He was the arranger of the great of French song like Serge Gainsbourg, Boris Vian or Jean Ferrat. Alain Goraguer died on Monday evening in Paris.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Man in the shadows, the composer and pianist of jazz Alain Goraguer, who was the musical arranger of several greats of French song, like Serge Gainsbourg or Jean Ferrat, died Monday evening, in Paris, At 91, his wife announced to the France-Presse agency.
Any French song lover inevitably came across these mentions in the pocket notes: “Alain Goraguer arrangements” or “with Alain Goraguer and his orchestra”. “My job, he explained to the world in January 2019, consists in rectifying a melody written with clumsiness so that it is elegant. It can be a harmonic passage, a change of tone …”.
Curious of all kinds of music, with a prediction for jazz, he thus marked his fingerprint as famous as the mountain of Jean Ferrat, the metic of Georges Moustaki or wax doll, sound doll, interpreted by France Gall and Grand Prix of Eurovision 1965.
First accompanist of singer Simone Alma, he meets Boris Vian with whom he writes I drink, the java of atomic bombs, hurt me, Johnny then compose the soundtrack of the film I will spit on your graves (1959).
At the end of the 1950s, he began a collaboration with a beginner called Serge Gainsbourg for which he created jazz and exotic arrangements until 1964 (the lilac punch, intoxicated man, etc.). With Gainsbourg, he signed several film music. 2>
Most of his work as a arranger will be with Jean Ferrat
In 1960, another long collaboration was born with Boby Lapointe (Aragon and Castile, the mother of fish, etc.). Alain Goraguer then works for Brigitte Bardot, Salvatore Adamo, Brigitte Fontaine, Juliette Gréco, Joe Dassin, Nana Mouskouri or Régine. But most of his work as a arranger and orchestrator will be done with Jean Ferrat, for whom he will color, re-harmonize, enrich titles as emblematic as Potemkine, my France, tell me the sea or the woman is ‘Future of man. “He sang his songs on me on guitar, I did not write a melody, only the arrangements.”
Alain Goraguer, author of the music of several dozen pornographic films in the 1970s and 1980s (often under pseudonym), had finally signed the credits of the successful TV show by Véronique and Davina, “Gym Tonic” ( 1982), and collaborated on the album Dante (2008) by rapper Abd al Malik.