It was at the Cinquième Salle that Jeanne Added kicked off her acoustic tour Another Place Another Tour, which will take her to dozens of small venues in France. Accompanied only by pianist Bruno Ruder, the singer-songwriter from Reims puts aside the electropop sound of her solo career for a tour to return to her jazz roots by performing simplistic, but embodied, versions of her repertoire.
Known for her powerful voice, she once again demonstrated, without artifice, that she is an exceptional performer, capable of captivating with her vocal and physical presence.
This is what struck the author of these lines when she discovered her in 2019, during her second appearance at the Festival de musique émergente (FME) in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The Reims native braved the rain to deliver a very inspired electropop performance. Quickly won over by her engaging stage presence, the crowd began dancing to a selection of tracks from her first two albums: Be Sensationalcritically acclaimed upon its release in 2015, and Radiatereleased in 2018 and awarded several prizes. She also won the Victoire for female performing artist of the year that year, ahead of Vanessa Paradis and Christine and the Queens. That’s not nothing.
If I’m not mistaken, yesterday marked her first indoor concert on this side of the Atlantic. Even at the height of her popularity in 2019, aside from her appearance at the FME in Rouyn-Noranda, she had only made a brief stop in Montreal on the festival’s outdoor stage. Mile Ex End. Her rare presences in Quebec, perhaps accentuated by the pandemic years, probably explain in part why she has not managed to build and maintain a significant audience in the province. Last night, the intimate Cinquième Salle appeared to be only two-thirds full.
That didn’t stop her from entering the stage all smiles and saying a heartfelt “good evening.” Soberly dressed in black pants and a tight sweater with a discreet pattern of pink stripes on a white background, through which two yellow seahorses facing each other could be seen, she seemed delighted, but also somewhat insecure.
After a short breathing exercise that seemed designed to refocus on herself, she and Ruder confidently moved on Air from his eponymous microalbum released in 2020 and Leon from his most recent album By Your Sidereleased in 2022.
These stripped-down interpretations of her repertoire represent a sort of return to her roots for Jeanne Added. Before launching her solo career, she had a career as a jazz musician, a logical continuation of her classical training in cello and opera singing.
Stripped of their electropop sounds, magnificent compositions such as Radiate, Mutate et Hey Boy were particularly striking. They made me want to find her vocal-piano versions on an album. The simplified orchestration also highlighted Jeanne Added’s qualities as an interpreter. She is an exceptional interpreter, and jazz suits her perfectly. The grain and tone of her voice were of exceptional quality last night, easily rivaling the productions on her albums.
To please herself and delight us, she magnificently performed covers of Frank Sinatra, Joni Mitchell and her “favorite”, Prince. Her version of I’ve Got You Under My Skin was very personal, free from any established code, and even very rock in attitude despite being accompanied only by a grand piano.
This is what ironically marked this evening. Jeanne Added’s embodied interpretation and her physical presence on stage gave the impression that she was singing while hearing in her head an orchestration much richer and more intense than what we were hearing. On many occasions, the energy of the two musicians was so powerful that we found ourselves anticipating the entrance on stage of a percussionist or a guitarist. This not only testifies to their immense talent for communicating through music, but also suggests that the acoustic version of the show is perhaps not what they really want to do.
Leaving the party, we wondered why her success in France wasn’t more widely seen here. Jeanne Added is an incredible performer, capable of composing and writing magnificent songs. Her career on this side may have suffered from the bad timing of confinement, but it could also be that the appetite of Quebecers for French-speaking performers who choose to express themselves in the language of Shakespeare is limited. In any case, Jeanne Added is worth the detour, and given the richness of her vocal register, it is a safe bet that her repertoire will only be enriched in the coming years.
Song Grid
- Air
- Leon
- Ready Baby
- Radiate
- Mutate
- Off My Back
- I Got You Under My Skin (reprise de Frank Sinatra)
- Anna Stesia (Prince cover)
- Falling Hearts
- Bye
- Amelia (reprise de Joni Mitchell)
- Hey Boy
- A War Is Coming
- We Are Strong
- Take Me With You (reprise de Prince)
- Suddenly
- Look At Them
