Chambery (AFP)
At 72 years old, Jean-Louis Maisin, remains a fiercely independent record store, a great fan of Dalida that he broadcasts every day in his small boutique in Chambéry and that he embodies in his transformist shows.
"My dream would be to die here", launches with a smile the last independent record store in Savoie, which with its thousands of vinyls, CDs and audio cassettes, has withstood everything, with the arrival of the big brands, the crisis of disc, then that linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Music has been his passion from an early age.
Dalida, always by his side.
Very young, he discovers a 45 laps of the singer of Italian origin born in Egypt that his father has, among others.
Then, "with each good grade at school", her grandmothers offer her a little money.
The good student takes the opportunity to discover the discography of the "Callas of varieties".
He also creates a small musical duo with a childhood friend, offering concerts to neighbors in the neighborhood.
“We were called Les Hirondelles,” he remembers, always with a smile.
He prides himself on having seen Dalida "more than 150 times in concert" in Chambéry, at the Olympia in Paris and elsewhere in France.
Jean-Louis Maisin in the middle of his records in Chambéry on August 24, 2021 PHILIPPE DESMAZES AFP / Archives
His assiduity allows him to enter the small circle of his idol: he enters the boxes and succeeds in meeting the singer who, seduced by her enthusiasm, will then invite her regularly to her concerts.
He knows her so well, her gestures, her shows, the words of her songs ... he becomes "her" for the time of his own show, in her dresses, make-up, hair, in front of a microphone.
- "The right to love" -
"The first time was twelve years ago, for my husband's fifty years," he says.
For this anniversary, he also sings Piaf, "in front of 140 people", he chooses "The right to love".
“It fits our story well,” he said fondly.
Since then, this little bald man of discreet appearance has given 23 shows transformed into Dalida, 19 into Edith Piaf.
He is "transformist and not transvestite", he insists.
Dalida in March 1980 AFP / Archives
"Listen my little one, launches him one day the resident of a nursing home in the Ain where he had performed. I saw in you the Môme Piaf".
At the evocation of this memory, his usual smile gives way to a misty gaze.
For now, the record store has suspended its transformist shows because for lack of exercise during confinement he has "put on too much weight and can no longer put on his dresses".
In her store, Dalida still sings "every day".
He fears to tire his customers, young and old, but is delighted when he is ordered to one of his albums.
When he left school at 13, he had four jobs in mind: "musician, or rather working in music, hairdresser for women, pharmacy preparer or undertaker".
Chance opened the doors to a store selling pianos for him in 1971. There was a small record department there that he decided to develop "without asking for permission" from his boss.
In Jean-Louis Maisin's store in Chambéry, here August 24, 2021, Dalida still sings "every day" PHILIPPE DESMAZES AFP / Archives
The experiment is conclusive.
In June 1980, the store was sold, he bought it with the help of his parents, gave up the pianos and devoted himself to records.
"Free Music" was born.
"For the name, we did a little contest and asked customers for their opinion," he says.
The winner of the competition was a student at the time, he became a musician, he is still a customer: "Jean-Louis is where he should be in his store, open and endearing", explains Didier Venturini, 62 years old.
Jean-Louis Maisin would like his death to be the occasion of a celebration, he wishes happy faces, in the street, in front of his window.
"To die without the slightest pain / Of a well orchestrated death / Me, I want to die on stage / This is where I was born", sang Dalida.
© 2021 AFP