2023-07-03 09:45:38
Michel Polnareff in concert, in Nice, on May 24, 2023. PAUL-HENRY ROUGET
When marketing his album Polnareff sings Polnareff (Parlophone / Warner Music) mid-November 2022 – a dozen of his hits performed in piano and voice form – the singer had announced in a few interviews that he would keep this minimal approach for his upcoming tour. While leaving open the possibility that this could evolve. Ultimately, for this tour which began on May 24, at the Palais Nikaïa, in Nice, the pianist and songwriter is with five musicians – « my english band »he will say – on a central stage installed in the pits of the large halls of the Zenith and Arena type.
Sunday July 2 is the first of two concerts at the Accor Arena in Paris – that of July 3 will correspond to Polnareff’s 79th birthday. The audience accompanies « Michel ! Michel ! Michel !… » the arrival of Polnareff passing between the rows of seats in the pit. Some words : “There have been messages that say ‘Michel, he can’t go up anymore'”, he says, referring to observations at the start of the tour. Then Polnareff begins, deep voice with Love Me Please Love Me. Then goes up, quickly finds the treble in his interpretation of this song from 1966.
So much for the voice. She is there. In the curves of Love with you, the vocalizations of Fly and its well-turned funky treatment, in the twirls of Under what star was I born? or of Everything everything for my darling with its 1969 arrangement of harpsichord, organ and bass forward, in Letter to France sung a cappella almost at the end of the evening… Joined at that time by his son, Louka, who is standing close to him, Polnareff then lets some vocal fragilities pass, signs of his emotion, shared by the public.
A group, precise, rigorous
Most of the songs chosen are those from the 1960s and 1970s. versions quite close to the originals, rather accentuating a rock aspect, finding here and there a more pop dimension as in The Laze Ball. From his latest album of original songs, Finally !, published in 2018, Polnareff presents nothing. Not even the instrumental Phantom who could have, as Voyages, another instrumental that opened the album Polnareff’s in 1971, being preferred to Hello again played by the single group.
Read the review of a concert in May 2016: Article reserved for our subscribers Michel Polnareff, all the same or almost
On the stage, his companion Danyellah seated near him, Michel Polnareff is at the piano. Which, however, he hardly plays. Sometimes his right hand moves on the keyboard for a few phrases, but the instrument seems to be more of a decorative element than allowing the musician to show his talent as an interpreter in the melodic deployments. At the exit, in the ranks of the public, one heard the wish that this was only due to temporary fatigue.
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