CLAUDIA HOMMEL: Paris/Paree: Claudia Hommel dans son cabaret

Claudia Hommel

Paris/Paree: Claudia Hommel dans son cabaret

© 1997 Maison Clobert (636737195025)

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A pot-pourri of songs celebrating the Paris of Edith Piaf, Juliette Gréco and Yves Montand, and the Paree of Sammy Cahn, Vernon Duke, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter. Add into the mix a jazz quartet, a string quartet and accordion...classic.

notes

The 24-page liner notes are chock-full of lyrics, translations, and commentary.

Most of these songs could be heard in Paris during its "Left Bank" period of 1946 to 1953-from after the Second World War (when, like champagne for the armistice, so many great French tunes were uncorked) until the onset of the Algerian War (when a different and angrier kind of song was required).

The album reflects the push-and-pull of French and American perspectives on Paris, of those who travel to Paris and those who travail in Paree; of romantic mythological Paris and the Paris of workers, street kids, shopkeepers, combatants of wars and resistance, mothers with babies in the park, and lovers, who really do walk arm-in-arm in my Paris.

ARCHIVAL INSPIRATION: recordings of "Yves Montand and his Songs of Paris"; Gisele McKenzie's "Mam'selle McKenzie"; Edith Piaf at Carnegie Hall 1957; my father's first edition of Jacques Prévert's Paroles; André Maurois' Women of Paris (1958) from which I learned the story of Juliette Gréco and the Kosma songs; the Larousse La chanson française: à travers ses succès (1994); my classnotes from a course on Esthetics at the Université de Besançon; childhood photos of Clo-Clo at the Tuileries, Parc de Montsouris, in a baby carriage, at the beach; and stories about my parents (Flora and Bernard Hommel) as young newlyweds living in the apartment belonging to Sylvia Beach above her bookstore Shakespeare and Co., Place de l'Odéon soon after the Second World War.

about singer/actress Claudia Hommel
Born in Paris, France and raised in Detroit, CLAUDIA HOMMEL has led an active career as a theatrical singer from New York and New Orleans to Chicago and California, and back to Paris. Visit the Who's Who section of our website to learn more about Claudia and the exquisite musicians joining her in "Paris,Paree".

reviews

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  • Thank you for transporting us to Paris!
    author: Melanie Karsen, French teacher

    Thank you for transporting us to Paris! Each time I want to return to Paris in the 50s, I’ll be able to listen to "Paris/Paree"! Merci!

  • I'll spend a lot of time with this wonderful CD.
    author: Norman Lee Oleson, Ontario

    A beautifully conceived and executed CD. I especially appreciated, along with the performances, the photos, written commentary, and French texts.…The care and love put into “Paris/Paree” shines through. I know I'll spend a lot of time with this wonderful CD.

  • I loved loved LOVED "Autumn Leaves" - Wow -
    author: Joan Krause, actor-singer

    A great, clever & poignant CD. I loved loved LOVED “Autumn Leaves”—Wow—.

  • author: Keith Meritz for Cabaret Scenes

    A lovely montage of post-war Paris, reflecting its enormous influence on cabaret music today. Claudia takes us for quite a tour of Pigalle and its complex human menagerie, and "Java" gives a delectable taste of that exhilarating musical genre… "Barbara" is a chilling paean to the horrors of war. Yet, one of the most effective and tearful numbers is "Autumn Leaves", featuring Johnny Mercer's lyrics alternating with its original French incarnation, highlighting the tender and fragile emotive qualities of her voice. (The album includes a great insert with informative commentary and translations.)

  • Claudia serves as guide to the heart of all Paris.
    author: Owen Leroy, Gazette Francophone (Chicago)

    (translation): We see through her the profile of an impassioned heart in search of an immortalized past. During Claudia's "souvenirs de Paris", I could enter a Paris which few of us really know, there in the piano bar ...where Claudia serves as guide to the heart of all Paris.

  • "a sense of theater....strong and soaring"
    author: John S. Wilson, New York Times

    Claudia Hommel, a singer and actress who performs in both theater and cabaret, brings a sense of theater with her when she goes into cabaret...Miss Hommel's voice can be strong and soaring, and she uses it to excellent dramatic effect in her lusty ... French songs.

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