Laurence lemaire
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Biography
Born
7 February 1927
Born In
Montpellier, Hérault, Occitanie, France
Died
23 September 2020 (aged 93)
French chanteuse Juliette Gréco (b.1927) was one of the stars of the bohemian "in" crowd of post-war France. Born to a Corsican father in Montpellier and a mother active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. Involved also she was caught but not deported for her young age. She was raised by her maternal grandparents. She moved to Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris in 1946 after her mother left the country for Indochina with the French Navy.
A famous description of Juliette Gréco is that her voice "encompasses millions of poems". She was the muse of many of the writers and artists working in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Boris Vian. Some of these artists would write songs for her to sing. She fell in love with and almost married Miles Davis when he visited Paris in 1949.
Juliette Gréco died in September 2020.
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Juliette Greco belongs to that family of artists one might refer to as interpreters rather than performers, not that people always grasp the term’s full meaning. This is not simply a matter of magnifying the texts of a writer; in reality it’s much more, they give them life.
In the beginning with a helping hand from a certain Jean-Paul Sartre, Juliette Greco ordained herself as a servant of the noble word. Devoted entirely to the cause of that fine literature set to music which young geniuses — they were either already famous or about to become so — would place at her feet like bundles of flowers, waiting for her performances with such singular and always masterfully moving interpretations, to change them into bouquets of stars.
Juliette Greco was one of the first to agree to sing the emotionally-charged texts of the young Belgian writer, performer and composer whom the world would soon recognize by the name Jacques Brel. And so listening to this Gréco chante Brel has something of a ‘summit-meeting’ about it, even if that is stating the obvious; above
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Juliette Gréco
@ the Royal Festival Hall
21 November 2010Click an image to enlarge.
Biography
Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier, in the South of France, on 7 February 1927. Gréco’s father, who was born in Corsica, worked as a policeman on the Côte d’Azur, but she rarely saw him in her childhood as she and her elder sister Charlotte were brought up by their maternal grandparents who lived in Bordeaux. Gréco, who was educated by nuns in an extremely strict convent school, grew up to be a rather shy child given to spending long periods of time on her own.
The Gestapo
In 1933 Juliette's mother joined her daughters in Bordeaux and shortly afterwards all three of them would head off for Paris. Gréco’s life would change dramatically in the French capital. After the rather austere atmosphere of the convent, Gréco discovered a world of bright lights, fashion and culture. She would take up dance classes, throwing herself into her new hobby with a passion, and soon went on to join the Paris Opera where
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