Quartet revives French chanteuse's dramatic songs
Nothing about Christine Zufferey and her bandmates in Ziaf necessarily screams 1930s France at first. Unless you count the dainty pink boa coiled around her neck and shoulders and the white one draped on the drum set, and the sleek, black evening attire. Oh, and then there's the singsongy refrain that Zufferey belted before a full house at the Lizard Lounge two weeks ago:
"Quand il me prend dans ses bras/ Il me parle tout bas/ Je vois la vie en rose." (Roughly translated over the years: "Hold me close and hold me fast/This magic spell you cast/ This is the life in pink.")
The song, "La Vie en Rose," which has been covered in English by everyone from Louis Armstrong to Jack Nicholson in "Something's Gotta Give," was a signature tune of the late French chanteuse Edith Piaf. Its chorus is so recognizable, in fact, that although most people in the Lizard Lounge audience, which was remarkably mixed in ages (20s to 60s), probably didn't know its meaning, they danced and smiled anyway. One excited woman went so far as to resurrect Bob Fosse's "jazz hands" as she mouthed the words and danced.
Edith Piaf's fiery yet tragic personality and expansive repertoire are the impetus behind Ziaf, which is a side project of the local alternative-rock band All the Queen's Men. If it doesn't seem an odd choice for the 8-year-old All the Queen's Men, imagine Courtney Love fronting a Judy Garland cover band.
Even the folks at Boston's French Library and Cultural Center/Alliance Francaise don't know what to make of such a tribute band. "I suppose it is sort of strange considering that Edith Piaf hasn't been alive for such a long time," says Sarah Brelsfoard, director of marketing. (Piaf died of cancer in 1963.) "Maybe it speaks of a broader notion of awareness that people don't just want to hear rock 'n' roll."
Earlier this month, before the launch of Ziaf's Tuesday-night residency at ZuZu! in Cambridge, Zufferey shrugs off a compliment on her uncanny ability to channel Piaf. In particular, Piaf was known for a dramatic, vibrato-laden voice that infused her songs with palpable emotion, a characteristic that Zufferey embodies perfectly.
"Well, I'm not Piaf," she says, slightly humbled. "I don't have her voice, but I can relate to her emotions. I listen to her a lot and the rhythm of her language, but I'm not trying to be her." It's an understatement, of course, because Zufferey's voice sounds markedly different on her recordings with All the Queen's Men -- like a rocking hybrid of Patti Smith and the Cocteau Twins's Elizabeth Fraser.
Zufferey, who is from Sierre, Switzerland, and whose first language is French, says Piaf's emotional delivery isn't hard to emulate; it's learning all the songs that's difficult. "Right now I'm just trying to remember all the words. She had more than 240 songs that she performed, so it's a lot to do." The band has learned 12 more of Piaf's songs, all sung in French, for its ZuZu! residency.
Ziaf, which consists of guitarist Catherine Capozzi, drummer Tamora Gooding, keyboardist Carol Namkoong, and vocalist Zufferey, collectively decided that Piaf was "the Frank Sinatra of her day in terms of popularity, but a cross between Judy Garland and Janis Joplin in terms of lifestyle." Translation: She did a lot of drugs and booze and was renowned for her numerous love affairs.
Ziaf focuses mostly on Piaf's later work from the 1950s, which tended to be darker and more nuanced. The group also dusts off the classics, though, including "L'Hymne a l'Amour" and "Padam Padam."
Ziaf champions somewhat of a local French cabaret revival these days. The musical revue "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris," which closes today, enjoyed brisk business in the Boston area the past few months, and a recent bill at the Lizard Lounge featured Ziaf with local pop star Ad Frank mining Brel's songbook.
"I remember when I first saw them I was amazed at how well they ride that fine line between re-creating the music while still retaining a rock sound," Frank says.
Capturing Piaf's cabaret aesthetic with a four-piece rock band has been a challenge, says Namkoong. "If you think about it, Edith Piaf usually worked with strings and horns, so we have to condense those arrangements down to the electric instruments that we have."
And to think, Ziaf is what you'd call an accidental band. All the Queen's Men was in the middle of a residency at the Lizard Lounge last year and decided to sing "La Vie en Rose." Shaun Wolf Wortis, a
local musician and organizer of Boston's Bastille Day events, was so impressed that he invited Ziaf to perform an entire set of Piaf's songs at Bastille Day. Less than a year later, the band has secured a residency, planned an album, and is now planning a few shows next month in Europe, including stops in Switzerland and France. "The fun thing about this band is that it just kind of happened," says Zufferey. "It wasn't planned, so there's no pressure. We still have All the Queen's Men to do our own music, but it's really rare that something like Ziaf happens."
