Sanseverino

French pop music?

Frankly, much of it’s shit.

Johnny Halliday?

Well, with a 50 year career he must have something, but I’m fucked if I can see what it is…

Listening to the local pop radio here, Radio Alouette, it seems that UK and US pop are still a long way ahead of French pop, which tends to sound a bit ‘Eurovision’, if you see what I mean.

However, look beyond the charts and playlists and the French do have some great contemporary pop music.

What I particularly like is the fact that some of it borrows from earlier musical forms like chanson and manouche (gypsy swing).

One of my favourite artists is a guy called Sanseverino – web site with video and audio here.

Stephane Sanseverino is a fabulous guitarist heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt who performs mostly original material which is often comical – although I confess that I don’t always get the humour in his songs as there seems to be quite a lot of slang in his lyrics.

 

However, he’s no one trick pony with some album tracks featuring electric guitar and more modern jazz-based stylings.

Worth checking out if you’re into gypsy jazz with a pop slant.