L'eternel Feminin/L'integ

What is not to like about Juliette's performance? A wonderful evocation of melodious French womanhood!

Fabulous...

This wonderful, definitive, genuinely limited-edition box-set (phew!) really is the dog's bollocks for Gréco fans. I've owned it from soon after Universal put it out in 2003, and am still exploring its less-well-known treasures. Of course, every bit of the copious written material that comes with this set is in French, but even a passing knowledge of the language should get you through. And it's worth persevering: I have rarely come across such detailed and consistent notes about recordings. Every individual CD, each in its own LP-type envelope (each of which I think reproduces an original album or EP cover, even though the CDs are by no means confined solely to reissues of either) also contains an individual booklet giving a running commentary on the recordings and their context in Gréco's career and life. Particular attention is paid to the arrangers with whom she worked, which is every bit as critical in French music of this sort as it is with, say, Sinatra. Their names, such as Rauber, will be familiar to fans of, say, Brel. Indeed, this box came out around the same time as the `Sweet-tin' (or red-velvet-cube!) Brel box-set, though as he left us less, his box was and is a smaller and less bankrupting affair.So why buy this? Well, you'll never really need to buy another mainstream Gréco CD in your life, for starters - unless you feel like getting hold of her later efforts, such as the Ley-label 1980s (?) remakes of her best-known songs (which aren't that bad by the way, and can still be got as a 3-CD set). The stuff after that, well you have perhaps to be a little more indulgent of the great lady. This box has the real meat though. Its timespan is breathtaking when you consider that the earliest recording it contains is from the late 1940s and the latest from the late 1970s. Her unfailing good taste never seem to let her or the listener down, and although she wrote very little herself, she sought out the very best lyricists - and the impression from the notes is that if they had it, she'd find it, however unknown they were at the time. Her collaborations with Gainsbourg and Mac Orlan, Ferré and of course Sartre himself in her more youthful days are well known, but the great stuff here isn't confined to them. It is to be stressed again that this is not just a reissue in pretty miniature repro sleeves of her LPs; its Brel contemporary was rather more along those lines, and indeed there have been some limited individual Gréco reissues of that sort too, though I've never really seen the point. Of course the contents of all the LPs are here, and of all the EPs - this is French music, after all! - and any singles, and there are a load of recordings that weren't ever issued before this set. And all of this is presented in strict order of recording (with the exception of some stuff that is grouped discretely - see below). The CDs, while not as stuffed-full as the older six-CD set (see below) are still generous, but can afford to avoid silly breaks: I don't think any sessions are broken across CDs. This, then, is an integral, strictly chronological ride (what a shame Moustaki's output hasn't been treated the same way), and all the better for that: you get to go on a long, long journey, assuming you can find time at regular enough intervals to remember where you last stopped off. There's some quirkier stuff on the higher-numbered CDs that cuts across this, such as a whole CD of her non-French recordings, and another of unissued stuff that's in addition to the unissued stuff that's incorporated in the chronological run (I think a better command of French than mine might be able to ferret out from the notes what's behind that distinction).The recordings are all of superb quality, the remasterings, to me, so lovingly done you can taste it. That was true of the earlier, 1990s 6-CD set ('Je suis comme je suis, 1951-1977') and it's possible that even the stuff that was on that set was remastered again for this issue. More air around the music perhaps? It should be noted that while there is a good amount of live stuff here that's never been issued before, the several live albums she released in the earlier part of her career are not included in full: tracks from them are included only if there were no contemporary studio versions of those songs. But as Universal have since issued a CD that combines two of these famous live recordings, that's not so bad, and meets my one criticism of the set when it came out. That still leaves one or two live sets that have never been reissued, but the LPs are still out there second-hand. And there can still be got a very nice CD of Italian radio recordings from the very early days.It's fantastic that the French not only produce this wonderful form of music, but that they still respect it enough to take reissues very, very seriously. I doubt if this set will ever be put out again, except perhaps in a no-frills cheaper issue (rather like EMI's monster meat-but-no-veg reissues of Callas and Karajan), so there is sense to buying this while there a still a few copies around: maybe whoever ends up owning the rights will never put out any comprehensive set again, depending on the prevailing economic climate. The set was limited, and copies seem to be getting fewer in number and, of course, a lot more expensive; which suggests that those, like me, who've bought them ain't givin' 'em up this side of the big wooden box (and maybe not even then).The book that comes with the set is a wonderful artefact in itself, and easily competes with other photo-rich biographies of Gréco that I've seen. The picture(s) of her and Miles together, before she was even a singer, are very touching. In fact it's of some interest to ponder the reissue histories of the two, even allowing for the greatly differing recording models each, their music or their record companies adopted.

Superbe coffret de 5 cd reprenant l'intégralité de ses chansons de 1950 à 1962, une pure merveille.