|
|
 |
Feature
|
| Click Here to go back. |
New York Sun, Feature >>
Romantic Ambassador
By Pia Catton
Arielle Dombasle is everything a French chanteuse should be: vulnerably sexy, sumpremely thin, and hopelessly in love with love. Tonight, she launches her second album in a location most unusual for a French Star--Times Square. More specifically, at the Supper Club, with the help of the New York Big Band, led by Joe Battaglia.
Her album, "Cest Si Bon," comes at a time when France and America are not exactly enjoying a mutual adoration society. But if there were ever an ambassador who could charm both sides into submission, it is Ms. Dombasle.
With ultra-Frenchy versions of songs such as "Im in the Mood for Love" and "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup," she throws the listener back to a postwar era of lighter spirits. Ms. Dombasle wraps herself in the '40s and '50s musical mantle the way she would a mink stole. As Dean Martin once sang, and she does now: "Relax, Ay-Voo."
"People were getting over the war. The GIs were around. The swing was fun and bright. French people were flabbergasted," Ms. Dombasle told The New York Sun. "They adored Americans."
A former movie star and the current wife of the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, Ms. Dombasle has an international past that per haps makes her friendlier to a American dialogue than most. Born in Norwich, Conn., she moved with her French family to Mexico, where her maternal grandfather was France's ambassador. At 18, she moved to Paris to study opera and soon found herself in theater and film.
For her re-entrance to music more casual form than opera. In April, she released "Amor Amor," an album songs for" a particular kind of being in love. "Amor Amor was dramatic, for when your heart is broken in two pieces," she said.
But "C'est Si Bon" is for being happy in love. As Ms. Dombasle sees it, the era when modern conveniences more time for romance. Which all makes so much sense when she exclaims, using both hands: "The toaster! The dishwasher!"
Even if household appliances didn't actually improve amorous relationships. Ms. Dombasle can inspire hope for putting away one's BlackBerry. "It was a time when love was the grand affair of life. There was time for romance," she said.
The style in which "C'est Si Bon" was recorded also harks back to a time when things were done differently. To record the album, Ms. Dombasle rehearsed thoroughly with her band, then went into the studio to record the songs in one take. "There are no electronic drums or things that bands use. It's very vivid," she said.
To replicate that sound in New York, her artistic director landed the New York Big Band in the hope of giving the live preformance the same flavor created back home. "It's same arrangements, same balance. There are so many different ways of playing these songs," said the singer. "It's a feeling of taste. It's the sound, the way of singing."
The result is an album with a sound that's hard to place in a time period. Lush, yet sometimes brittle with a bit of vibrato, Ms. Dombasle's sound could have been recorded this year or 50 years ago.
As for the song choices, they're en tirely in keeping with the spirit of post war joi de vivre. "These songs are among my These were chosen in place of others that were too often played," she said.
And the introduction of the Nev. York Big Band helps, too. "They know these songs because they played back then," Ms. Dombasle said proudly.
On the album is Cole Porter's "Cest Magnifique," with its lively combina tion of French and English lyrics. But the winner in that category is "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup," in which our heroine takes some poetic license. Whereas the original lyrics are: "Morn ing, noon, and nighttime, too/ Toujours wondering what to do," Ms. Dombasle adds even more French into the mix: "Matin, midi, et le soir/ Toujours won dering where you are."
How did she choose the title of the al bum? "The phrase lc'est si bon' is so much the feeling of the time," she said ltYou can say that of candy, of love, of a breeze."
Ms. Dombasle lends her sultry voice to songs the other folks have popular ized, such as the Frank Sinatra favorite 'Tm in the Mood for Love" and the Marlene Dietrich hit "The Boys in the Backroom." But the album does have its all-French moments, too. "It Had to Be You" turns into "Tenias que ser tii."
Which perhaps pays homage to the singer's husband, whom she says she worshipped from the first time she saw his photo on the back of a book jack et . When they finally met, they conduct ed an affair, but were finally married and have been for 13 years. Will "B.H.L" and this French confection be painting the town while they're in Man hattan? ;'He's an intellectual. He's not a party night type."
Send in the toasters? Hardly necesary.
09/19/06
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
