The Rough Guide to Paris Cafe Music
Cap at a rakish angle, Gitane hanging from the lip... as Guillaume  Veillet's liner note points out, Paris's most indigenous music may seem a trifle  cozy, butThe Rough Guide to Paris Café Musicshows the inaccuracies of  that prejudice. The origins of French café music may lie in the Auvergne, whose  musicians played the smallpipes, but the biggest influence that fed into the  music came from Italy, with anorganettotradition traced to Nascente'sBar Italia(the other big influence came from the gypsy world). The Bal  Musette café ballroom was the melting pot in which the smallpipes gave way to  the accordion and stars began to emerge. Emile Vacher and Charles Peguri were  the founding fathers of this tradition, and they're both present on this  entrancing newRough Guideinstallment. We also hear Jean Corti, who played in a military brothel in the  1940s, and the drug-addicted Fréhel, whose smoky tones are the authentic sound  of the 1920s. The variety of styles in these 25 tracks is dazzling, as hot jazz  alternates with modern cool. Django Reinhardt's son Babik beats up a lovely  storm with the New Quintette du Hot Club de France; meanwhile, Edith Piaf sings  a song called "L'Accordeoniste." And if you're hooked on this instrument, get a  copy of Wergo'sGlobal Accordion:  Early Recordings, a marvelous cornucopia of vanished sounds.--Michael Church