Stellio, the Star of Creole Music

July 24, 2019 marked the 80^th anniversary of the death of Fructueux Alexandre (1885-1939), better known as Alexandre Stellio, the most famous musician to come from the island of Martinique. As a clarinettist, composer and bandleader, he was the principal figure of a historic biguine movement that swept through Paris in the early Thirties. Together with singer Léona Gabriel, he contributed to the transmission and preservation of the musical heritage of Martinique’s former capital, Saint-Pierre, which was destroyed in 1902 by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée on May 8, in which almost 30,000 people lost their lives. Stellio was hugely popular, a stellar musician not only in the Caribbean but also in France.

After a first volume of his music (1929-1931) released in 1994, this second set covering the period 1932-1938 comes close to a complete discography (the five titles missing are listed at the end of this booklet.) The set includes two previously-unreleased testimonials: the first is from Gaston Monnerville (1897-1991), President of the French Senate from 1947 to 1968, who first met Stellio when the musician arrived in French Guyana in 1902; the second is from Adéla Stellio (1898-1991), the musician’s widow, who gives an emotional account of her husband’s final days. He suffered a cerebral embolism in April 1939 while onstage in Paris at a biguine dance hall.

Fructueux (his given name) was born on 16 April 1885 at Anses-d’Arlet on the island of Martinique. His mother was a 22 year-old farm worker named Marie-Louise Pierre-Lucien, and his father, Émile Alexandre, was a seaman who only recognized the boy as his son when he reached the age of 17. At the end of 1902, six months after the Saint-Pierre disaster, the mother and her four children left for Cayenne in French Guyana, where they were taken in by the parents of the young Gaston Monnerville, a future French Senator. Fructueux worked as a cobbler and developed his passion for music, teaching himself to play the clarinet while forging an immediately recognizable style of his own. Dancers in admiration of his playing in the music halls of Cayenne would soon refer to him by the name “Stellio”.

When he returned to Martinique in 1919, Stellio Alexandre performed with violinist Ernest Léardée at the Gaumont cinema and in the dance halls of the new capital, Fort-de-France. He spent ten years on the island, and then left to go to Paris on 27 April 1929, taking his five-piece group with him. His compatriots in France gave him a warm welcome, first at the “Foyer Colonial” dance hall and then down near the River Seine at the “guingette” called the “Rocher de Cancale”. Parisian nightbirds who were fans of biguine were quick to notice him as a newcomer on a scene that already included the famous “Bal Nègre” on the Rue Blomet, a club founded as recently as 1924. By 1930, the group led by Stellio had bookings to appear in all the new cabarets in vogue, among them “La Boule Blanche” in Montparnasse or “Le Canari” on the other side of the Seine.

On Wednesday, May 6, 1931, the International Colonial Exhibition opened in the Bois de Vincennes, and the event received considerable attention. For five whole months, Stellio and his group entertained visitors to the exhibition’s Guadeloupe Pavilion, and the length of his stay was evidence of his popularity and the importance of the biguine fashion. As early as June 1931 he opened his own nightclub, “Tagada”, in Montparnasse, on the Rue de l’Arrivée. There were many articles in the press to celebrate the club’s exotic atmosphere, and everyone who was anyone in Paris passed through its doors. The “Tagada” temporarily closed in June 1932, and Stellio took advantage of the hiatus to inaugurate “La Rhumerie Martiniquaise” on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. He reopened his old “Tagada” club under a new name (“Madinina Biguine”) at the old address in Montparnasse on 15 November 1932, but it was short-lived: the economic depression obliged the club to close its doors permanently. From September 1933, Stellio continued to appear in Montparnasse, first at the club “L’Élan Noir” for a year, and then again at “La Boule Blanche” between October 1934 and September 1935. In addition to his many appearances, Stellio would make records almost continuously, for labels such as Polydor, Pathé, Cristal, and Odéon, with which he finally signed an exclusive contract.

The year 1935 was marked by national celebrations that surrounded the Tercentenary of France’s attachment of the French Antilles and French Guyana as overseas territories, and the festivities’ apotheosis came on November 14, 1935, when the “Nuit Antillaise et Guyanaise” gala was staged at the Paris Opera, a great event held in the presence of the President of the Republic, Albert Lebrun. Onstage, Stellio presented an Antilles quadrille of thirty young Creole girls in a spectacular performance that would be repeated on January 27, 1936 at the Graslin Opera in Nantes. At the end of 1935, the press announced Stellio’s appearance at the Pigalle cabaret “Chez Joséphine” (meaning, “Josephine’s place…”). The owner in question was from Martinique herself. Stellio’s orchestra also appeared in the film “Le Chant des Îles”, directed by Jean Arroy in 1935, but all trace of that film has since disappeared. After the Tercentenary celebrations, Alexandre Stellio continued touring in 1936 with concerts in France, Belgium and Switzerland. He played in Deauville, and then that summer he appeared at “La Potinière Hawaïenne” near the beach of Le Pouliguen at La Baule.

On May 24, 1937, French President Albert Lebrun officially opened the International Arts and Techniques Exhibition in Paris, which contained 190 pavilions spread out on both banks of the River Seine between the Grenelle and Concorde bridges. Up until the exhibition’s closure on November 25, 1937, Stellio played biguine for audiences at the “Bar des Îles”, which was also the title of one of his compositions. Beginning in April 1938, Stellio and his musicians went away on a lengthy tour of North Africa, visiting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In Casablanca they appeared at the “Belvédère”, and then at the “Brasserie Laferrière” in Algiers before they went to “La Rotonde” in Tunis. When Stellio returned to Paris in November he was very tired, and made his last recordings for Odéon on December 28, 1938.

It was on April 15, 1939, on the stage of a former “musette” cabaret refurbished as an Antilles dance hall (located at 11, Rue de la Huchette in Paris) that Stellio would collapse while playing. It was a Saturday, the night of his 54th birthday. He was taken into hospital at the Hôtel-Dieu on the Île de la Cité. He was paralysed and remained there for three months until he passed away on the morning of July 24. An immense crowd attended his funeral at the cathedral of Notre-Dame on the afternoon of Saturday, July 29. His coffin was placed in a provisory vault to await a return to Martinique for burial, but the outbreak of the Second World War made this impossible, and today Stellio lies at rest in division 38 of the Parisian Cemetery located at 45 avenue Marx Dormoy, in Bagneux.

Apart from the irreplaceable role he played during his lifetime in order to safeguard and hand down the Creole music tradition of Saint-Pierre, Alexandre Stellio left behind him many original compositions and an influence over a number of French musicians who were lovers of New Orleans jazz. We must all remember the charisma, inspiration and creativity of this French Antilles musician who started out with nothing, yet reached the summit of his art through sheer willpower and hard effort.

Jean-Pierre MEUNIER

English translation by Martin Davies, © 2020

CD 1 (1932-1934) :    

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole du Tagada.
Masséna (tb), Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (bjo), René Léopold (p), Paul Mathias
(chacha dans 1, 3, 5, guitare dans 1), Hanany (batt), Léona Gabriel (chant).      Polydor, Paris, vers août 1932

1.             BANDE ZARROIS (Stellio) Biguine chantée   5666 BKP  2’56

2.             LUNDI PÂQUES (Stellio) Mazurka créole      5667 BKP  2’43

3.             ÉTI TINTIN (Stellio) Biguine chantée             5668 BKP  2’49

4.             BA NOUS EN TI PUNCH (Stellio) Mazurka    5669 BKP  2’45

5.             TI PAULE (Stellio) Biguine chantée              5670 BKP  2’54

6.             BÊTE A FÉ (Stellio) Biguine         5671 BKP  3’00

Stellio et son orchestre Créole du Madinina.            
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (bjo), Paul Mathias (guitare), Finotte Attuly (p),
Hanany (batt), Léona Gabriel (chant).           Polydor, Paris, 20 juillet 1933

7.             LA PEAU FROMAGE (Stellio, L. Gabriel) Biguine           6478 BKP  2’57

8.             LUTIMA (Stellio, Gabriel) Biguine 6479 BKP  3’13

9.             LA DÉFENSE KA VINI FOLLE (Stellio, L. Gabriel) Biguine              6480 BKP  2’48

10.           EN NOUS MONTÉ (Stellio, L. Gabriel) Biguine               6481 BKP  3’30

11.           LA BELLE TITINE (L. Gabriel) Biguine          6482 BKP  2’51

12.           VIÉ VIANDE (Stellio, L. Gabriel) Biguine        6483 BKP  2’29

Orchestre de l’Élan. Direction Stellio.      
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (bjo, g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p),
Paul Mathias (chacha, chant), Hanany (batt). Cristal, Paris, vers nov. 1933 (*)

13.           ÉTI TINTIN (Stellio) Biguine chantée             CP 1039    2’58

14.           LA PEAU FROMAGE (Stellio, L. Gabriel) Biguine chantée              CP 1040    2’51

15.           AH ! MI RORO (Stellio) Biguine chantée        CP 1042    2’43

16.           PARIS BIGUINE (Stellio) Biguine chantée     CP 1043    3’23

17.           EN L’AI MONE LA (Stellio) Biguine              CP 1044    3’02

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Paul Mathias (guitare, chacha, chant),
Finotte Attuly (p), Maurice Banguio (batt).      Odéon, Paris, 29 janvier 1934

18.           MANGOT-ZO (Stellio) Biguine      KI 6450-1   2’57

19.           LA PEAU FROMAGE (Stellio, L. Gabriel) Biguine chantée              KI 6451-1   2’54

20.           JEANNE-MARIE (Stellio) Valse martiniquaise                KI 6452-1   2’55

21.           ÉTI TINTIN (Stellio) Biguine chantée             KI 6453-1   2’46

22.           SAPOTILLE (Stellio) Biguine rumba             KI 6454-1   2’40

23.           LOULOUSE (Stellio) Biguine chantée           KI 6455-1   2’58

(*) Manque CP 1041 (Oncle Tom, Biguine)

CD 2 (1934) :

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p), Maurice Banguio (batt),
Léona Gabriel (chant dans 1 et 2, poss. chacha dans 1 et 4).           Polydor, Paris, 26 mars 1934 (*)

1.             MOIN BELLE ! MOIN JEUNE ! (Stellio, L. Gabriel) Biguine              1094 WPP 3’08

2.             CALALOU (Stellio) Biguine          1095 WPP 3’26

3.             UN SOIR AU MORNE ROUGE (Stellio) Valse martiniquaise            1096 WPP 2’52

4.             BO DOUDOU OU, CHÈ ! (Stellio) Mazouk créole           1097 WPP 2’47

5.             PAUVRE PÉPÉ (Stellio) Biguine   1098 WPP 2’54

6.             SAMEDI GLORIA (Stellio) Biguine                1099 WPP 2’48

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p),
Paul Mathias (chacha et chant dans 13 et 14), Maurice Banguio (batt).             Odéon, Paris, 17 avril 1934

7.             SUR LA ROUTE DIDIER (Stellio) Valse pasillo              KI 6611-1 2’54

8.             UN DIMANCHE À SAINTE-ANNE (Stellio) Mazouk créole               KI 6612-1   2’53

9.             OLGA (Stellio) Biguine                KI 6613-1 2’58

10.           ADÉLA (Stellio) Biguine              KI 6614-1 2’51

11.           AUBADE DES TROIS ILETS (Stellio) Valse martiniquaise              KI 6615-1   2’49

12.           BELLE CABRESSE (Stellio) Mazouk créole  KI 6616-1 2’47

13.           AMANTINE, AMANTINE (Stellio) Biguine chantée          KI 6617-1 2’56

14.           STAVISKA (Stellio) Biguine chantée             KI 6618-1 3’07

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (bjo), Paul Mathias (g, chant dans 17, chacha dans 18),
Finotte Attuly (p), Maurice Banguio (batt).      Odéon, Paris, 29 septembre 1934

15.           GRAINES LA PLUIE (Stellio) Biguine            KI 6848-1   2’40

16.           MARGOT (Stellio) Valse antillaise KI 6849-1 2’49

17.           CHANSON CANNES (Stellio) Biguine chantée              KI 6850-1 3’03

18.           LOIN DE FORT-DE-FRANCE (Stellio) Mazouk créole     KI 6851-1 3’04

19.           NOSTALGIE (Stellio) Valse antillaise            KI 6852-1   3’07

20.           MAMOUNE (Stellio) Mazouk créole              KI 6853-1 2’49

(*) Manquent 1092 WPP (Solange, Biguine)
et 1093 WPP (Maman Corine, Biguine)

CD 3 (1935-1936) :

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p),
Paul Mathias (chacha), Maurice Banguio (batt).             Odéon, Paris, 25(a) et 26(b) février 1935

1.             ELLA (Stellio) Biguine (a) KI 7110-1              2’48

2.             CAMÉLIA (Stellio) Rumba           (a) KI 7111-1              2’57

3.             BELLE CAYENNAISE (Stellio) Biguine         (a) KI 7112-1              3’03

4.             CES TI PEINTRES LA (Stellio) Biguine         (a) KI 7113-1              2’57

5.             SUR LA SAVANE (Stellio) Valse antillaise     (b) KI 7114-1              2’42

6.             RENÉE (Stellio) Biguine              (b) KI 7115-1              2’58

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p),
Maurice Banguio (batt).               Odéon, Paris, 24 octobre 1935

7.             EN ROUTE POUR LES ANTILLES (Stellio) Valse antillaise            KI 7434-1   2’47

8.             PLEUREZ, PLEUREZ CHABIN (Stellio) Biguine             KI 7435-1   3’02

9.             BELL’ MATADOR (Stellio) Biguine               KI 7436-1   2’58

10.           CONVERSATION (Stellio) Mazouk créole      KI 7437-1   2’48

11.           PAS OUBLIER MOIN (Stellio) Biguine          KI 7438-1   2’48

12.           LA VIE A BELLE (Stellio) Valse antillaise      KI 7439-1   3’01

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p),
Mémé Costin (cb), Charles Nicolas (batt).      Odéon, Paris, 29 mai 1936

13.           MA MYNNE (Stellio) Valse antillaise             KI 7575-1   2’38

14.           MARCELLE (Stellio) Mazouk créole             KI 7576-1   2’52

15.           LA BRISE DES TROPIQUES (Stellio) Biguine               KI 7577-1   2’54

16.           UN SOIR AU CHALET DU LAC (Stellio) Valse antillaise KI 7578-1   2’51

17.           CÉ ÇA QUI CHIC (Stellio) Biguine                KI 7579-1   3’01

18.           ENCORE CINQ MINUTES VEUX-TU ? (Stellio) Mazouk  KI 7580-1   3’01

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p),
Charles Nicolas (batt, chacha dans 24).        Odéon, Paris, 28(a) et 29(b) septembre 1936

19.           LA MARIE-GALANTE (Stellio) Valse antillaise               (a) KI 7673-1              3’06

20.           TI ZAZA (Stellio) Biguine             (a) KI 7674-1              3’04

21.           LIENNE DOUCE (Stellio) Biguine  (b) KI 7675-1              2’52

22.           LINA (Stellio) Valse antillaise       (b) KI 7676-1              2’57

23.           LA SAUCE CODINDE (Stellio) Biguine          (b) KI 7677-1              3’04

24.           FLEUR CAMPÊCHE (Stellio) Mazouk créole  (b) KI 7678-1              2’54

CD 4 (1937-1938) :

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p),
Charles Nicolas (batt). Odéon, Paris, 21 janvier 1937

1.             DOUCE ESPÉRANCE (Stellio) Valse antillaise              KI 7834-1   3’03

2.             SÉRÉNADE AUX TERRES-SAINVILLE (Stellio) Biguine KI 7835-1   3’03

3.             EN TI SOU MABI (Stellio) Biguine KI 7836-1   2’46

4.             LUCIE (Stellio) Mazouk créole      KI 7837-1   2’40

5.             À L’OMBRE DES PALMIERS (Stellio) Valse pasillo       KI 7838-1   2’51

6.             V’LOPPEZ MOIN DOUDOU (Stellio) Biguine  KI 7839-1   2’45

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Henri Boye (g métal.), Finotte Attuly (p), Mémé Costin (cb),
Charles Nicolas (batt), Paul Mathias (chant dans 8).       Odéon, Paris, 8 mars 1938 (*)

7.             ARLETTE (Stellio) Valse antillaise                KI 8387-1 3’03

8.             PAIN ÉPI LOZI (Stellio) Biguine    KI 8388-1 3’06

9.             MANICOU VOLANT (Stellio) Mazouk créole  KI 8391-1 3’04

10.           AU BAR DES ÎLES (Stellio) Marche créole    KI 8392-1 3’02

Stellio et son Orchestre Créole.
Alexandre Stellio (cl), Mémé Costin (bjo), René Léopold (p),
Charles Nicolas (batt). Odéon, Paris, 28 décembre 1938

11.           LA PETITE BONOISE (Stellio) Valse antillaise               KI 8730-1   2’53

12.           FILI-FILI (Stellio) Biguine             KI 8731-1   2’59

13.           TI CITRON (Stellio) Mazouk créole               KI 8732-1   2’51

14.           POPOL (Stellio) Biguine              KI 8733-1   3’04

15.           ALICE ET PAULETTE (Stellio) Valse antillaise              KI 8734-1   2’59

16.           MAMAN LENTE (Stellio) Biguine  KI 8735-1   3’12

17.          
Interview de M. Gaston Monnerville, ancien Président du Sénat
le 15/03/1989 à son domicile, 27 avenue Poincaré, Paris 16^e                           10’55

18.           Interview de Mme Julienne Élisée, alias Adéla Stellio, veuve d’Alexandre Stellio,
le 26/06/1984 à son domicile, 10 rue de la Félicité, Paris 17^e                           9’08

(*) Manquent KI 8389-1 (Florence, Valse)
et KI 8390-1 (Canne à Sucre, Biguine)