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LES FEUILLES MORTES - LYRICS)
(English lyrics version: The autum leaves)
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Music by Joseph Kosma, lyrics Jacques Prévert
Published 1945
Oh! je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes
Des jours heureux où nous étions amis
En ce temps-là la vie était plus belle
Et le soleil plus brûlant qu'aujourd'hui
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié...
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle
Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi
Et le vent du nord les emporte
Dans la nuit froide de l'oubli
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié
La chanson que tu me chantais
C'est une chanson qui nous ressemble
Toi, tu m'aimais et je t'aimais
Et nous vivions tous deux ensemble
Toi qui m'aimais, moi qui t'aimais
Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s'aiment
Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit
Et la mer efface sur le sable
Les pas des amants désunis
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ABOUT THIS TRACK
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"Autumn Leaves" is a popular song and jazz standard composed by Joseph Kosma in 1945 with original lyrics by Jacques Prévert in French (original French title: "Les Feuilles mortes"), and later by Johnny Mercer in English. An instrumental version by pianist Roger Williams was a number one best-seller in the US Billboard charts of 1955.
Kosma was a native of Hungary who was introduced to Prévert in Paris. They collaborated on the song Les Feuilles mortes ("The Dead Leaves") for the 1946 film Les Portes de la nuit (Gates of the Night) where it was sung by Irène Joachim and Yves Montand. The poem was published, after the death of Jacques Prévert, in the book "Soleil de Nuit" in 1980. Kosma was influenced by a piece of ballet music, "Rendez-vous" written for Roland Petit, performed in Paris at the end of the Second World War, large parts of the melodies are exactly the same, which was itself borrowed partially from "Poème d'octobre" by Jules Massenet. The first commercial recordings of "Les Feuilles mortes" were released in 1950, by Cora Vaucaire and by Yves Montand. Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyric and gave it the title "Autumn Leaves". Mercer was a partner in Capitol Records at the time, and Capitol recording artist Jo Stafford made the first English-language recording in July, 1950.
As a jazz standard, "Autumn Leaves" has accumulated more than a thousand commercial recordings.
The song was recorded steadily throughout the 1950s by leading pop vocalists including Steve Conway (1950),[9] Bing Crosby (1950), Nat King Cole (1955), Doris Day (1956), and Frank Sinatra (1957). It was also quickly adopted by instrumental jazz artists including Artie Shaw (1950), Stan Getz (1952), Erroll Garner and Ahmad Jamal (separately in 1955), Duke Ellington (1957), Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis, Vince Guaraldi (all 1958), and John Coltrane (1962, maybe earlier). Roger Williams made the song a number-one hit in the U.S. in 1955, the first piano instrumental to reach number one.
Composer Terry Riley has written a contrafact of the song (1965), using the same principle of small repetitive cells of melody and rhythm first put in use in his breakthrough piece, In C (1964).
In 2012, jazz historian Philippe Baudoin called the song "the most important non-American standard" and noted that "it has been recorded about 1400 times by mainstream and modern jazz musicians alone and is the eighth most-recorded tune by jazzmen."
The song is heavily referenced in "La Chanson de Prévert", a song by Serge Gainsbourg.
credits
from Out with the wrong women,
released October 21, 2017
Recorded in 1 day in the autumn of 2017 at Porcupine Studio London.
Engineered by Nick Taylor.
Produced by Benoit Viellefon & Nick Taylor.
MUSICIANS:
Benoit Viellefon - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Andrew Oliver - Piano & Backing vocals
David O'Brien - Double bass & Backing vocals
Benoit Viellefon is a French singer and guitarist established in the UK. Specialised in 1920's 1930's and 1940's music,
Benoit is resident at Ronnie Scotts and other famous clubs. Benoit appears in many Hollywood films, TV and radio productions, festivals, and performed for VIP such as Madonna, the Queen, or the Kremlin. He often tours with his 3 bands: The Orchestra, the Hot Club, the trio....more
Martin Wheatley is THE BEST guitar, steel guitar, pedal steel, ukulele player in the UK, and when it comes to 1920-1930-1940's music. He is the authority on the music of this period and a virtuoso! Benoit Viellefon
A collection of jazz standards from this Chicago artist recalls the genre’s swing era, with waltzing rhythms and skipping guitars. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 12, 2021
