Category: Music

Listen to “The French Connection” Ep. 9

This Sunday’s FRENCH CONNECTION on WRIU 90.3 FM may be the last

( This program originally aired on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM on Sunday, August 31, 2025 )

THE FRENCH CONNECTION:: WRIU 90.3 FM :: August 31, 2025:
  • Francis Cabrel “Quin l’esquimau” (Bob Dylan)
  • Jeanne Cherhal “Super 8″
  • Rodolphe Burger “Stephanie Says” (Lou Reed)
  • Jain “Come” (2017)
  • Jain “Makeba” (2017)
  • Liz & Lisa “Fais Do Do”
  • Pomme “Ceux qui Revent
  • Pierre Bensusan “Le Lendemain de la Fete”
  • Léo Ferré “Je t’dore a Legal” (Ferre/Baudelaire)
  • Léo Ferré “Le Vampire” (Ferre/Baudelaire)
  • George Brassens “Puisque Vous Partez en Voyage” (Jean Sablon)
  • Asleep at the Wheel “Friendship First” (Brassens)
  • Francis Cabrel “Je t’amais, Je t’aime, Je t’aimerai”
  • Pierre Bensusan “So Long Michael”
  • Edith Piaf “Je Ne Regrette Rien”

Listen to “The French Connection” Ep. 8

This Sunday’s FRENCH CONNECTION on WRIU 90.3 FM mourns the end of Summer with a theme, “Seasons in the Sun”

By Michael Stevenson

( This program originally aired on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM on Sunday, August 24 )

“Seasons in the Sun” playlist, THE FRENCH CONNECTION :: WRIU 90.3 FM :: August 24, 2025:
  • Gilbert Bécaud “Plein Soleil” (1964)
  • Brigitte Bardot “La Madrague” (1963)
  • Yael Naem “Playground Family / You Have Always Been” (from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Mon Bébé)  2019
  • Jeanne Cherhal “Canicule” (2006)
  • Françoise Hardy “Soleil” (1970)
  • Toots Thielmans “Theme From Summer of ’42” (M. Legrand) rec. 1987 live concert
  • Yves Montand “Les Feuilles Mortes” (m.Jacques Prévert, l.Joseph Kosma) lyrics for “The Autumn Leaves” by Johnny Mercer (recorded 1952)
  • This Is the Kit “Recommencer” (Kate Stables, 2021)
  • Henri Salvador “Jardin d’Hiver” (Henri Salvador, Keren Ann & Benjamin Biolay, 2000)
  • Django Rheinhardt & the Quintet of the Hot Club of France “September Song” (m.Kurt Weil, l.Maxwell Anderson) recorded 1947
  • Blossom Dearie “It Might As Well Be Spring” (Rogers & Hammerstein, recorded 1957)
  • Jack Kerouac “October” (reading)
  • Francis Cabrel “Octobre” (1994)
  • Black Box Recorder “Seasons in the Sun” (Jacques Brel, recorded 1998)
  • Camille Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals” (composed 1886)

I Tell You It Is October!
by Jack Kerouac

There’s something olden and golden and lost
In the strange ancestral light,
There’s something tender and loving and sad
In October’s copper might.

End of something, old, old, old…
Always missing, sad, sad, sad…
Saying something…love, love, love…

Akh! I tell you it is October,
And I defy you now and always
To deny there is not love

Staring foolishly at skies
Whose beauty but God defies.

For in October’s ancient glow
A little after dusk
Love strides through the meadow
Dropping her burnished husk…

“I Tell You It Is October” appears in Jack Kerouac Collected Poems, published by The Library of America in 2012

Le best of Anne Sylvestre  

Retrouvez les plus belles chansons d’Anne Sylvestre interprétées à la télévision avec : 00:03 “Maryvonne” 02:04 “Le froid” dans Fabulettes 04:13 “Depuis l’temps que j’l’attends mon prince charmant” en duo avec Boby Lapointe 07:43 “Un mur pour pleurer” 11:45 “Une sorcière comme les autres” 17:36 “Clémence en vacances” 21:40 “Les gens qui doutent”

Listen to “The French Connection” Ep. 7

This Sunday’s FRENCH CONNECTION on WRIU 90.3 FM celebrates the musical scores from four wonderful French films: Les Choristes from 2011, Amelie from 2001, Ascenseur pour L’échafaud from 1957, and Black Orpheus, from 1959.


( This program originally aired on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM on Sunday, August 17 )

The French Connection 8-17-25

Notes:

Our guest in studio is mon ami Wayne Cresser, host of Picture This: Film Music on the Radio.

FIRST SET: from “Les Choristes” (2011) | Composed by Bruno Coulais; Performed by the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, with the boys choir Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc.



– “Les Avions En Papier”
– “Vois Sur Ton Chemin (Les Choristes)”
– “La Nuit”
– “Compère Guilleri”
– “Lueur D’été”
– “Cerf-Volanther notables”

The story of Les Choristes was inspired by the origin of an actual boys’ choir The Little Singers of Paris.

At the 77th Academy Awards, Les Choristes was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Song (the latter for “Vois sur ton chemin“)

Notably, Les Choristes was director Christophe Barratier’s first feature film.


SECOND SET: from “Amelie” (2001) | Composed and performed by Yann Tiersen

– “La valse d’Amélie”

-“Comptine d’un autre été : L’Après-midi”

-“Les Jours tristes” 

-“L’Autre valse d’Amélie”

Amélie is rated #37 among the “50 Greatest Romantic Comedies of All Time” by Rolling Stone magazine, and in 2025, the film ranked number 41 on The New York Times‘ list of “The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century.” 

Yann Tiersen is a  French- Breton musician and composer. In just two weeks, he composed nineteen pieces for ”Amelie.”

Tiersen just recently released an introspective new album called Rathlin from a Distance | The Liquid Hour.

THIRD SET: “Ascenseur pour l’échafaud” (1957) | Composed and performed by Miles Davis

– “Sur L’autoroute”

The soundtrack for Ascenseur pour Léchafaud, scored by American trumpeter Miles Davis, became an instant jazz classic, known for its atmospheric, moody, and improvisational style –  perfectly complementing the film noir mood of Louis Malle’s movie.

On December 4,1 957, Davis brought his four sidemen to a French recording studio without any practice or preparation. Once the plot of the film was explained, Miles and his band improvised what would become the classic soundtrack.

The musical ideas explored on Ascenseur pour L’échafaud paved the way for Miles Davis’s later masterpiece, “Kind of Blue”.

FOURTH SET: “Black Orpheus” (1959) | Composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim & Luis Bonfa

-“Manhã de Carnaval”

-“Manhã de Carnaval / La Chanson d’Orphée” performed by Pauline Croze

-“Samba de Orfeu”

Black Orpheus is a 1959 romantic tragedy film directed by French filmmaker Marcel Camus.

The film is particularly notable for its soundtrack by two Brazilian composers: Antônio Carlos Jobim, whose “Manhã de Carnaval” and “Samba de Orfeu” have become classics of bossa nova. 

Black Orpheus won the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

CLOSING SONG: Sidney Bechet “Si Tu Vois Ma Mere” (1952)