Twenty years already. Claude Nougaro, singer, jazzman and poet, died on March 4, 2004 in Paris at the age of 74. In a half-century career, he has built a rich repertoire of more than 300 songs. A repertoire forged during legendary collaborations including Michel Legrand – we will return to this part of his musical heritage on Monday. But also, a repertoire built in the magic of adaptations of American and Brazilian songs. Songs that the Toulouse singer and poet knew how to add his personal words. Songs carried by the hoarse voice, the swaying gait and the feline steps of the man who, as a child, dreamed of being a dancer.
Here are ten legendary adaptations of Anglo-Saxon and Brazilian pieces, themselves legendary, which illustrate the attachment and deep respect that Claude Nougaro had for this music.
“Armstrong” (traditional song immortalized by Louis Armstrong)
Great classic of Claude Nougaro’s repertoire, Armstrong was released as a super 45 rpm (four tracks) in 1965 before being included on his first album Slum in 1966. Originally, it was a Negro spiritual, a sacred song of 19th century African-American slaves, Go Down Moses. Certain versions have left their mark, such as that of the Golden Gate Quartet in 1957, and of course the sublime version of Louis Armstrong in 1958, from which Claude Nougaro was inspired. The Toulouse singer confided that he wrote the lyrics for his adaptation during a stay on the Ile de Ré, in his father’s house. The text, with its anti-racist message, was written at the same time as the United States was deconstructing racial segregation law after law, on paper but not in people’s minds. Maurice Vander signs the arrangements and jazzman Roger Guérin provides the trumpet solos on the record. But it’s trumpeter Tony Russo who plays in the live above.
“You will see” (music by Chico Buarque)
In April 1978, Claude Nougaro launched the album You will see, whose eponymous song will be one of his biggest hits. He wrote the lyrics, a message both penitent and lucid from a man to the woman he loves, to music by Chico Buarque. Two years earlier, the Brazilian poet, composer and singer had co-signed with Francis Hime the soundtrack of Dona Flor and her two husbands, film by Bruno Barreto adapted from the novel by Jorge Amado. Where will it be? constitutes the main theme of the film. The singer Simone lent her voice to the original soundtrack, and in particular to the two sung versions (with variations in tempo and text) of the theme. Chico Buarque will record himself, with Milton Nascimento, these subtitled versions A Flor da terra And In Flor da Pele. Claude Nougaro, then married to a Brazilian, Marcia, discovered this music in a record that she brought back from her country. You will see, great critical and public success, will be distinguished by the Charles-Cros academy.
“Jazz and Java” (music by Dave Brubeck and Jacques Datin)
In 1962, after a first 33 rpm 25 cm record which did not work three years earlier, Claude Nougaro began a decisive collaboration with Michel Legrand. The pianist, composer and jazzman, already internationally renowned, produces the new recording from Toulouse, Jazz and java. To do this, he called on excellent musicians such as the composer Jacques Datin and the organist Eddy Louis. The song combines a famous Dave Brubeck theme, Three to Get Ready, for the chorus, and music by Datin for the verses. Result: a marvel of lightness where two of Nougaro’s passions coexist with mischief: jazz of course, and the French song of yesteryear. Marcel Amont will be the first to record the title, followed by Yves Montand, and finally by Claude Nougaro, in an arrangement by Michel Legrand sparkling like champagne.
“Slum” (music by Baden Powell)
In the 1960s, with bossa nova at the forefront, Brazil bewitched the world. Claude Nougaro draws from it the melody of Slum, song about poverty and the eponymous title of his first album 30 centimeters released in 1966. The music is that of Berimbau, named after a one-string instrument of African origin very famous in Brazil. It is a 1963 composition by guitarist Baden Powell, on which the poet Vinícius de Moraes added mystical and philosophical words, evoking capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art.
“Breathless” (music by Dave Brubeck)
Released on super 45 rpm in 1965, then included in the album Slum, the song Breathless lives up to its title. It is gripping and dark like a hopeless thriller. But it is not related to the film Breathless (1960), with an equally tragic outcome, by Jean-Luc Godard. Claude Nougaro wrote his text on Blue Rondo à la Turk, intoxicating theme, on an odd rhythm, by American jazz pianist Dave Brubeck which he cites in the song as an element of the context of the action. Claude Nougaro, who maintains the frantic tempo of the piece, gives a superb vocal performance.
“Dance on Me” (music by Neal Hefti)
In 1973, Claude Nougaro released the album Golden Locomotive which includes the adaptation of the jazz standard Girl Talk by Neal Hefti, American trumpeter, composer and arranger. This glamorous and ethereal instrumental piece appears in the film’s soundtrack Harlow (1965) by Alex Segal, a fictionalized biopic about Hollywood icon Jean Harlow. With his words and his rhymes, Claude Nougaro makes a sublime poetic ballad about art and the cycle of love and life.
“Paris Mai” (African traditional)
In 1968, struck by the May demonstrations which shook the capital, Claude Nougaro was the first singing star to react directly, in music, to these events. He writes a text that he chants, inhabited, on a six-minute piece, punctuating his narration with a sung refrain where he ardently repeats the words “May” and “Paris”. The melody of this chorus and the rhythm of the song are those of a traditional African song, Flo Me La, that Nina Simone sublimated on stage a few years earlier. It can be found in his live album Nina Simone at Newport (1960). It is the organist Eddy Louiss, who became a close traveling companion of Nougaro, who carried out the adaptation and arrangement of this powerful work, still very modern today, from the singer’s repertoire. However, the song got off to a difficult start. The French authorities, scalded by very recent events, are cautious and censor the song on the radio and television. Years later, in 1996, Eddy Louiss rearranged the piece for an album which took the title contracted into a single word: Flomela.
“Brazilian” (music by Gilberto Gil)
In 1975, Claude Nougaro was again inspired by the Brazilian repertoire for one of the songs on his album Women and Famine. It takes up the theme of a gem from Gilberto Gil’s repertoire, Viramundo, a title released in 1967 in his first album Louvação. In his adaptation, Nougaro addresses a “Brazilian”, her “brother in arms, on the journey of the beating heart”… The Toulousain invited artists from this country of music to join his group for this song, starting with the virtuoso Baden Powell on guitar, whose theme he had taken from Berimbau almost ten years earlier.
“Sing Sing Song” (music by Nat Adderley)
In 1965, Claude Nougaro launched the title Sing Sing Song on super 45 rpm before including it in the album Slum the next year. For this song, he covered a standard by trumpeter and cornetist Nat Adderley (younger brother of saxophonist Cannonball Aderley), Work Song, eponymous title from a 1960 album by the American jazzman. This jazz piece saw its notoriety increase tenfold in 1963 by the singer Oscar Brown Jr who successfully adapted it by enriching it with lyrics. For his part, Claude Nougaro writes a text evoking the prison world at the American prison of Sing Sing.
“Comme une Piaf” (music by Wayne Shorter)
In 1977, Claude Nougaro took up the theme Beauty and the Beast by saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a piece released two years earlier in the album Native Dancer from the giant of American jazz. On this music, he writes a text describing his crazy dreams as a singer, saluting on this occasion an artist who inspired him, right up to the final quote of the song. “Like a masculine Piaf/ I would like to be able to sing the directory/ And move your intestines…” , he sings mischievously at the very beginning of his song. As if he hadn’t already made this dream come true.
But also…
We could have mentioned other adaptations of major themes… There are of course Around midnight, nod to ‘Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk. There is the song Anthem carried by the melody of With Alma by Dizzy Gillespie. There is To your breasts, on the subject St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins, or even A woman’s hands in flour, on that of Gravy Waltz by Steve Allen… There is Sister Soul, in the gospel spirit, on the theme Sister Salvation by Slide Hampton. And the superb Harlem, adapted from Fables of Faubus by Charles Mingus. The list is not exhaustive when it comes to jazz… On the Brazilian side, we could also add these Blood Wedding where Nougaro had put a text on the instrumental Blood bodas by the Brazilian Marcos Valle.