Rough Guide To The Music Of Paris (2007)

Product Summary Label: World Music Network UPC: 00605633119428 Release Date: 10/16/2007 Buy.com Sku: 205769731 Item#: M3TFDE Format:  CD Song Listing Disc 1 Song Title Sample 1. L'Autre Bout Du Monde - Emily Loizeau ~ Various Artists 2. Le Petit Succes - Olivier Libaux/Barbara Carlotti ~ Various Artists 3. Plat a Gratin - David Lafore ~ Various Artists 4. Quand Je Suis Ivre - Pauline Croze ~ Various Artists 5. Place Du Tertre - Bireli Lagrene ~ Various Artists 6. Elle Est Partie - Lili Boniche ~ Various Artists 7. Waltz For Nicky - Richard Galliano ~ Various Artists 8. Les Yeux Noirs - Jo Privat ~ Various Artists 9. Cafe Au Lait - Tony Murena ~ Various Artists 10. Ma Mere Traine Au Cafe - Rue De La Muette ~ Various Artists 11. Swing Suspens - Marcel Loeffler ~ Various Artists 12. St Germain Des Pres, A - Aldo Romano ~ Various Artists 13. La Valse Chinoise - Les Primitifs Du Futur ~ Various Artists 14. Bis'ness - Paris Musette ~ Various Artists 15. Les Costauds De La Lune - Les Costauds De La Lune ~ Various Artists 16. Brise Napolitaine - Vetese Guerino ~ Various Artists 17. Belleville - Django Reinhardt ~ Various Artists 18. Bechet's Creole Blues - Sidney Bechet ~ Various Artists   Album Notes and Credits Notes & Personnel Info While great respect is due to the Rough Guide world music compilations (especially from the globe's outer reaches), this one -- covering one of the world's great cities which has a musical culture teeming with creativity, vibrancy, diversity, and outlets of expression -- is simply lazy. First off, the back cover states that the CD "is a superb overview of Paris's eclectic contemporary music scene." Wrong. Django Reinhardt, though he may have influenced that scene, isn't contemporary any more than Sidney Bechet is (both are long gone); they may have influenced what happens now in some indirect way, but they aren't "contemporary" at all. An obvious question is that if these two are included, why isn't there even one cut by Serge Gainsbourg here? Certainly his influence is far more contemporary than any of the aforementioned greats, and at least at this moment his influence is far wider. The fact that Jacques Brel and Edith PIaf are also absent throws the compiler's strategy right out the window. (And the argument that Gainsbourg and Brel weren't born in Paris doesn't hold water if you include Bechet or Reinhardt.) None of the music from the great and influential Studio Saravah scene is here, nor is music from St. Germain, MC Solaar, or Air! True, Richard Galliano is still playing music, as are the great Bireli Lagrene and Aldo Romano. Even as Pauline Croze is present, and the steamy Andalusian funk and blues fusion of Lili Boniche too, this album sounds like it was predisposed to include something uniquely "musette-ish" and to offer some stereotypical image of the city as a melting pot without actually even attempting to do that. Even contemporary music from the French Algerian underground is absent. This is actually the poorest volume in the Rough Guide series, and it is not only lazy, but deeply misleading. This is revealed not only its choices but especially in its omissions, which betray a strange and perhaps troubling aesthetic and social ideology. ~ Thom Jurek Producer: World Music Network   Technical Info Release Date : 10/09/2007 Original Release Date : 2007 Catalog ID : RGNET-1194CD Label : World Music Network (UK) Number of Discs : 1 Runtime : 59m : 2s Studio/Live : Studio Mono/Stereo : Stereo SPAR Code : n/a UPC : 00605633119428    Related Videos 11:11: Rodrigo Y Gabriela