"Rendez-vous avec Gréco" with Catherine Le Ray (voc), Frédéric Langlais (acc)

Chanson reading based on the autobiography and repertoire of Juliette Gréco

Juliette Gréco, born in 1927, one of the great chanson singers with Piaf and Barbara, died on September 23, 2020. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote about Juliette Gréco "The voice of Gréco is like a warm light that can ignite the flames of poets with its spark". Catherine Le Ray sings the most beautiful chansons of the grande dame, who is also much admired in Germany. She recalls the extraordinary life of the "muse of Saint-Germain-des-Prés", where in the legendary post-war period the "existentialists", including Sartre, Prévert and Queneau, wrote the first chansons for Juliette Gréco at their regular tables in the Café de Flore. Gréco said "I owe them everything", by which she also meant authors and composers such as Brel, Ferré, Béart and Brassens, Gainsbourg, Aznavour and Trenet, who gave her chansons. "A chanson is a play that lasts three minutes," said Gréco.

Catherine Le Ray spent her childhood in a family of artists at the foot of the Moulin Rouge, and her youth in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where she met Juliette Gréco in person.

Frédéric Langlais not only became French accordion champion in 1993, but also the youngest accordion world champion the following year, in 1994, at the age of just 16. He has received numerous prizes for his work, including the Prix Sacem (1993) and the Prix Francis Baxter (2002).

The best-selling newspaper in France, Ouest-France, writes: "Catherine Le Ray sings with talent, passion, authenticity and charm [...] her remarkable performance moves the audience, it's fireworks!"

"Catherine Le Ray has the grandeur of an opera diva, which she combines with the coquetry of a vaudeville lady ... a wonderfully expressive voice, ..." (Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung)