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1
Samba Saravah
Pierre Barouh
04:36
2
La fille d'Ipanema
Jacqueline François
02:50
3
Qui C'Est Celui-La - Partido Alto
Pierre Vassiliu
04:35
4
Il fait gris dans mon coeur
Jacqueline Boyer
02:03
5
Samba D'Ete
Marcel Amont
02:45
6
Chanson sur une seule note (Samba de uma note So)
Michèle Arnaud
01:45
7
Bidonville
Claude Nougaro
03:16
8
Maria Ninguen
Brigitte Bardot
02:38
9
Tu veux ou tu veux pas
Zanini
02:46
10
Le sourire de mon amour
Margot Lefebvre
02:52
11
La nuit des masques
Pierre Barouh
03:04
12
Fais comme l'oiseau
Michel Fugain & Le Big Bazar
03:07
13
Les eaux de Mars
Georges Moustaki
03:38
14
La chanson d'Orphée
Gloria Lasso
02:57
15
La Banda
Dalida
02:34
16
Fait pour s'aimer
Richard Anthony
02:34
17
Quand tu chantes
Nana Mouskouri
02:30
18
Le sourire de mon amour
Pierre Lalonde
03:05
19
Plus haut que moi
France Gall
03:06
20
Fio Maravilla
Nicoletta
03:37
21
Chanson sur une seule note - Samba de uma note So
Jean-Claude Pascal
02:17
22
Tu verras
Claude Nougaro
03:13
23
La fille d'Ipanema
Nana Mouskouri
02:38
24
Saudade (Un Manque Habité)
Pierre Barouh
05:15

French Samba

During the 1960s, when the accordion still held a prominent place in French chanson, bossa nova sparked interest for music from the tropics, similar to how Baudelaire and Gauguin did with the colonial exoticisms of distant islands, fantasized through biased and colored filters

The promise of a dolce vita on the beach, coconut in hand, embodied an irresistible alternative to urban monotony and the rapid industrial evolution in postwar European cities. What could help convey this sense of easy living and indolence better than the swing of bossa nova music?

Brazil and France have always shared mutual admiration, in a back and forth love affair, declaring passionately between each other, “Je t’aime... moi non plus” (“I love you – me neither”, for the Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin song). We know that Pierre Barouh, who described himself as “France’s most Brazilian Frenchman”, was a close friend of Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes, who contributed to popularising bossa nova in France by adapting many of the hits into French – including the “Samba da Bênção”, which then became “Samba Saravah” for Claude Lelouch’s full-length movie A Man and a Woman. Earlier in 1957, Henri Salvador prefigured bossa nova by slowing down a bolero rhythm to which he added a few jazzy chords: “Dans mon île” (“On My Island”). The Frenchman, whom Gilberto Gil credited as the "bossa nova champion" after he passed away, is today recognized as one of the precursors of the genre by Brazilian inventor Antônio Carlos Jobim. In return, a few French chanson artists adapted numerous bossa nova classics, featured here in a selection that shows how much the language of Molière, though infamously considered harsh and complex, perfectly suits the Brazilian swing.
 

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