Paris (AFP)

2020 will mark the centenary of the birth of Boris Vian. Without waiting, the group Standing on the Zinc resumes its texts with "resonances very current", rejoices Françoise Canetti, whose famous producer of father pushed on the stage the jack-of-all of genius.

Standing on the Zinc (DSLZ), "these are six men who have chosen, among others, songs that Boris had written for women", which "touches me a lot," says AFP Françoise Canetti.

Like "Do not get married girls", where the male tastes: "When they are beautiful, they are idiots / When they are old, they are awful / When they are big, they are idle / When they are p'tits , they are mean". And the text of Vian cingle, very punk: "Do not get married girls, do not get married / Make rather cinema, stay maid at your 'dad'.

In "J'te veux", this time, the woman "decides the moment and the moment" dissects Francoise Canetti. A very #Metoo tone. "There are particular resonances today, very current," she agrees.

The album "Vian by Standing on the Zinc", released on September 13 on the label Jacques Canetti (whose daughter is director) comes to life with a tour that starts this Thursday at the Trois Baudets in Paris before touring France. The sextet gives a heartfelt joy in its register alternative rock-jazz-neo-realistic song.

- "Very tall, very pale" -

DSLZ is at home on stage. Unlike Vian. That Françoise Canetti, child, saw beginning in the 50s at Trois Baudets, "alone on stage, very tall, very pale, paralyzed by stage fright". "But he invents this particular phrasing, this minimalism, of extraordinary modernity, taken up by Gainsbourg, Daho ...".

Vian was "a songwriter, not an interpreter, who realizes that nobody - almost - does not want to sing it". Canetti's father (who died in 1997) convinces him to sing. Vian jump in the name of a "friendly alchemy", as told by Françoise Canetti.

"They see each other with my dad the first time in a lift at Pleyel, Vian knows he's in front of the man who brought in Duke Ellington - the god of Vian - and my father knows that He read the jazz reviews in Combat, it's love at first sight in five floors between two characters, they never leave each other ".

DSLZ enters the loop on a wink of history. "The first time I meet Simon Mimoun (vocals, violin, trumpet, guitar), after a show, it's in 2010, I'm in front of 20 rue de Clichy in Paris, where there was the Apollo, where my father recorded Boris Vian's records at Philips Studios, "says Françoise Canetti.

- "Hymn to life" -

"Two years later, we find ourselves around Vian's Abécédaire, which they sang," she continues, "when the centenary (of his birth) arrives, I tell myself that it would be nice to find them. was making a record? + They say yes.

The group comes to choose the texts and "they find an envelope with this mention + music to do +". Born the album of 15 tracks, "including 3 unreleased and 2 songs with new music" including "I would not want to die" where Vian shouts "his love of life," says Françoise Canetti.

The eclectic author knew he was condemned by heart failure. "He told my father in 1954 that he would not live beyond 40 years." He died in 1959 from a heart attack at 39 years old. Hence an overflowing creativity. "He wasted no time, he was extremely organized, he did a lot of things without ever being in a hurry," recalls Francoise Canetti.

"+ I would not want to die +, it's the song that closes the show, it's a hymn to life," she concludes.

© 2019 AFP