walking upstream…
Boris Vian
photo: studio harcourt · public domain ↗Boris Vian
Boris Vian packed novelist, engineer, jazz trumpeter, and songwriter into one restless career in postwar Paris's Saint-Germain-des-Prés scene, serving as connective tissue between visiting American jazz royalty and the French cabaret world before turning his own satirical wit to chanson. His pacifist anthem 'Le Déserteur' (1954) got him effectively banned from French radio, and it was his own quicksilver movement between 'minor art' and real gravity that persuaded a young Serge Gainsbourg he could build a serious career out of pop songs. Vian died of a heart attack in 1959, at 39, during a screening of a film adaptation of his own novel.
the sound in question
1954
Le DéserteurBoris Vian
walk the tributaries ↓
Duke Ellington1930s–40s · Jazz / Big band
Vian called Ellington's 1938 Paris concert one of 'the three great moments of my life,' and Ellington became, in his own words, an idol from that night on; a decade later Ellington stayed at Vian's home and became godfather to his daughter. Vian spent years writing liner notes and jazz criticism steeped in Ellington's big-band vocabulary before turning that same appetite for sly, sophisticated arrangement toward his own chansons.
listen: upstream & here
1930
Mood IndigoDuke Ellington
1956
Je suis snobBoris Vian
listen forHear the loose, elegant swing of Ellington's 'Mood Indigo' behind the brassy, wry arrangement of Vian's own 'Je suis snob' — the horns amble with the same unhurried, faintly ironic elegance.
Dizzy Gillespie1940s · Bebop / Jazz
The same 'three great moments' quote names a 1948 Dizzy Gillespie concert alongside Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald — Vian, an amateur trumpeter himself who'd been playing since the 1930s, was pulled toward bebop's quicker, more clipped phrasing right as it was reshaping jazz in Paris.
listen: upstream & here
1945
A Night in TunisiaDizzy Gillespie
1956
La Complainte du progrèsBoris Vian
listen forSet the brisk, tumbling horn runs of 'A Night in Tunisia' against the rapid-fire, almost tongue-twisting patter of Vian's satirical 'La Complainte du progrès' — both move at a bebop clip that treats the vocal or horn line like a game of speed.
Ella Fitzgerald1950s · Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Swing
Rounding out Vian's 'three great moments of my life' is a 1952 Ella Fitzgerald concert — the same era Fitzgerald's scat singing and effortless vocal playfulness were setting the standard for jazz vocalists, a lightness Vian chased in his own sung delivery even when the lyric turned dark.
listen: upstream & here
1938
A-Tisket, A-TasketElla Fitzgerald
1955
La Java des bombes atomiquesBoris Vian
listen forListen for the buoyant, almost sing-song vocal bounce of Fitzgerald's 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' underneath the grim subject matter of Vian's own 'La Java des bombes atomiques' — a cheerful melodic delivery working against lyrics about nuclear annihilation.