l'Emission Saperlipopette
The release of The Birth of Cornelius doesn’t just mark the arrival of a major new artist on Motown Records. The album chronicles the latest chapter for a musician who has already had a remarkable career—and an extraordinary life. Though virtually unknown to an American audience, Corneille sells out arenas in other parts of the world. His albums have reached monumental, Diamond-selling status in France and Canada (His country of residency). And those accomplishments follow struggles and challenges in his personal history as a Rwanda genocide survivor, challenges that are truly beyond comprehension (Story that he shared last week live with Oprah
The two first love songs Back to life and too much of Everything show the potential for this artist ; he recently got married and his love for music and now the love for his wife helped him to get Back to life. The album The Birth of Cornelius was recently nominated for the upcoming SOUL TRAIN 2009, well respected for an artist in his category.
Check the latest american music videos: Back to Life:
Too much of everything: http://corneillemusic.com/
“Music has been the place where I could go to hide and forget about the world. I couldn’t make sense of a majority of the things that happened to me, so I used music as a shield. But over time, music has become a vehicle to channel out everything that I’ve been keeping from myself for all these years. And the new album is definitely the most honest, real assessment of everything that’s happened in my life, because I’m not trying to hide as much.”—Corneille
Corneille Nyungura was born in Fribourg, Germany, where his parents were students. At the age of six, his family returned to Rwanda, their country of origin. “When I went to Rwanda for the first time, there was a sense of going to the place where I belonged,” he says. “But because my parents were very much Westernized, I still felt like I didn’t fit in.”
As a boy, Corneille began to develop an interest in music—initially discovering Michael Jackson (although “because we were so far from MTV, most kids didn’t even know what he looked like”), and then the great soul artists who would shape his style: Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Prince.
He credits his father for nurturing his interest. “I was singing something in my room,” he says, “and my dad heard me, and said, ‘That sounds good, it kind of sounds like Tracy Chapman.’ And I remember thinking, ‘Oh, It’s OK for me to make music.’ That was a very unique thing because music is a big part of African culture, but we never considered it as a job option.” At age 16, he made his first recording, and was selected as a finalist in a music contest sponsored by the state-run television station.
But in 1994, Rwanda’s President Habyarimana was assassinated, and the largest, most horrific genocide in modern history claimed over 800,000 victims. Corneille’s parents and other family members were killed in the massacre. He alone managed to escape—first to Kinshasa, and then to Germany, where he was taken in by some family friends.
When asked how surviving such an incomprehensible tragedy has shaped his outlook, and his music, Corneille is strikingly calm. “For a good ten years after the genocide,” he says, “I lived in a great deal of denial. But I managed not to get too bitter because I had parents who always made me feel special. It’s a sort of pain that you can have closure with. I know I’m not going to be able to talk to my family ever again, but they left me with memories filled with such love that I don’t have that much anger.”
Corneille stayed in Germany for three years before moving to Montréal—part of the North American world that had shaped his musical dreams, but still familiar for its French language. He attended Concordia College, but decided that it was time for him to get serious about his music. He formed a band called O.N.E. (Original New Element), and, in 2002, released his first studio album, Parce Qu'on Vient de Loin.
“There are hardly any outlets for English-speaking artists in Quebec,” he says. “I realized that would be a great challenge—since there’s really no French soul or R&B music that exists, it gave me the opportunity to have my own little niche.”
Initially, Parce Qu'on Vient de Loin made little impression in Canada, but it was soon discovered in France. At his first shows, in a small Parisian club, the room was already packed with fans singing all of his lyrics; they had chased down copies of the album, imported from Quebec.
Following its success overseas, the album was re-released in Canada, and took off behind the single “Rêves de Star,” eventually achieving Platinum sales status. Corneille received his first Felix Award, selected by the public, for Best Male Artist. In France, sales of Parce Qu'on Vient de Loin soared past a million.
In 2005, Corneille recorded a song with Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour in support of UNICEF and the fight against AIDS. (Corneille is a Red Cross Canada spokesperson, and has been made a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.) That same year, his second studio album, Les Marchands de Rêves, was released. A sixty-date tour of France had a total attendance of over 200,000 fans, and was followed by an acoustic tour in the fall of 2006.
But Corneille wasn’t fully satisfied by his triumphs in Europe and Africa. “I was starting to feel lost,” he says. “With my French albums, I was becoming a symbol for something, a persona, more than an individual. I needed to break from that—and it doesn’t get any more humbling than coming to the U.S., because you really do have to start from scratch.”
Corneille began working on the songs that would become The Birth of Cornelius album. As he got closer to the tradition and culture that first drew him to music, his acoustic-based R&B sound began to come fully into its own. “When I allowed myself to write in English, everything was different,” he says. “I came up with some of the songs in five, ten minutes, because it was just pouring out. I guess I was reconnecting with the way I saw and understood music when I was little, and that was an amazing experience for me.”
After all this time, after all these travels and tragedies, Corneille and his music are finally ready to take on America. And he can’t wait.
“I look at America, and I see so much of who I am,” he says. “The identity confusion that I’ve been struggling with all my life is the same that most people here go through. When I think of America, the first thing that comes to my mind is the sense that I might truly feel understood for the first time.”
Legacy Recordings, a division of SONY Music Entertainment, will issue 'D'eux - 15th Anniversary Edition' to celebrate the upcoming 15th anniversary of D'eux / The French Album album by Celine Dion recorded by 1995. D'eux is the best-selling French-language album of all time (over 9 million copies worldwide, 4.5 mil in France, 4.5 mil in English speaking countries). the album was written and produced by Jean-Jacques Goldman. Carole Fredericks, Beckie Bell and Yvonne Jones (Americans in Paris) performed as Choir, Chorus on the original album. Carole Fredericks is my late sister who was a very successful singer in France. Her music was tranformed into French lessons and is currently used by more than 2000 K-12 schools and universities. More about Carole on my personal New York in French page.
D'eux - 15th Anniversary Edition CD/DVD will be released on November 18, 2009 in Finland, November 20, 2009 in Germany, Switzerland,[5] and on November 23, 2009 in France, Belgium and Canada. In the United States and Japan it will be available as an import on November 17, 2009. It will include the CD with original album versions plus three demos out of personal archives of Jean-Jacques Goldman ("Pour que tu m'aimes encore," "Le ballet," "J'irai où tu iras") and two playback only versions of "Vole" and "Pour que tu m'aimes encore." It will also contain an opendisc access to unpublished photographs of the cover sessions and listen to an alternate version of "J'attendais" with different lyrics by Goldman.
The bonus DVD will include four music videos: "Pour que tu m'aimes encore," "Les derniers seront les premiers>," "J'attendais" and "Je sais pas." It will also include Sonia Benezra's TV special Spécial Dimanche from 1995, distributed exclusively in Quebec where Dion interprets live "Je sais pas," "J'irai où tu iras" in duet with Goldman, "Les derniers seront les premiers," "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" and "Vole." In between the songs, there are interviews with Dion and Goldman.
D'eux - 15th Anniversary Edition will also include a booklet of 40 pages in a double digipack. It will include two previously unpublished texts by Goldman, one of 1995 to launch the album, and the other he has done specially for D'eux - 15th Anniversary Edition. There will be also unpublished photographs of the sessions for the cover, and reproduction of the text manuscript of Goldman's "Pour que tu m'aimes encore."
Congratulations to all!!
I just discovered "Bonjour Chanson", a wonderful music program hosted by Charles Spira for Public Radio Exchange (www.prx.org). For those of you who receive France-Amérique online, Charles Spira was featured in October 29th issue. Bonjour Chanson features 5 to 6 artist per episodes. Spira adds choice background information about each artist and often translates the lyrics.
Bonjour Chanson:
http://www.prx.org/search/pieces?q=bonjour+chanson&x=18&y=7
Enjoy,
Connie
2010 sera l'occasion de célébrer le 100 ème anniversaire du Maestro de la guitare Jazz Monsieur Django Reinhardt.
Tout a commencé grâce à lui. Il a donné un nouvel élan à ce bel instrument et a lancé un nouveau style de musique que l'on appelle le "Jazz Manouche", le "Swing" ou encore le "Gypsy Jazz".
Il mélange la musique Tzigane et le Jazz Américain, puis le bop.
Il jouera avec Stéphane Grappelli, Duke Ellington, Benny Carter...et bien d'autres encore...
Il composera des morceaux qui sont devenus aujourd'hui des "Standards" du jazz : Nuage, Djangology, Minor Swing pour ne citer que les plus connus...
Il a fait de nombreux émules, à comencer par ses enfants eux-mêmes (Babik et David), d'autres musiciens excellents lui rendent un merveilleux homage : Biréli Lagrène, les frères Ferré, Raphaël Fays, Stochelo Rosenberg...la liste pourrait être très longue...
Je vous invite à écouter cette musique extra-ordinnaire qui puise son âme chez Les Gitans, les "Manouches" comme on les appelle en France...Il s'agit là d'un style, d'un jazz qui est probablement le plus difficile à maîtriser.
Bonne écoute et bon Jazz à tous les Jazz Lovers.
Olivier.
don't miss it...!
The evening’s highlight will be an 11:30pm concert at Joe’s Pub by 49 Swimming Pools, a French alternative rock band that has just released Triumphs and Disasters, Rewards and Fairytales, its first album in September 2009 to critical acclaim. Les Inrocks, one of France’s leading cultural commentators, calls their music “refined and ambitious, pop made in France but dreamed up in America.” With Emmanuel Tellier (piano and vocals), Fabien Tessier (drums, accordion, keyboards, percussions, back vocals) and Etienne Dutin (guitars, bass, back vocals) proudly flaunting their Anglo-Saxon inspiration, their glorious collection of pop songs bring to mind John Lennon, Neil Young, and recent north-American artists like Arcade Fire, Andrew Bird, Wilco or Sufjan Stevens. As an extra treat, a phantasmagorical film will be projected on the band as it plays.
A French Rock Friday on Oct 30
Free Admission - Limited Seating
A special French Rock Friday on October 30 will give American audiences a taste of the exciting contemporary French rock scene inspired by America.
The evening will begin at 7pm at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy with a free conference featuring live musical accompaniment. A musical journey through the history of American alternative music and how it has inspired and influenced French artists will be presented by Emmanuel Tellier, the eminent music critic and editor-in-chief of the cultural weekly.
Lead vocalist Emmanuel Tellier, who in his spare time is also the editor-in-chief of the French cultural weekly Télérama, will set the scene and discuss the passionate relationship between the U.S. folk-rock scene and music fans and musicians on the other side of the Atlantic. In the sixties, British and American songs were all the rage, and French singers would make French versions of Anglo-Saxon pop songs in the hope of emulating their success. Today, America continues to seduce and influence French artists, but on a deeper and broader level: songs aren’t imitated, styles are. The 90-minute presentation will be punctuated by songs and extracts of songs, some played live. Audience members will receive a sheet of recommendations and playlists, a little recipe of musical cuisine, to introduce them to the latest in French rock.
Friday Oct 30 7:00pm
A musical journey through the history of American alternative music and how it has inspired and influenced French artists
Cultural Services of the French Embassy
972 Fifth Ave (at 79th street)
www.frenchculture.org
Free Admission - Limited Seating
RSVP required: vip@frenchculture.org
http://www.myspace.com/marcelvandam
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