St Germain Boulevard CD

An Updating Of 1996 Rel;Incl. Alabam Blues & Soul Salsa Soul

St. Germain: Ludovic Navarre.
Additional personnel includes: Edouard Labord (saxophone); Pascal Ohse (trumpet); P. Chabrel (trombone); Malik (flute); Alexandre Destrez (piano); Miguel "Punta" Rios, I. Coatelen (percussion).
Personnel: Pascal Ohsé (trumpet).
Audio Mixer: Joseph Ventola.
Picture a world where each and every French dance band was unflinchingly bad; where every Air or Cassius or even Phoenix never existed since every homegrown, starving musician looked to somebody like ATB instead of St. Germain. Luckily, this is but a piece of fiction. Because Ludovic Navarre created such a saintly pseudonym, employing deep house, tittering breaks, and down-tempo attitudes that -- in over-simplistic terms -- virtually invented the entire French house movement that has crossed over more times than a Diana Ross impersonator. The question is, does being first make you any good? Taking cues from acid jazz and its chin-stroking underground, songs like "Deep in It" or "Street Scene (4 Schazz)" seem to shyly respond, "yes." It's only the preponderance of an odd sense of a Frenchman aping American black music that starts to cause the most alarm. The loose jazz excursions such as "Sentimental Mood" carries all the emotional weight of a sewing needle and the choice of blues samples (while being years before Moby even caught onto the idea) feels contrived. The album may exude an atmosphere of a musician discovering a new genre hybridization, it just doesn't quite reach the maturity of a fleshed out idea. A landmark album? Yes. An album that lacks the loveliness of an Air or the inventiveness of an Etienne DeCrecy? Also, yes. Boulevard has been looked upon as the "essential" Revolver or What's Going On or Dig Your Own Hole piece of French house fans' record collections. It's only a small indignity that the music itself rarely reaches such heights of its comparisons. ~ Dean Carlson
The French tradition of fetishizing black American music didn't begin with Ludovic Navarre. Au Contraire! The French have been fixated on jazz since before World War II, making it a haven for American artists who were persecuted in their home country. Perhaps it should have come as no surprise, then, that the landmark album in jazz-house would come from the streets of Paris. From the opening Fender Rhodes notes of "Deep in It," there is little doubt why this classic 1996 album had to be re-released, this time with the hard-to-find "Alabama Blues" included. Exploring elements of house, reggae-dub, Latin, and bebop, some have argued that Navarre did little more than add his name and a few drum machines to the true talent of the hired musician. Admittedly, there are points when you can barely tell what makes this a modern electronic album. However, if Navarre's greatest feat is merely compiling the music of others, then it is still a feat that has had boundless influence on the electronic music scene and therefore deserves all the recognition it receives. ~ Joshua Glazer

CMJ (4/1/2002, p.12) - "...Navarre is consistenly credited with bringing the house movement to Paris....incorporating house beats, blues smaples, acid jazz, dub, soul and even salsa, this album...is widely viewed as a milestone..."