“Un jour, pourtant… un jour viendra, couleur d’orange,
où les gens s’aimeront
Un jour comme un oiseau sur la plus haute branche”
“But one day, one day the time will come, with an orange glow,
when people will love one another
A day like a bird on the highest branch”
Love, longing, indignation, resistance and above all deep compassion and humanity: in “Hommage à Jean” MÉNESTREL – after previously having honored Brassens, Brel, Piaf and Aznavour – pays tribute to Jean Ferrat, the timelessly popular singer rightly regarded as one of the giants of “la chanson française”. With his deep, rich, warm baritone Ferrat captured the hearts of his audience and became one of the most beloved French singers of the 20th century.
“Je ne chante pas pour passer le temps”: for Ferrat singing was far more than a mere pastime. Born in 1930 as Jean Tenenbaum he was confronted early on with violence, fear and injustice when during World War II his father, of Jewish-Russian descent, was seized in a Nazi-raid and perished in the Auschwitz extermination-camp. The rest of the family was forced to go into hiding, aided by an underground Communist resistance group. These dramatic events scarred Jean for life. After the war he left school to work and help provide for the family. The seed was sown for the “chanteur engagé” he was to become later: a singer who stood against exploitation and oppression.
Ferrat began his singing-career in Paris in the early 1950s, an unknown artist in the city’s many small “cabarets”. Accompanying himself on guitar, shy and awkward on stage – but what a voice! His great breakthrough came in the 1960s and 70s, with fervent, political and uncompromising songs, some of which (for instance about France’s excesses in Algeria) were banned from radio and TV. He became even better known and more popular through his musical adaptations of poems by Louis Aragon, which he turned into beautiful songs about love, friendship, nostalgia, longing and hope.
Quite early on in his career Ferrat decided to retire from live-performing, seeking the serenity and stillness of nature and country-life. He settled in a simple renovated cottage in Antraigues-sur-Volane, a charming village perched on a hill in the Ardèche. He would live there for more than forty years, composing beautiful songs like the unforgettable “La Montagne”, a bitter-sweet chronicle of the “exode rural”, written on a terrace in village square.
In “Hommage à Jean” MÉNESTREL takes you by the hand – with images, anecdotes and fifteen of his beautiful chansons – on a journey through the life of Jean Ferrat. Featuring classics such as “La Montagne”, “Ma France” and “Nuit et brouillard”, and of course a number of gems from his “Ferrat chante Aragon” albums.
Jean Ferrat, a timeless troubadour with his passionate chansons and mesmerizing voice!
