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” We Listened and we Loved”  Mel of CaroMel.

On the 9th album C’est Magnifique, acclaimed French/World music singer, Raquel Bitton brings her signature fusion of passionate French and Latin grooves to songs that have shaped her creative journey. Released on July 21, C’est Magnifique finds Bitton in the entrancing form alongside a world-class 24-piece orchestra including many Grammy Award winners.

“It’s sort of a bouquet of flowers; a gift to my fans of songs that I had heard as a young teenager, that captured my imagination,” Raquel explained.

Raquel Bitton was a professional singer since the age of 11. She was inspired by songs she heard on the radio and by her parents’ passion for the arts – and for each other. After her family moved to San Francisco in her teens, she established herself as the foremost French jazz singer in America

Raquel’s illustrious career has included selling-out theaters across the U.S. and Canada, most notably New York’s storied Carnegie Hall on three occasions. Internationally recognized as the preeminent interpreter of the music of Edith Piaf, Raquel created the hit show Piaf: Her Story, Her Songs and starred in the award-winning 2003 movie of the same name (released by Lionsgate Film and aired on PBS stations nationwide). She also performs several further elegant, French-themed works including Pops Goes to Paris (For Symphony Pops), A Little Bit of Paris, and Boleros, which accompanies her eponymous 2014 album released by Sony Music.

Co-Produced by 18-time Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winner, Rafa Sardina (Alejandro Sanz, Lady Gaga), Bitton has increasingly absorbed the Latin flair that infuses and enlivens C’est Magnifique’s 12 pulsating tracks. She’s joined on the record by a who’s who of 24 top-tier musicians including percussionist Alex Acuña (Weather Report, Joni Mitchell), guitarist Leo Amuedo (Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond), pianist Rebeca Mauleon (Carlos Santana, Tito Puente), drummer Jimmy Branly (Celia Cruz, Chucho Valdez), and bassist, Oscar Stagnaro (Paquito D’Rivera, Diane Schuur).

“This was the most extraordinary journey of all the journeys I’ve taken with my art – I touched the sky, for sure!” said Raquel. “Because it seemed like I wasn’t the only one in the studio that was so hungry to be lending my voice to songs that meant so much to me. You had these accomplished musicians that wanted so much to perform, to show their brilliance themselves.”

The result is a dozen tracks spanning multiple decades and styles ranging from French swing and Latin pop to Cuban guajira, rumba, bolero, and cha-cha-cha; and Brazilian samba and bossa nova. Sung in both French and Spanish, reaching back into Raquel’s Iberian heritage, C’est Magnifique comprises bold, highly cultured, and eminently danceable interpretations of time-honored compositions delivered with seductive, mesmerizing panache.

Working closely with orchestrator/arranger Jorge Escobar (Marco Antonio Solis, Armando Manzanero), Raquel pared down an original list of around 40 songs to just twelve over a period of 18 months. “I had to pick and choose songs that make me tremble with joy and tears,” she continued. “Then I spent every day over six months with Jorge Escobar discussing arrangements and orchestrations, leaving no leaf unturned, the journey leading us to D-Day was precious. Passion, hope, and dreams were the fabric of my youth, and that has not changed,” Bitton concluded. “I want listeners to recapture those precious moments in time.”

Appropriately, C’est Magnifique opens with a bolero interpretation of 1960s Françoise Hardy hit “Mon Amie la Rose” – the very song that started the young Raquel’s dream of becoming a singer. “I was in a state of wonderment when I first heard those words,” she recalled. Those words were: We are so little after all, I was born at the break of dawn, baptized by the morning dew. I blossomed happy and in love and as the sun set, my petals closed. I went to sleep young. I woke up old. Remember, I was the most beautiful flower in your garden. The follow-up single is a radical guajira reworking of “Tout S’Efface,” originally released by French singer, Rina Ketty (first recorded in 1936).

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” recalled Raquel of recording “Tout S’Efface.” “The entire 24-piece orchestra, and even Rafa Sardina at the mixing board, were up and dancing in the studio!”

Raquel dedicates C’est Magnifique to her dear friend and guitar phenomenon Ramon Stagnaro, (Andrea Bocelli) an inspiration to all involved in the album, who passed last year. It was Ramon who introduced Raquel to Escobar and Sardina, and his brother, 6-time Grammy winner Oscar Stagnaro, plays bass on the record. C’est Magnifique also pays tribute to another departed friend, Pierre Barouh, with a heartfelt bolero/bossa nova rendition of “L’amour Est Bien Plus Fort Que Nous,” which he co-wrote, and “Samba Saravah,” written by Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes for which Barouh wrote French lyrics.

“Passion, hope, and dreams were the fabric of my youth, and that has not changed,” Raquel concluded. “I want listeners to recapture those precious moments in time.”

RAQUEL BITTON ANNOUNCES C’EST MAGNIFIQUE ALBUM DUE JULY 21
A COLLECTION OF SONGS THAT SHAPED HER CREATIVE MUSICAL JOURNEY
FEATURES SAMBA, BOSSA NOVA / BOLEROS, AND LATIN FLAIR THAT PULSATES IN FRENCH AND SPANISH
PRODUCED BY RAQUEL BITTON AND 18 GRAMMY AWARD WINNER PRODUCER/ENGINEER, RAFA SARDINA AND, ARRANGED AND ORCHESTRATED BY JORGE ESCOBAR

LISTEN / STREAM “MON AMIE LA ROSE”

C’est Magnifique Track List
01. MON AMIE LA ROSE
02. TOUT S’EFFACE
03. HISTOIRE D’UN AMOUR
04. C’EST SI DOUX
05. C’EST MAGNIFIQUE
06. SAMBA SARAVAH
07. DE TEMPS EN TEMPS
08. L’AMOUR EST BIEN PLUS FORT QUE NOUS
09. LE TEMPS DES FLEURS
10. LES PAPILLONS DE NUIT
11. JEUX DANGEREUX
12. A QUOI CA SERT SERT L’AMOUR

Please visit raquelbitton.com

 

Mel of CaroMel

Melanie Nathan
Nathan@AfricanHRC.org