Claude Nougaro

Claude Nougaro earned recognition for merging the heritage of French chanson with the vitality of American jazz. He entered the world in Toulouse on September 9, 1929. Born to an opera singer father and a piano teacher mother, he grew up chiefly under the guidance of his grandparents. In that setting he absorbed classical works along with the French popular songs of Charles Trenet and Edith Piaf, plus the swing of Louis Armstrong and Glenn Miller that reached him over Radio-Toulouse. Although devoted to music, Nougaro never acquired the ability to read notation or perform on any instrument. In 1947 he spent a brief interval as a journalist before completing a tour of duty with the French Foreign Legion in Morocco. Following his discharge he moved to Paris, where he experimented with poetry and developed a close association with playwright Jacques Audiberti, thereby gaining access to the cabaret scene. He made his initial stage appearance in 1955 at the Montmartre club Le Lapin Agile and raised his standing further by supplying lyrics to Piaf. His earliest recordings appeared in 1958, performed in a marked Toulousian accent whose emphatic syllables and rhythmic weight reflected his admiration for American vocalists, at a time when pure French pronunciation remained the prevailing fashion. During the 1960s he joined forces with jazz figures including Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, and Nat Adderley, while simultaneously exploring Brazilian music in collaborations with Baden Powell and Chico Buarque. His most enduring pieces comprise “Je Suis Sous” (“I Am Drunk”), “Cécile, Ma Fille” (“Cecile, My Daughter”), “Jazz and Java,” and “Paris Mai,” the last written in response to the anti-government student protests of May 1968. Nougaro’s record sales diminished in the 1970s, yet he staged a return in the following decade propelled by the success of the album Nougaro, which he cut in New York City; around that period he also began incorporating African rhythms. After an extended period of declining health, he died on March 4, 2004, at the age of 74. In the aftermath, French president Jacques Chirac observed, “a veritable poet has left us.”