zondag 27 september 2009

Les Sambassadeurs


I think we did pretty well in Amsterdam, with our little band of Gainsnord-singers. But in Sao Paulo, they did very, very well. On September 3rd, Serge was honoured by Brazilian bigband Orquestre Imperial, lead by J-C Vannier. Vocalists on that night included Jane Birkin, Caetano Veloso and his son Moreno Veloso. This blog is pretty excited about the concert, the setlist included lessr knows songs like Baudelaire, Cannabis and Fuir le bonheur. You can download an (illegal) recording of that show here. Not radio-quality, but good enough. I like the songs that have a Brazilian vibe added, like Couleur Café, Requiem pour un con and Les Sambassadeurs (obviously). Interesting fact that Luciane (also from Sao Paulo, but she missed this show!) told me was that the military junta in Brazil started censoring the radio áfter they heard Je t'aime... moi non plus. The censorship hit artists like Caetano (who had to leave the country) very hard. I guess this concert was also a way to say 'sorry' (although both Jane and Serge aren't to blame).
Gainsbourg was honoured before in Brazil, see this post.

Caetano Veloso & Jane Birkin - Je suis venue te dire (Live)

4 opmerkingen:

  1. One of my least favorite SG songs, but this version's got magic.

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  2. Only Serge had that special voice to sing this song. Dont take me wrong, I do happen to like Caetano Veloso a lot, but not in this song.

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  3. Can't please 'm all. Do download the whole concert!

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  4. I also don't go on my knees to everything Caetano sings, but I thought this nostalgic gafieira vibe he added to "Baudellaire" was quite, quite beautiful. Very cheek to cheek ballroom in a brazilian style.
    I'd get the whole thing while it's still hot. Two nights only, tickets sold out in two hours -- and here I thought no one would go. Ha. Was I wrong... The set list was pretty decent, too. All in all, definitely a memorable homage to Serge. I don't know if I'm too soft or too partial or both, but this whole thing really did move me.

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