Jean Sablon (English and French Edition)

The story of Jean Sablon's life and career encapsulates some of the major changes in twentieth-century society, transformations that reshaped the art of the chanson while also opening up hitherto undreamed-of possibilities for entertaining an ever-wider public.

One of the very first recording stars, Jean Sablon rapidly became a radio personality and was the first French chansonnier to use a microphone in his stage act, so helping to usher in a new era in the world of cabaret singing. New developments in modern transportation also now made it possible for him to perform on every continent, so finding worldwide fame and becoming the best-known French popular singer of his generation. It was Jean Sablon who came to represent the art of French chanson throughout the world.

"There are some songs about which it is impossible to be objective," declared the distinguished writer Bertrand Poirot-Delpech. "Camus used to say that nobody can be objective about their mother. Similarly, we cannot possibly be objective about Jean Sablon, his chansons are freighted with memories and emotion."

This evocatively illustrated book sets out to restore the art of French chanson - which has suffered from the vagaries of fashion more than perhaps any other art- to the place of central importance that it held in the daily lives of earlier generations. It takes the reader back to an age before the triumph of English-speaking variety, when the French chanson, with all its unique vitality, variety and charm, seduced the whole world.

At the same time, the simplicity and naturalness of Sablon's chansons still reach across the decades, their impact undimmed, and a new generation of crooners and romantic singers our now rekindling our nostalgia for the art of the French chanson, and for the inimitable charms of Jean Sablon's unique style.

Text in English and French.