Nostalgias
Agnès Jaoui- Si yo pudiera
- J'ai voulu être une autre
- Alfonsina y el mar
- Como la cigarra
- Di la verdad
- Mon cher bien mal acquis
- Tonada de la luna llena
- La alegria
- Canción de las cosas simples
- No se si fue de ti
- Sanarjiou
- Yeladim Ze simcha
- Le temps déraisonnable
- Nostalgias
Singer, actress, playwright, screenwriter and Oscar-nominated movie director, Agnès Jaoui is a woman of many talents. She also draws on many cultures in her music-making, as is richly evident in the 14 tracks on Nostalgias, and in her choice of fellow-musicians who bring influences from Latin America (particularly Argentina), Catalonia and the world of flamenco.
Jaoui herself was born near Paris, but her family was of Tunisian-Jewish origin, and she sees a trip to Cuba in 1996 as decisive in her musical development. “I just went to Cuba for some winter sun,” she says. “This was before the success of the movie The Buena Vista Social Club and I knew nothing about Cuban music, but as soon as I heard it, it touched my heart – as if I’d lived there in a former life. It was only some time afterwards that I realised why … From a very early age I had grown up with music from Israel and from the Arabic and Andalusian traditions. Many of their rhythms were to be found in the music of Cuba.”
On Nostalgias, Jaoui performs both new material and cover versions, singing in French, Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic. The arrangements are predominantly the work of the composer and performer Fernando Fiszbein, who was born in Argentina, but who has made his base in France; he worked with the King of Tango, Ástor Piazzolla, and appears on the album as guitarist, bandoneonist and vocalist. The album’s title track is a haunting tango, written in 1936 by the Argentine bandleader Juan Carlos Cobián. When asked what she feels about nostalgia as a sentiment, Jaoui says: “Literally, the word ‘nostalgia’ evokes a sense of pain for home and the past. I prefer the [Portuguese] word saudade, which suggests a pleasure that is missing. Yes, I love the music and voices of the past – they take me somewhere I feel secure – but I am not someone who wants to live in the past. I find the idea of the ‘good old days’ pretty ridiculous, and if I look to the past it is with the intention of moving forward, and of reinterpreting what has gone before – not of burying myself in it.”
This is Jaoui’s first Warner album as the sole headlining singer, but she brought her mellow, subtly seductive vocal colours to Rio-Paris appeared with soprano Natalie Dessay, Belgian vocalist Helena Noguerra and guitarist Liat Cohen on the 2014 release Rio-Paris, which was devoted to Brazilian music. “I adored singing that repertoire, which I have loved since I first started listening to music, and I found it exciting to work with women with such different and strong personalities. I learned a lot.”
Jaoui’s working relationships with the musicians who perform with her on Nostalgias go back as far as 15 years. A Warner Classics artist she especially admires is Christina Pluhar, founder of L’Arpeggiata, who also explores the cultural cross-currents of music. “Thanks to Christina Pluhar and her superb recordings I discovered that Baroque music, another of my passions, was an influence of the rhythms of the Caribbean – vice versa … I perform music that I love. There are purists in each musical genre, but, for me, music is absolutely not about purism, it’s about cross-fertilisation. Music doesn’t give a damn about borders and sectarianism.”