"One of the reigning chanteuses of the early 1930s - before Piaf hit the scene - Lys Gauty (born Alice Gautier) sang in a more formal, classically-informed style than many of her contemporaries. Her voice was beautiful, her phrasing elegant, and yet many modern listeners may find themselves with a similar reaction as some of Gauty's cabaret contemporaries: that the diva was a bit of a prig, at least stylistically speaking. Although she dips lightly into genre styles such as accordion-driven musette and only the teensiest hint of Broadway-inflected jazz, Gauty was most at home with French stage and operetta music, and as such, her arrangements and vocal approach -- in particular, her emotional range -- all start to sound the same after a half-dozen tunes or so. She expressed distain for Latin-flavored material, and didn't seem to have much affinity for the blues, either, and while she was undeniably a great star of the Depression-era French popular song, her perfectionism and polish gives these recordings a smoothness that undercuts the otherworldly charm of recordings from that period. Some of it I like, but I have to confess listening to this collection was a bit of a chore, unlike many other recordings from the same era. Worth checking out, though -- she certainly had a lovely voice!"
By Joe SIXPACK - SLIPCUE.COM
By Joe SIXPACK - SLIPCUE.COM
