Jazz de Paris

On the programme

„April in Paris“ (1932)Music: Vernon Duke (1903 – 1969) Text: Yip Harburg (1896 – 1981) Arrangement: Count Basie (1904 – 1984)

„Jazz de Paris“ (2025)Music and Text: Rüdiger Ruppert

„Je bois“ (1956)Music: Boris Vian (1920 – 1959), Alain Goraguer (1931 – 2023) Text: Boris Vian Arrangement: Manfred Honetschläger (*1959)

„Nuits de Saint-Germain-des-Prés“ (1951)Music: Django Reinhardt (1910 – 1953) Arrangement: Richard Bergmann

„Je suis snob” (1954)Music: Jimmy Walter Text: Boris Vian Arrangement: Manfred Honetschläger

„Ne me quitte pas“ (1958)Music: Jacques Brel (1929 – 1978), Gérard Jouannest (1933 – 2018) Text: Jacques Brel

„Cherokee“ (1938)Music: Ray Noble (1903 – 1978) Arrangement: Peter Herbolzheimer (1935 – 2010)

„Quand ça balance“ (1964)Music: Michel Legrand Text: Eddy Marnay (1920 – 2003) Arrangement: Manfred Honetschläger

„La femme coupé en morceaux“ – from the movie „Les Demoiselles de Rochefort“ (1967)Music: Michel Legrand Text: Jacques Demy (1931 – 1990) Arrangement: Manfred Honetschläger

*** Intermission ***

„Au bar Le Tabou” (2025)Music and Text: Rüdiger Ruppert

„Le petit journal“ (1992)Music and Arrangement: Michel Legrand

„Nuages“ (1940)Music: Django Reinhardt Arrangement: Joan Reinders (*1959)

„Djangology“ (1949)Music: Django Reinhardt Arrangement: Jan Wessels (*1964)

„Le Blues du blanc” (1984)Music: Pierre Papadiamandis (1937 – 2022) Text: Eddy Mitchell (*1942), Thomas Pigor (*1956) Arrangement: Konrad Koselleck (*1971)

„What are you doing the rest of your life?” from the movie „The happy ending” (1969)Music: Michel Legrand Text: Alan Bergman (1925 – 2025), Marilyn Bergman (1928 – 2022) Arrangement: Manfred Honetschläger

„Ray Blues“ (1982)Music and Arrangement: Michel Legrand

„Daphné“ (1937)Music: Django Reinhardt Arrangement: Joan Reinders

„Nous voyageons de ville en ville“ from the movie „Les Demoiselles de Rochefort“ (1967)Music: Michel Legrand Text: Jacques Demy Arrangement: Manfred Honetschläger

The BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a programme dedicated to French jazz. During the German occupation, it stood for freedom and resistance, and in the post-war period it became the soundtrack of existentialism and an expression of the attitude to life of an entire generation: in the nightclubs of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, musicians like Miles Davis and Sidney Bechet met Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Boris Vian. Juliette Gréco was the undisputed muse of the Bohemians – and for many jazz musicians from the USA, Paris became a place of yearning, beyond racial segregation and the McCarthy era. The BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin celebrates the spirit of those years with music by Michel Legrand, Miles Davis, Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg, as well as with texts by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre.