PicoBlog

When I first heard the name Boris Vian, it was in the medium of music, specifically French Jazz. I knew he was a figure in post-war Paris creative life, but beyond that, it was a mystery to me. It wasn’t until my wife Lun*na Menoh brought up Vian’s work as a writer while we lived in Japan from 1989 to 1990. She took me to a large bookstore, and numerous titles by Vian were translated from French to Japanese. Japan always seemed to love French pop and literary culture, which is deeply rooted in both cultures' love styles, sometimes over substance. I think it was the same day I also went to WAVE music shop in Roppongi, Tokyo, and found a Vian section in their French pop/jazz section. The big shock to me was that I hadn’t heard about Vian from the U.S. side of the world.

I started a press, TamTam Books, to mainly focus on publishing Vian’s literature under his name and his identity, Vernon Sullivan. As I explored the written words from Vian, I discovered his music as well. Vian is an artist who should not remove his love of and making music from his literature. His novels have music references, but he also wrote numerous reviews and essays on French, especially American Jazz, including Be-Bop. Since I spent years focusing on his books, let’s pay some attention to his recordings and the artists who performed and recorded his songs. In my collection, I have sixteen albums that are either made by or are primarily recordings of his music/words by other artists. Vian only made one album of him singing his songs, and then a few of him played trumpet.

Boris Vian only made one album with him singing the songs that he co-wrote with Jimmy Walter (Benjamin Lazare Walter) and the great and recently late Alain Goraguer, who is perhaps better known in the U.S. for writing and performing the score La Planète Sauvage. The original album is called Chansons "Possibles" Et "Impossibles.” In future reissues, the title has been changed to Boris Vian Chante Boris Vian. Technically, he's not a great voice, but Vian is a larger-than-life character who can convey that in his songs. He is probably the most anti-authoritarian writer/songwriter of his time. A hardcore pacifist, yet obsessed with machinery of all sorts, including firing arms. Vian wrote the ultimate anti-war song, Le Déserteur, in which the singer writes a note to the military that he prefers not to join or participate in its world. Peter, Paul & Mary did a cover of this song in the 1960s, at the height of the Vietnam War. His other classic Je Suis Snob is Vian’s manifesto in song on the joys of being a snob. Vian firmly believed in being pro-jazz, pro-literature, both the high and low end, and enjoying life in nightclubs. Think of him as a French brother to the American Beat movement in the United States. Even the clothing and style of Vian’s world are very close to the Beat aesthetic. And Vian’s album of songs is very much the punk music of his era.

Boris Vian’s jazz criticism as a critic/writer was opinionated and passionate. I strongly recommend his book of essays, Round About Close To Midnight: The Jazz Writings of Boris Vian. The twisted irony (and there are many in Vian’s life and work) is that he was a passionate fan of BeBop jazz, which, if one is to compare, is like being a fan of Punk in the era of Arena Rock. Vian was also a musician and played not BeBop but Trad Jazz, the music of Dixieland and early Louis Armstrong. At the time, there was a considerable disagreement about the merits of BeBop in France, especially among the fans of traditional New Orleans jazz. So, Vian wrote passionately in favor of BeBop yet played Trad Jazz.

The compilation set Boris Vian À Saint-Germain-Des-Prés / Pauline Julien Chante Boris Vian is the best to hear his jazz recordings with the Claude Luter band. The third vinyl disc features Quebec citizen Pauline Julien singing Vian songs. It is a lovely packaged box set that puts the listener in a smoky, jazzy nightclub in Paris sometime in the late 1940s. I’m not crazy about this type of Jazz, but it is played beautifully by Vian and company.

Perhaps the first French rock n’ Roll album, Henri Salvador Alias Henry Cording and his Original Rock and Roll Boys (1956), is a Henri Salvador/Boris Vian project. Vian was an A&R man for Philips and arranged to have Henri signed to the label. He also served as a record producer and co-songwriter for many of the songs on that album. As an artist, Salvador is a well-known showbiz figure who had a foot in the Boris Vian avant-garde pop world. But he was also a remarkable jazz guitarist and vocalist. He is famous for his novelty songs, but he is much more than that. I strongly recommend Alias Henry Cording and his Original Rock and Roll Boys, but also a recent compilation of recordings he did in his home studio with the album Homme Studio. In his studio, he started to experiment with electronic sounds. Truly, a remarkable 20th century music figure.

Of course, one should track down this compilation of songs by Salvador, but they are all co-written by Boris Vian. Playful, but with that hysterical sense of bitterness that Vian was so good at doing, this is a must-have collection to own as well.

Other albums to check out in the Vian world:

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