Music to Put You in a French State of Mind
 

LW and I would like to get in the right mood by listening to some french music while whipping up some bistro delights in our rustic kitchen or sipping wine on the back porch watching the sun go down over the lake.

Does anybody else do this?

Would really appreciate specific CD recommendations. I guess what we are looking for is romantic stuff or classical cafe style music. Heck, I don't know what I want until I hear it, but maybe you know what it is we are after?

I recently bought some great Italian music off of half.com for a very reasonable price. Was able to listen to sample selections on amazon, but half.com was cheaper.

Romantic stuff - PIAF!

Classical (but not cafe) - Offenbach, Lully, Bizet, Fauré, Gounod, Debussy, Ravel.

You're probably just being funny, but I'm bored so I'm answering this.

In terms of classical music, Debussy and Ravel, definitely. Debussy wrote some wonderfully atmospheric pieces for piano. There's the chestnut "Clair de Lune" (from "Suite Bergamasque"), and there're the "Preludes," "Images," "Estampes."

A very good recording of "Estampes" can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...l&n=507846

A standard recommendation of the "Preludes" is the (1930s) recording by Gieseking:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...l&n=507846

Michelangeli is also a great choice.

In terms of Ravel's (piano) music, the G major concerto (Michelangeli concerto), "Gaspard de la Nuit" (based on a series of poems), Michelangeli again. Also rent the movie "Un Coeur en Hiver."

If you're masochistic, you can listen to the opera "Les Troyens" (Berlioz) complete, which is about four hours long. It's almost as long as a Wagner opera.

Though Chopin is Polish, he almost qualifies and he spent a large part of his life in Paris. The possibilities there are endless.

patricia Kass, "Rein ne s'arréte,"
Chimene Badi, "Entr-Nous, "
Johnny Hallyday, "A la vie, a la mort,"
Isabelle Boulay, '"Etats D'Amour,"
Carla Bruni, "Quel qu'un m'a dit,"
Vanessa Paradis, "Bliss" or Variations sur le meme t'aime."

Try "Paris After Dark" a collection of the finest French cabaret artist and songs from the 1920s-1950s. We ordered it from :www.musicrama.com

For a bit of a different spin:try Souad Massi "Raoui". We got it at our local very off-beat store. I did hear she played at Stern Grove in SF last summer and Hear music sold out her CDs(the first time they've ever sold out any CD). Hear Music is in Berkeley.

Anything by Edith Piaff or Charles Trenet, two of the greatest from the golden era of French popular music. Also check out Paris Combo, a new hip group that captures the feel of what we expect to hear in a Parisian Bistro.

Pink Martini's songs always put me in a French mood (even though they're from Portland, OR)...for a while, their French language hit was playing ALL the time on French radio Alain Chamfort does great smooth contemporary French tunes (he's performing here later this month, we're going to try to go).

This is a serious post. I love music and greatly value the opinions of you good folks. Believe me - I always take action on your expert recomendations.

The only thing funny is me wearing a business suit, but that is another story.... .

My all-time favorite would be Stephan Grappelli, the inimitable jazz violinist.

Look for his CDs "Live in San Francisco"; "Stephan Grappelli Live in London"; one made at a winery in northern California; many more. Songs like "This Can't Be Love", "The Very Thought of You", etc. are just plain marvelous.

Bon chance!

Anthony

Jacqueline Francois is another great one along the lines of Piaf and Trenet. Jacques Brel, who was Belgian, is not to be missed. His "Ne me quittez pas" will put you in the right mood.

Well Degas, you stuff-muffin you.
I was out to lunch and that's when I read catalogues. And the 2004-2005 Catalog from "Frenchselections" was there "et voila!" 3 CD's for sale
Chansons de Paris, Vive La France and Cafe de Paris. They suggest going on to their website for the list of titles per disc. The ad says that there are digitally remastered classics included (Trenet, Piaf, Montand...)
"frenchselections.com"
I'm going to check this out too!

I don't know. Sometimes it's quite obvious you jest (maybe because you've nothing else better to do too? :-) ), degas, and since there's a parallel thread on Italian music, I just wasn't sure if this is serious.

But anyway, I responded because I get to show off a bit, so why not? :-)

That italian mood thread actually got me to dust off my credit card and make a huge $20 purchase! I almost had a panic attack when I saw the total.

But do any of you guys listen to such music while you cook french or italian food? Maybe I'm watching too much HGTV, but I've also started to sip wine while cooking. Maybe that's why the dishes all come out wrong!

Charles Aznavour - who often sang with Edith Piaf.

Madeleine Peyroux is a French jazz singer with a voice sort of like Billie Holiday. Here albums include both standards in English and jazz songs in French.

Her voice is just gorgeous, and she does a great version of La Vie en Rose. She's touring the US right now, and I'll miss her appearance in Alexandria, VA because I will be at a conference in Indianapolis. Darn.

I also get that ole' French feeling when I listen to Django Rhinehardt, the guitar player (who played with the young Stephane Grappelli, and was immortalized by Sean Penn in a movie that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of right now.)

Not romantic or cafe, but great fun: Les Negresses Vertes, an indescribable eclectic combination of alternative rock, Latin, N. African, cabaret, French accordion, you name it.

My middle-aged heart beats faster when I'm listening to Budda Bar. Or St. Germaine des Pres Cafe, volume 4. Listen to the samples on Amazon and you'll be shimmying away!

Definitely Charles Trenet and Edith Piaf for starters--and what about film scores, such as "Gigi," "Amélie," and the like?

Lovely thread, and degas, re: sipping wine and cooking, "wrong" is such an ugly word, maybe the dishes just come out enhanced?? Can I recommend the sound track to Chocolat, and if you have a L'Occitaine shop near you (Provencal bath products) they have a lovely CD they sell, probably on their web site as well, of mixed 'French mood' music.

La Mer
Douce france
Et maintenant
Sous Le ciel De Paris
La Vie En Rose
Les Gitanes
et the list goes on..

Here's my list, though I must admit my wife (of French birth) hates when I listen to these...
1. Les Accordeons de France - compilation of musette-style waltzes
2. Accordeon: Nostalgic Poet of Paris - another compilation of musette-style music
3. Ca c'est Paris (3 vols) - songs about Paris from 1920s-1950s
4. Les airs du temps (2 vols) - popular songs from 1920s-1950s

Numbers 1 and 4 are my favorites. Numbers 3 and 4 I bought in Paris, so I don't know if they are available elsewhere.

Another song I must mention is "Que reste-t-il de nos amours" sung by Salome de Bahia in a salsa style. It's on her CD "Cabaret" which is a bossa nova record produced by Bob Sinclair (who is a well-known producer of French electronic music).

Degas,
Just thought of another entertainer, Karen Akers. My wife and I saw her recently at Le Jazz Au Bar Club in Manhattan. She sings wonderful Piaf and other French classics. There is a CD of hers with Paris in its title that should be right up your alley.

Other than the incomparable Barbara Cook, Karen is our favorite cabaret singer. My wife and I have gone to their shows many times and 'Nous n'avons jamais des regrets..:'

Ultra Lounge - A Bachelor in Paris
((H))

Definitely the "Amelie" soundtrack!! Nothing like a French accordion (swoon)...

Anything by Serge Gainsbourg.

I have a GREAT CD by the French pop group NIAGARA called "Quel enfer!" 80s French pop...what could be better?? (I tracked it down on the French amazon.com website for a good deal.)

SALUT!

soundtrack from Umbrellas of Cherborg (sp)... it's very old but I did find a CD on-line.

Degas, I did NOT know that one could cook dinner without sipping wine! :s-

jjill I was playing that CD while doing my laundry today. I also have the vid.

Man, this is tougher than I first thought. So many good choices.

'60's pop by Pink Martini, I heard this song all over Paris radio this Spring. I forgot about it...until it turned up in the background of an awful movie, Josey & the Pussycats (neither Parker Posey nor Alan Cummings could save it). Je ne Veux Pas Travailler. You can get the lyrics from Ask Jeeves.

Charles Trenet can do it like nobody else! I have lots of French CD's, but he's THE ONE. There is always a Trenet CD in my car player - I've forgotten what American music sounds like.

Francis Cabrel. I've been so absorbed with so much other stuff the past year it had slipped by me that he has a new album "Les Beaux Degats". Cross our fingers it's as good as "Hors saison" and "Samedi Soir sur la Terre".

Best wishes,

Rex

I like Charles Trenet also Sue4.I can listen to him singing <La Mer> all day long..
His voice is so suave and pleasant!

Ahhh, kismet, La Mer~ sigh :)

a great 3 CD pack is Les Enfoires. All the artists on this travel France too perform to raise money for the homeless. Started by the actor Coluche.
There's performances by Patricia Kaas, Patrick Bruel, Francis Cabrel, Johnny Hallyday, Vanessa Paradis, Mimie Mathy, Jane Birkin,Julian Clerc, Patrick Fiori, Pascal Obispo, and too many others to name that also include film stars.

Try Rough Guide's Paris Cafe Music CD. It's a good mix of French classics with plenty of suave French accordion tunes.

I forgot to say, that they come in a yearly pack for the concerts that tour every January. I have the 2000 and the 2002.

I've been listening in the car to Putumayo's compilation "French Cafe". That has sent me through cyberspace hunting down more CD's by Paris Combo and Stephane Sanseverino.

I've been listening a lot lately to a lovely CD called La Belle Epoque, on which Susan Graham sings songs of Reynaldo Hahn. It may be stretching a point to count Hahn as a French composer, since he was born in Venezuela to German and Venezuelan parents, but he spent much of his career in France, the songs are all in French, and they feel very French (whatever that means).

111op, why not the whole Suite Bergamasque, not just the Clair de Lune? Some of the other movements are beautiful too. (Only kidding -- I'm currently learning to play the Passepied, and I'm feeling defensive on its behalf.)

Thank you all for the great inputs.

My budget will not allow for too many purchases as cotton and peanut prices have been distressingly low this year.

However, I will cut back on non-important stuff like soap, and shampoo and buy a couple of CDs.