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Special report
Reggae-dub Party Gainsbourg-style
Special Tribute Night at Glaz'Art
Paris
02/10/2006 -
With a little stretch of the imagination, fans arriving at Glaz’art – a music venue just off the city’s notorious ringroad, "le périphérique" - might almost have imagined themselves in Jamaica! Walking across a mini-sand bank with a wall of reggae beats powering from within, a crowd of rastamen, young trendies, curious 50-somethings and a couple of supporters of the Jamaican football team made their way into Glaz’art’s reggae night. Inside, they were greeted by a series of giant screens flickering with excerpts of Gainsbourg videos shot in Jamaica in the 70s and an exhibit of photos of the late great Serge taken by Pierre Terrasson.
The Gainsbourg Reggae Dub Party really got going around 10.30pm when Molecule, one of France’s hottest young dub talents, took to the stage to present his debut album. Paying tribute to the dub side of the legendary "Homme à la tête de chou", the young composer and arranger whipped up a vibrant mix of reggae dub, electro and hip-hop, sitting at his computer screen. With one hand guiding the mouse and the other flying across a bank of some hundred keys, the young dub virtuoso powered out a fusion of electronic and acoustic sounds, starting with a relatively laidback intro then building to a crescendo with bass drums and a barrage of special sound effects.
At one point, Zig-Zag, one of his toasting partners, leapt from a corner of the stage and launched into a sunny, upbeat version of Truth and Light, before handing over to Runigga’s more rough, staccato style. A shout went up from the crowd as Gainsbourg’s vocals suddenly echoed from beyond the tomb on a dub version of Et si elle, which the singer-poet and fan of Jamaican-style distortion would have been proud to claim as his own. The audience began to go wild to the dub beats, as if the energy of this musical exchange between two generations had started pumping through their veins.
Following Molecule up on stage came Bruno Blum and his group Dub de luxe. The reggae specialist, renowned for having remixed Gainsbourg’s reggae albums (and their dub versions) – namely Aux armes et cætera, Mauvaises nouvelles des étoiles and Enregistrement Public au Théâtre le Palace – had been eagerly awaited by the crowd.
With a guitar strapped round his shoulder, dressed in a snazzy black jacket, crisp white shirt and pointy shoes, Blum looked for all the world like a 50s rock star. An interesting anachronism as he launched into his set with a string of his own compositions - 13 juillet, La Martiniquaise, Sous la douche - "inspired by Gainsbourg’s", but not obviously so. The audience was none too happy with this, clamouring "We want reggae, we want Gainsbourg!" B.B (as he had introduced himself at the start of the concert) complied, starting up Lola rastaquouere in English accompanied by his four musicians and pretty backing singer. The mood changed as the coloured spotlights flashed and the audience took up the chorus, dub beats wafting across the room.
Not eveyone was happy, though. "Gainsbourg should be in French!" one detractor cried. "Well, it’s more expensive in French!" retorted B.B., half irritated, half genuinely amused. The atmosphere finally grew more relaxed as Blum and his musicians struck up the opening chords to Gainsbourg classics Vieille Canaille and Aux armes et cætera. But the master of the Gainsbourg remix only really won over the crowd with a cover of Bob Marley’s War (which included a reading of a speech Hailé Selassié made to the United Nations in 1963). Paying tribute to your idol is not always an easy business, it seems!
Fleur de la Haye
Translation : Julie Street
02/03/2006 -
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