Search - Charles Trenet :: Fais Ta Vie

Forever young !

Dirk De Bruyne | Schoten, Belgique Belgique | 08/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is indeed a great shame that most americans are so unfamiliar with the great Charles Trenet, a legend in his own time and writer of some of the most beautiful songs ever("la mer" must certainly rank as such..). A simple sample of his unending joy of life and bouncy tunes should make anyone a convert to his repertoire...I myself only really discovered him when he was already some 80years old and starting out on yet another new and fresh part of his career..."fais ta vie" is the work(words, music and singing) of a man of 82 but you wouldn't notice it while listening to this cd...what an feast, the title song sounds as if the last 50 years have not left any mark on mr.Trenet's capacities...indeed this is his best work in many a decade...savour every word, the jazzy thrills, the amazing gift for melody and the octagenarian velvet voice of one of the truly ageless performers of our time. I had the exceptional pleasure of catching him live in concert (in Brussels ) the year he turned eighty....the auditorium, far from being filled with aged admirers, was deluged with people in their twenties and thirties...the ovation afterwards almost made the roof cave in...at age 87 we may never see him do that again...happy the ones who were there and thank God for cd's! If you only know Trenet from the rather shabby compilation disks available in the US, made up from creaky thirties and forties recordings, then try to find these 3 goodies : "le fou chantant en public"(excellent 1987 concert recording with all the old favorites!), "mon coeur s'envole vers toi"(1992 studio recording of some tremendous new songs), the one reviewed here and "les poetes descendent dans la rue"(1999, new songs...going out in great style!)."