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Feb Song Of The Month--Seul Ce Soir
MikeK
Asheville, NCNew Altamira M-30, Altamira M-10, Epiphone Zephyr Regent
This month's song (sometimes called Je Suis Seul Ce Soir) is usually played as a slow swing & is commonly called at jams. It's usually played in the key of C & I've attached the chart that my band uses below. It seems to have been written in 1941 by Paul Durand, Jean Casanova & Rose Grosjean. I know little more about the history of the song, so I hope others will join in the discussion if they know more about it. I'll post a recording of Django's version of it later. There dont seem to be many recordings of him playing it. Bireli Lagrene has some excellent recordings of it, and Woody Allen used a version of it in Midnight In Paris from the band Swing 41.
Comments
I like to play E-7b5 in the bar 7 of B section. I just listened to Tchavolo playing it live and they actually play Bb7 instead, leading up to A7 in both A and B sections.
The first recordings of "(Je suis) Seule ce soir" were by Assia de Busny (I'l spare us this one) and Léo Marjane, both in Juli 1941. Marjane had started her career as an acrobat and since the early thirties worked as a singer. She had been in the United States for several years and claimed for herself having brought Jazz to France (together with Jean Sablon and Jacqueline François).
Although the song had no political intention at all, it was understood by french people suffering under the Nazi occupation as a woman's lament ("seule": female form of "alone"; "seul": male form) about her loved one in captivity or on the run. As almost always this song had to pay for becoming a (gypsy) jazz standard with the loss of a part of the composition (the outlined lyrics in the below pdf are not fitting into MikeK's leadsheet) - remember for example "J'attendrai". Unfortunately I could not find a complete leadsheet until now. But never giving up.
I think everybody here knows the versions played by Adrien Moignard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BddsQCBWPH0 and Yorgui Loeffler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkmkhgfKtrI, both using the DC Musicschool playback with Denis Chang and Paul van Dyk as rhythm section. And for sure the fantastic old-school-jumping version by Tchavolo Schmitt and his band on the album "Miri familia" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsfZISUe9VA.
But maybe you do not know the version by Feigeli Reinhardt, a lesser known virtuoso. As a nephew of Daweli Reinhardt (lead guitarist with Schnuckenack Reinhardt before Häns'che Weiss) he played second lead and rhythm guitar and sang in his uncle's band for a while.
(By the way: is he playing a Di Mauro St. Louis Blues?)
Nice, Willie. You're like the jazz history professor I always wish I had. Below is a link to Django's version. Warning--if you call it at this slow tempo at a jam, you're in for a long night!
https://youtu.be/zgQ-0FVJs4s
No profound jazz history knowledge, only fast internet. But thank you for the flowers! 😉
Here's a link to Bireli Lagrene's studio version. A real classic...
https://youtu.be/LzmYYmo2r94
Brilliant rendition from Tchavalo and Fapy, L'Espirit Manouche, Birmingham, UK, 2003
@Willie It is interesting to me that the only entry on the French wikipedia for this song is "Seule ce soir", using the feminine form of the adjective as you mentioned. With the German occupation of France already complete by 1940, it mentions this song coming a year later when many husbands of French women were held as prisoners of war in German camps. It makes me wonder how Seule came to be modified to Seul. I wonder if that is just from non-native French speakers writing it how they hear it (seul). When you type "Seul ce soir", it doesn't even redirect you to the main song. It just says "no page exists." I think I'll start spelling it with "seule".
As for the (Je suis) part, it seems we don't do many parenthetical titles in songs these days. Reminds me of songs like the Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms", the Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". Sometimes the parenthetical part shows up at the end a la Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" or Stevie Wonder "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)." Finally, there is the much rarer parenthetical bookend of the Beastie Boys "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)" or Ryan Adams song title with only parentheses, i.e. no non-parenthetical portion, called "(Argument with David Rawlings concerning Morissey)."
Here's a version with Fapy and Paulus's band that has nothing to do with parentheses.
@billyshakes Your post made me have a look at the title of Léo Marjane's record, and what did I see? SEUL CE SOIR.
Here is another version of "Seul ce soir" by Bernard Jean „Barney“ Wilen (who played saxophone on Miles Davis music for "Elevator to the gallows"):
Interesting. This discogs entry shows the label as "Seule ce soir." It claims it is the original 1941 Grammophone version. Where did you see it as "Seul?" When I search under her name for "seul ce soir", it looks like the only spelling under her name in that way is a Turkish compilation album of unknown date. The plot thickens...