He took us by (bad) surprise a year ago, on May 25, 2023. It has already been a year since Jean-Louis Murat died at the age of 71. His memory remains intact, maintained by his abundant discography – 31 albums spread over three decades -, dotted with eternal songs, New feeling has The Beyond Passing by The fallen angel And At Mount Sans-Souci.
A repertoire that many musicians will cover, this Saturday, May 25, at the Coopérative de Mai, the contemporary music hall in Clermont-Ferrand. On stage, Nicola Sirkis, JP Nataf (des Innocents), Alex Beaupain, Laura Cahen, Jeanne Cherhal, Morgane Imbeaud, Frédéric Lo and Florent Marchet. The concert has long been sold out.
Three books in bookstore
To console themselves, fans of Jean-Louis Murat can rush to the bookstore where books evoking the work of Jean-Louis Murat are flourishing. Antoine Couder, radio producer on France Culture, looked at a key track from the album The Moujik and his wife (2002): Roman Crowd. (Le Boulon, 128 p., €12).
The Clermont-based journalist, Pierre Andrieu, recounts, for his part, Jean-Louis Murat through his music and his key records in a richly illustrated book, enriched with testimonies from loved ones: Marie Audigier, Denis Clavaizolle, Laure Desbruères, Fred Jimenez… (The days of the jaguarLe Boulon, 200 p., €32).
Finally, the journalist Franck Vergeade, music editor-in-chief of Inrockuptibles, drew on Murat’s discography and the numerous interviews that the singer had given him to retrace an extraordinary journey. Throughout the pages, he sketches the portrait of a gruff provocateur, a sincere lover, an exciting enthusiast, an endearing loudmouth, a literate songwriter a little lost in his own country. (The undone link, Séguier, 208 p., €21).
A triple vinyl of unreleased releases
In the fall of 2021, Murat told Franck Vergeade that he had thought about his career post-mortem. “I warned the children: when dad is no longer here, they will have lots of unreleased records to release. » A prolific composer during his lifetime, Jean-Louis Murat would therefore have left many unpublished works in the drawers. Some were already more or less known.
As This scent of acacia in the garden, which covers the 20 titles recorded in 2003 in a studio near Paris. A concert at the time filmed live by Don Kent. Until now, some of his songs were only available on a DVD and a Bonus CD. They are released this Friday, May 24, by Pias, in a limited edition triple vinyl (500 numbered copies).
