By Steven Suskin
31 Oct 2004

BREL Infinement [DRG 5578]
I have given up trying to explain the magic of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. I suppose the original cast album [Sony Classical SK 89998] must sound a little dated today, at least to people who weren't around in 1968 to see it at the Village Gate (or one of the other venues around the country where it enjoyed long sitdowns). Hair, which opened in its successful Broadway version three months later, was far more influential in the long run, and certainly reached more theatregoers. Even so, the 1,847 run of Brel (in its tiny home) managed to best Hair by 100 performances, with the two shows closing on the same July day in 1972.

Brel returned to town a mere ten weeks later, reopening on Broadway at the Royale for a not-especially well-attended 51-performance run. (Conditions on Broadway were so poor at the time that the long-running Off Broadway hit You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, had made a similar, and similarly unsuccessful, transfer to the Golden the year before.) But for those of us who were there — and, I suppose, those of us who were susceptible to its message — the songs of Jacques Brel were quite something, especially at a time when the best Broadway could come up with were Henry, Sweet Henry and The Happy Time.

At any rate, I am not here to win converts to Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Rather, I am here to report on "Brel Infinement," a 40-track, two-CD collection of — I suppose — the best of Jacques Brel. Infinement means "infinitely," a word that Brel apparently liked (and a word that the liner notes tell us "describes the way his great work will live on"). Jacques Brel is no longer alive and well and living in Paris; he died there in 1987, which makes Infinement a twenty-fifth anniversary celebration. American fans of Brel, who know his work mostly through familiarity with Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, will find "Infinement" infinitely rewarding.

The reasons we are going to like this even if we don't speak a word of French, you ask? First, and foremost: As much as you might enjoy some of the performances on the Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris cast album, Brel's vocals are remarkable. Not only does he outdo Mort Shuman, who co-conceived and translated the American version; he reclaims songs that we might have thought belonged to Elly Stone. Second: The folksy, small-combo arrangements that we are accustomed to turn out to be drastic reductions of the originals. Imagine the songs of Frank Sinatra sung by four singers on a West Village postage-stamp with five musicians, and you can understand what might be missing. Brel, at least by the time he made these recordings, seems to have had access to whatever he wanted musically. I have always been very happy with my Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris cast album, but the versions of "Infinement" are as color is to black-and-white.

Brel-the-singer is incredibly powerful. The emotion is absolutely searing, on song after song; those of us with little or no French might have no idea what he's singing about, at least on the non-Alive and Well songs, but no matter. The power comes through, almost startlingly so, again and again. Brel wrote his own lyrics, as well as the music for most of the later songs; the music for the earlier ones is mostly by Brel and/or Gerard Jouannest.

For people who appreciate Brel but think they needn't bother, let me assure you that the songs we know comprise only half of the album. There are plenty more of equivalent or even greater power, starting with "Ne Me Quitte Pas."

The liner notes tell us that Brel was not impressed when he finally caught Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris in 1969, saying he "felt like a chicken who hatched a duck." While Stone and Shuman aren't exactly chopped liver — or a bit of paté, if you will — Brel, himself, is infinement.

—Steven Suskin, author of "A Must See! Brilliant Broadway Artwork" [Chronicle Books], the "Broadway Yearbook" series, "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached by e-mail at Ssuskin@aol.com.