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French jazz diva soothes the savage beast
(No.5, Vol.4,Jun-Jul 2014 Vietnam Heritage Magazine)
My editor and I were invited to a press preview performance. I arrived early enough to almost bump into a gentleman carrying what appeared to be from my angle, a flute. ‘You must be the flautist,’ I enquired. ‘No this is a saxophone,’ he said, giving me a clearer view of the instrument. His name is Giorgio Ventura and he hails from Italy. We engaged in a conversation broaching many subjects, but the most interesting thing was that he admitted that having only just met Gabrielle, he was not quite sure how he was going to accompany her singing and piano playing.
Seated at the grand piano in her stunning bright red dress, Mademoiselle Gabrielle looked the star even before she wowed us all with a perfect rendition of the French standard, ‘La Vie en Rose’. She went on to sing two other familiar jazz era songs, eerily reminding one of Billie Holiday, whom we were told is one of her heroes. Her final rendition was a song I have long loved – ‘Autumn Leaves’. This was made famous to me by one of the most beautiful voices ever-that of Nat King Cole. His is a hard act to match, but Gabrielle, every bit as mellifluous in English as in her native tongue, proved to be Nat’s female peer. I had not realised she could have sung it in French, as I now learn this song has a Hungarian-French composer and the original title is ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ (The Dead Leaves).
Giorgio need not have been apprehensive. Dressed in a simple white shirt, he was at pains not to steal the sartorial limelight from Gabrielle. The two harmonised together intuitively and I noticed Gabrielle at times casting him little glances of approval. Giorgio’s playing provided the perfect complement to the piano and jazz singing. Having said that, he achieved the beautiful chalumeau register more normally affected by the clarinet, and played so hauntingly that it is clear the gentleman deserves a show of his own.
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