Raymond Bernard (orchestra leader)

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Raymond Bernard (born August 29, 1920 in Clamart , Département Seine ; † May 23, 2005 in Suresnes , Hauts-de-Seine ), actually Raymond-Bernard Cohen , was a French composer , pianist , arranger and orchestra conductor . He is best known as the longtime companion of Gilbert Bécaud and Serge Reggiani .

life and work

Bernard received his musical training at the Paris Conservatory . During the time of the German occupation of France , he played the piano in Fred Adison's jazz orchestra in Bordeaux . At the beginning of July 1943 he fled with three other young French musicians to Spain via Andorra. Bernard lived with his colleague Bob Norris for a few months in Barcelona and played at various jazz concerts, shows and variety shows. In October 1943, Bernard and Norris went to North Africa together; Bernard played in Algiers in the Hot Club d'Alger until 1945 . After the German surrender, Bernard returned to France and was from 1945 to at least 1947 pianist in Ray Ventura's orchestra , with whom he also made several recordings. He then played in the orchestra of Bernard Hilda , also in his accompanying orchestra for the circus program La piste aux étoiles in the Paris Cirque d'hiver , which was broadcast directly on French television.

In 1950 he left this orchestra to go on an extensive North and South American tour as a piano accompanist with the chanson singer Jacqueline François . In São Paulo at the end of 1950 he met Gilbert Bécaud , who was there himself as a piano accompanist with Jacques Pills . When Bécaud began performing as a chansonnier himself in 1953, he hired Bernard as a piano accompanist. Bernard soon founded his own orchestra ( Raymond Bernard et son orchester ), which became Bécaud's permanent accompaniment orchestra. For many years he was the musical director and arranger for Bécaud. For Bernard, there was an almost blind musical understanding in this collaboration:

“When he played something for me, I immediately knew how to orchestrate it. It got to the point that he again knew from the start what I would imagine with his music. "

As Bernard found in retrospect, this close familiarity could also be an obstacle to trying something new. In 1965, on the occasion of a bereavement in his family, he finally handed over the musical direction and the piano accompaniment for Bécaud to Gilbert Sigrist , but for years he arranged for Bécaud's studio recordings. For example, he took over the instrumentation and musical direction of a new facility for Bécaud's Opéra d'Aran in 1966, a task which he found very satisfying due to its unusual dimensions: "I conducted a hundred people in the studio, that's huge, unique!"

Enrico Macias said that Bernard helped him a lot at the beginning of his career. Macias had appeared in the opening act for a Bécaud concert in 1961 and was depressed by the moderate attention of the audience. Raymond Bernard encouraged him that evening: “Come and see me in Paris, here is my telephone number, I will introduce you to the director of Gilbert's record company. You're swimming against the current, that's a good sign. Only originality will pay off ... I believe in your personality. ”Bernard kept his promise. He later composed a chanson with Macias and wrote some arrangements for him.

From 1970 Bernard took over the piano accompaniment from Serge Reggiani , composed a number of chansons for him and wrote arrangements. He also went on tour with Marlene Dietrich , among other things he accompanied her on the piano in Berlin in 1978 when she performed the song Beautiful Gigolo, Poor Gigolo in the film of the same name .

In addition to many chansons, including for Charles Aznavour , Claude François , Nana Mouskouri and Mireille Mathieu , Bermard also composed a number of film scores : for Une balle dans le canon (1958; German: Eine Kugel im Lauf ), Le Sicilien (1958), L'ennemi dans l'ombre (1960, together with Gilbert Bécaud; German: The boss knows no mercy ) and the themed music of the television series Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret with Jean Richard in the lead role (from 1967).

Compositions (selection)

Discogs has 147 records with compositions and arrangements by Bernard (as of January 18, 2019). This includes many double counts, but there are also missing titles that can be accessed via the French National Library or, in the case of film music, via the Internet Movie Database .

Sound recordings (selection)

Discogs shows well over 300 recordings in which Bernard was involved in any way. A few have been compiled here to allow the first 30 seconds of each track to be heard through the Gallica database . In particular, the very numerous recordings by Raymond Bernard et son orchester with Gilbert Bécaud were omitted.

  • Qu'est-ce que t'as / Concerto d'automne. Raymond Bernard et son orchester. La Voix de son Maître. 1956. Audio sample on Gallica
  • Les succès de Gilbert Bécaud / Cocktail de succès . Raymond Bernard and his Orchester de Danse. La Voix de son Maître. 1957. Audio sample on Gallica
  • Souvenirs de Paris . Raymond Bernard, son piano et ses ryhthmes. Piano solo. Pathé Marconi, Paris. 1958. Audio sample on Gallica
  • L'ennemi dans l'ombre . Extraits de la musique du film. Raymond Bernard et son orchester. Columbia. 1960. Audio sample on Gallica
  • Pierre Lavallée: Serge Reggiani - Le pont Mirabeau. October 13, 2010 (updated November 13, 2016). Serge Reggiani reads Guillaume Apollinaire to the piano accompaniment by Raymond Bernard. Accompanying text and audio sample on the page J'ai la mémoire qui chante .

literature

  • Bernard Raymond . In: Pierre Saka, Yann Plougastel (eds.): La Chanson française et francophone . Larousse, Paris 1999, pp. 144f.
  • Goodbye l'ami! Raymond Bernard (1920-2005) . in: Christian Boisonnée: Télévision française. The season 2006. An analysis of the program from 1st September 2004 to 31st August 2005 . L'Harmattan, Paris 2006, p. 36.
  • Disposition. Raymond Bernard, pianist, arranger et chef d'orchestre . In: Le Monde , May 25, 2005, online .
  • Mort you jazzman Raymond Bernard . In: Liberation , May 25, 2005, online .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Real name, date and place of birth according to the Notice de personne at the Bibliothèque nationale de France , online ; Date of death according to disposition. Raymond Bernard, pianist, arranger et chef d'orchestre . In: Le Monde , May 25, 2005, online . This agrees with the statement in Mort du jazzman Raymond Bernard . In: Liberation , May 25, 2005, online . The Notice de personne of the BNF deviates from May 21, but does not mention other sources.
  2. ^ Jean Rousseau: Le jazz à Paris sous l'occupation 1940–1944 , subpage Les musiciens cités , chapter Fred Adison . See also Christophe Mirambeau: Saint Luis. Une vie de Luis Mariano . 1914-1970. Flammarion, Paris 2004, chapter 5.
  3. ↑ Jordi Pujol Baulenas: Jazz en Barcelona: 1920-1965 . Almendra Music, Barcelona 2005, pp. 150 and 163f.
  4. ↑ See Jazz Hot , New Series, No. 1, October 12, 1945, where the departure of the “best musicians” from Algiers is lamented, including Bernard, and his new engagement with Ventura is reported.
  5. ↑ Times based on: Bernard Raymond . In: Pierre Saka, Yann Plougastel (eds.): La Chanson française et francophone , p. 144. From the cast information in the discography by Gérard Lévèque compiled by Pierre Nauleau on the page https://djangonewquintettclarinet.wordpress.com it emerges that Bernard was pianist and arranger at Ventura from March 1946 to at least March 1947, probably until October 1948, and was involved in a number of recordings.
  6. ↑ Bernard Raymond . In: Pierre Saka, Yann Plougastel (eds.): La Chanson française et francophone , p. 144. See also Serge Elhaïk: Les Chefs d'orchestre français. Grands Orfèvres de la Chanson, Volume 3: Raymond Lefèvre ( online ), p. 5. Raymond Lefèvre reports in an interview with Elhaïk that he replaced Raymond Bernard as Hilda's pianist in the early 1950s.
  7. ↑ Annie and Bernard Reval: Gilbert Bécaud. Jardins secets . France-Empire, Paris 2001, ISBN 978-2-70480-930-1 , p. 34.
  8. ↑ Annie and Bernard Reval: Gilbert Bécaud. Jardins secets . France-Empire, Paris 2001, ISBN 978-2-70480-930-1 , p. 47.
  9. ↑ Annie and Bernard Reval: Gilbert Bécaud. Jardins secrets. France-Empire, Paris 2001, p. 104
  10. ↑ Annie and Bernard Reval: Gilbert Bécaud. Jardins secrets. France-Empire, Paris 2001, p. 104
  11. ↑ Annie and Bernard Reval: Gilbert Bécaud. Jardins secrets. France-Empire, Paris 2001, p. 104
  12. ^ Raoul Bellaïche: Enrico Macias: les années Pathé Marconi . In: Je chante , Dossier Enrico Macias, January 4, 2010. Online .
  13. ↑ Donald Spoto: Blue Angel. The Life of Marlene Dietrich . Cooper Square Press, New York 2000, p. 2; see also Rory MacLean : My Time On the Set With Marlene Dietrich . Published online October 3, 2014 on The History Reader website .
  14. ↑ See the entry for the score in the catalog of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
personal data
SURNAME Bernard, Raymond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohen, Raymond-Bernard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French orchestra leader, composer, pianist and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Clamart , France
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 2005
Place of death Suresnes , France