Style of Music of This Background Track, and Recommendations for Similar Stuff?

May 13, 2004 1:55 PM

music type/genre question - the background track on this page from this site is wonderful stuff from a fellow named louis sclavis - while i like his stuff, i'm more interested in finding out what the specific style of the song used for the background track is? and if readers have any suggestions for more artists doing stuff in this style?
posted by specialk420 to media & arts (9 comments total)

To my ears, it almost sounds like a naive klezmer style, with a Mediterranean feel. I'd enjoy hearing what others think, and if anyone has any other examples, because I like it as well.
My memory of it is a bit foggy, but I think the soundtrack to Il Postino may have had similar sounds.
posted by nprigoda at 2:59 PM on May 13, 2004

I don't have any answers, but thanks for posting--this is a great site. It kind of sounds like a tarantella...
posted by eastlakestandard at 3:21 PM on May 13, 2004

yeah . as i said it is louis sclavis with a collection of other artists - but listening to samples off the cd, some of the other stuff is a bit more pure jazz, which isn't exactly my cup of tea. but this slightly gypsy style stuff - is yummmeee.
posted by specialk420 at 3:36 PM on May 13, 2004

I don't know much about this kind of music, but it sounds to me like the kind of retro French jazz you can hear all over Paris. One influence I hear is by Gypsy Jazz (the French sometimes call it jazz manouche), pretty much invented by Django Rheinhardt.

It also sounds like it's influenced by bal musette, a style of music played in guingettes, which were music cafes (mostly outside the city along the banks of the Seine and the Marne) where couples dance and everyone drinks and sings along with the classics of chanson française. Check out this page of guingette songs to see if you think I'm hearing things or not.

100 years ago, guingettes were a big deal. 15 years ago, guingettes were retro-kitsch, mostly tourists and nostalgic older people, with a few younger people taking it for a good laugh. But in the last 10 years there's been a serious revival of guingette music. Yann Tiersen (who did the soundtrack to Amélie Poulain) is the best known of a bunch of musicians who sometimes get called "neo-guingette".

Sorry I don't know enough about the French jazz scene to recommend some names. You might want to google for some of the names in Sclavis' biography or his agent's web site. Let us know if you find anything good.
posted by fuzz at 4:16 PM on May 13, 2004

oops, make that "guinguette".
posted by fuzz at 5:34 PM on May 13, 2004

Sclavis is wonderful. I recommend Les Violences de Rameau.
posted by languagehat at 7:24 PM on May 13, 2004

thanks for the info fuzz. ill try to remember to post what i come up with in my scrounging - i think you are onto something with the "guinguette" reference/influence.

my girlfriend and i were just remarking this eve listening to the naples site plugged into my home stereo - how the sounds are almost from some make-believe world ... so good.
posted by specialk420 at 10:03 PM on May 13, 2004

Plugging the name "louis sclavis" into the Music Plasma search engine says Bill Evans and Keith Jarret would be your closest bets.
posted by ArsncHeart at 12:36 PM on May 14, 2004

recommendations on sclavis front from the music junkies at electric fetus (best record store in minneapolis (by a mile))

atilla zoller, gabor szabo, taraf de haidouks. im looking forward to checking them out.
posted by specialk420 at 6:13 PM on May 14, 2004