Favourite Ten

It is tough to name one's favorite albums. These are some of them, those who inspired ' Jardin Secret'. They represent some favourite memories, emotions and influences.

Carole King, Tapestry
« Like many others, I discovered this one when I was 14-15 years old in my mother's vast record collection. At first I wasn't too much attracted by the low voice, that only came later. But immediately she was the prime example of the woman composer for me, the one who reversed the stereoptypical image of the man who played the music for the woman that sang.
Today I still enjoy analyzing the chords of her songs.»

Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall
« One of the best voices ever.
Nobody knows him, but everybody knows his songs, like 'Just the two of us' and 'Ain’t no sunshine'.
His writing influenced me a lot, he describes life in a way I'd never thought of. He made me look in a different way at 'songwriting with a message'.»

Minnie Ripperton, Come to my garden
«The first time I heard her high pitched voice,
I was convinced she was white!
I love the songs on this album because they seem so simple, that is, until you try to play them!
And that is something that inspired me for Jardin Secret: an album relatively easy to sing but complex to play.
She was also a very positively spirited woman,
almost utopic.
Even when she was suffering from the cancer that killed her at 34.»

The Carpenters, Their greatest hits
« The perfect duo. I adore those simple pop songs.
An album I've never left out of sight, and now my children start picking it up.
I really fell for the woman's voice that sounds so evident, but she hits every note so correctly that you can listen to each song as a singing lesson!
At my parents' house, there was a lot of soul music, so the pop and rock like Deep Purple, I discovered in the record collection of the brothers of my favourite friend.»

Dionne Warwick sings the Bacharach & David songbook
« Burt Bacharach is THE composer! And Dionne the perfect performer for his songs.
I wanted to make music and nobody was going to do it for me, so Bacharach gave me the push to start writing.
I adore the socially aware 'Windows of the world'»

Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis
« A white soul singer !
Since A tâtons, I work with musicians from the Memphis scene. They've always come my way, but this time I wanted to go there. And that is how Jardin Secret got recorded in Memphis. It is funny how I always forget it also is the city of Elvis Presley.
He is a major influence for my singing.
I spent many hours in front of the mirror,
imitating him! »

Michael Jackson, Off the wall
« I don't see him so much as « Waco Jaco » but as an immense artist! This album, produced by Quincy Jones, is just perfect.
People seem to forget who Michael is. His technique, his groove, the number of excellent songs, he is just irresistible.
I met him in Memphis in 1996, with Lisa Marie Presley. There I was, standing between the daughter of the king of rock & roll, the king of pop and the king of soul: Isaac Hayes whom I was working with at the time. An unforgettable moment!»

Jack Johnson, In between dreams
« One of the contemporary albums I'm playing.
 A straight and likeable pop album»

Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace
« I like the gospel, the concept of faith, of bellieving, even if am I not a very religious person myself. On this album, Aretha sings the gospel, the way you only can when you grew up with it. I went to a gospel church with my musicians and I got caught by the atmosphere, the enthousiasm, the sheer power.»

Cat Stevens, Best of
« This album doesn't feel like a best of, there is a striking continuity in the lyrics. I like his themes, varying from idealistic love songs to others such as Wild world
I think I can understand the way Cat Stevens lived his religiousness. At a given time I myself felt really bad about what was happening in the world, and if I hadn't had my children at that time, I think I might have gone a lot further in my efforts to do something about it.»