Charles Trenet

Charles Trenet (May 18th 1913, Narbonne - February 19th 2001, Creteil) is a Chanteur French.

Biography

He was born on May 18th, 1913 in Narbonne, three years after his Antoine brother. In 1920, the Trenet parents separate. Charles shares his childhood between Narbonne then where resides his/her mother and Perpignan where lives his/her father, Lucien, notary and violonist amateur. Besides later, Trenet will evoke the femininity of Narbonne (town of his/her mother) and the masculinity of Perpignan (town of his/her father).

Charles and his Antoine brother are placed in a religious college with Béziers. " The school was free but not moi" he will entrust well later. The poet will have his years of boarding school the painful memory of the maternal absence, recurrent theme in his work (cf " the Abbot in Harmonium" , " True truth vrai" , " Small Pensionnaire" …).

In 1928, after being returned college, Charles leaves Perpignan for Berlin where Marie-Louise, her mother, and its second husband live the realizer Benno Vigny.

Teenager, Charles discovers the theater and the poetry via Albert Bausil and of his newspaper the Catalan Cock whose title is already a pun (cock with talent).

Then it leaves Narbonne for Paris in the Années 1930. On its arrival, he works in a movie studio, then interferes himself with the group with artists Montparnasse. He meets Antonin Artaud, Jean Cocteau and max Jacob, to which he entrusts his literary desires. It forms then a Duo with his friend the pianist Johnny Hess and they sing with the cabaret the Hackney carriage until in 1936 when Trenet is called up for the military service at the base of Istres. It takes part in some official receptions in solo, of which one with Marseilles, on the occasion of which it is called “the insane one singing”. It is at this time of its career that it publishes many of its songs which will be most famous: blue Fleur, Y has joy, I Sing .

Insulated and moved away from Paris, he manages to be made transfer to the base of Vélizy in the Yvelines.

The war bursts and Charles is mobilized. The newspapers will announce even officially its death!

During the war, it is devoted primarily to the cinema and plays in six films of which I sing , the Lovesong of Paris and Adieu Léonard under the direction of the Prévert brothers which will be the only one to remain in the memory of the film enthusiasts. He sings in Paris, certainly in the presence of Germans, but he makes hear songs such as Espoir (“the Every black day has their following days”) and Douce France , France which one continues to like “in the joy or the pain”, and whose room takes again the refrain in front of these Sirs. It was wounded besides by Germans of one ball to the leg and denounced in the newspaper I am everywhere for his resemblance to “the Jew Harpo Marx”.

In 1945, not finding its place in the wave existentialist, Charles leaves for New York and he is a rather great success by traversing during nearly two years the two American continents, of the Brésil to the Canada. This last voyage inspires in particular to him In Pharmacies . Until 1954, it goes in concert in concert, without stopping writing, and traverses the world.

In 1954, while learning success from Gilbert Bécaud, Charles returns to Paris where the public did not forget it. Its new successes like the Sea written in the train between Perpignan and Montpellier or Nationale 7 consolidate it in its role of star. On the other hand, the period Yéyé and the Années 1960 are for him a crossing of the desert which plunges it in a relative lapse of memory. It finds to occur only cabarets, the such Gift Camillo.

July 13rd, 1963, following an anonymous complaint, the singer, who remained then in his Mediterranean property of the field of the Spirits, hidden in the olive groves close to Aix-en-Provence, is apprehended in company of four young people and is accused of indecent behaviors and offense against public decency. It is placed under committal order and is écroué at the prison of Aix at the same time as its ex-cook, driver and secretary, who shows it to have obliged it to recruit boys for parts. Retained in prison for one month before being slackened, Charles Trenet passes in judgment a few months later. He is condemned to one year of detention with deferment and 10.000 frankly S of fine. In spite of the multiple supports, among which proposals, this episode will affect it deeply ( All your life is only one horse-gear, And this horse-gear Since the Tourne college sometimes in a prison … - Okahana). It will make in all its work only one allusion veiled to its homosexuality when it evokes " all these things which it will not have known aimer".

It took again the road of the studios and the scene in 1971 to bid its farewell in Olympia in 1975. It was then 62 years old.

Charles returns however to the scene in 1983 at the time of the Festival “Juste to laugh” of Montreal. He will not leave it any more: in 1987, whereas it is 74 years old, it makes a tobacco with the Printemps of Bourges. The years pass, but the Fou Singing remains indémodable and inexhaustible. He celebrates his 80 years on scene with the Opéra Bastille in May 1993. In 1999, it is made member of the Académie of the Art schools. Its last concert goes back to November 1999, with the Salle Pleyel in Paris where it gives three recitals singing sitted.

Tired, Charles Trenet withdraws itself at his place, where two successive attacks exhaust it. Transported in the hospital Henri-Mondor of Creteil, he dies on February 19th, 2001, at the 87 years age, after having written nearly thousand songs.

Popular culture

In the album of Tintin the Temple of the Sun , the Capitaine Haddock sings the sun and the moon .
In the album of Tintin To the country of the black gold , the song Bang! is taken again as an advertizing song.
In the film the Holidays of Mr. Bean , Mr. Bean and the others sing the sea at the end.
In the American series Lost , the song the sea is regularly quoted.

External bonds

the gate of the friends of Charles Trenet: contains a detailed biography, the list of its discs and the words of its songs.
If Narbonne were… a personality (guide Latitude Gallimard Narbonne)
cultural Promenades: on the steps of Charles Trenet (guide Latitude Gallimard Narbonne)
On the site Aude.org
Francomix, the French-speaking musics make dance planet: Biography of Charles Trenet, listening of an extract of the Sea
''' the Small Narbonnese '''

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