Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg

This album is a pleasure. It's a tribute album, but nothing like you would usually expect. I have a couple different Gainsbourg tributes, including the thoroughly mediocre "I (Heart) Serge." This album is part of John Zorn's "Great Jewish Music" series on his Tzadik label. I haven't heard the others (tributes to Burt Bacharach and Marc Bolan), mostly because I'm not terribly familiar with their music. However, I *do* know Gainsbourg and I can definitely say this is a terrific tribute.

Part of the appeal is hearing a lot of amazing New York Downtown musicians tackle popular music. Gainsbourg isn't "pop" in the same sense as Britney Spears, but it's a lot more accessible than what many of these performers usually do. Sometimes it's difficult to understand how great a musician is when the music they're playing is so bizarre that you spend most of your attention just hanging on for dear life. But, when they interpret something more conventional, you can really hear what they are doing with new clarity.

Usually, you'd assume some tracks are stronger than others, but in this case, everyone turns in a solid effort. The beauty of it is how each artist contributes something true to Serge, but also uniquely theirs. It really speaks to the strength of Gainsbourg's music that it can twist into such a variety of styles and approaches.

I would recommend this to fans of Gainsbourg, fans of the performers, and anyone who enjoys adventurous, but accessible music. If you're not familiar with the performers, or if you're not familiar with Gainsbourg, the album will lose some of its appeal. Nevertheless, it's a strong album that deserves a listen.

For those unaware, 'Great Jewish Music' is a series released on John Zorn's Tzadik label, which pays homage to Jewish songwriters by way of a selection of Tzadik artists covering their tunes. The Serge Gainsbourg compilation is the second in the series, following Burt Bacharach. It doesn't quite match the Bacharach one, but is still well worth checking out.

The first two tracks are alone almost worth the price of admission. Elysian Fields' atmospheric take on 'Les Amours Perdues' discards the groove of the original, but it's still got plenty of soul, and is just beautiful. Then Mike Patton does all the voices (male and female), not to mention all the instruments, on 'Ford Mustang' and almost manages to outdo the original.

One of the big differences between this album and the Bacharach one is the level of diversity - here, most of the tracks are done relatively straight, and perhaps this is due to Gainsbourg's style of songwriting. His focus was definitely more on melodies than structures, to the point that rarely do any of his songs even have bridges or B sections, content with repeating one section over and over.

Of course, a few of the treatments are notably different, for example Zorn's 'Contact' which is totally a capella, including a snarling lead vocal; Marc Ribot's 'Black Trombone', slow and ponderous, with each note milked out of the guitar in his typical skronky way; or of course Ruins' hardcore take on 'L'Homme Tete Le Chou'.

All in all it's a great listen, and a good introduction to a legendary songwriter (obviously you should check out the originals too!). It's worth mentioning, this CD is quite easy on the ears (especially considering that it's on Tzadik) and could *almost* pass as dinner music, if it weren't for the Ruins track and a couple of others - but I guess that's the way Zorn likes it, just teetering on the edge of accessibility...

Great Jewish Music is the name for a series of tribute albums by Tzadik-related artistes. I've only heard two of these songs; the very accessible (for Ikue Mori) Pauvre Lola and the silly version of Comic Strip with too much reverb on the vocals. Interesting, poppy experimental music.