Music download
Local singer Marianne Dissard offers free album online
'Paris One Takes' embodies a lot of road, reflection
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'Paris One Takes' cover -
Wes NamanDissard, ever the Parisienne
When a prominent local voice offers our readers a free 15-song download, we at the Sentinel are thrilled to tell you all about it.
Tucson-based French-born singer Marianne Dissard has returned to Tucson after spending the better part of the last two years on tour in North America and Europe. This winter, she took her act as far as New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the revolving cast of characters who populate her backing band left their imprint on the songs of Dissard's 2008 debut "L'Entredeux," an album co-written and produced by Joey Burns. The result is a definite sea change in Dissard's approach to those songs, infusing many with more energy and dramatics by changing tempo and dynamics along with the ever-motile arrangements that provide the music.
Dissard has emerged from the road a seasoned performer. Whereas five years ago, her stage presence was tentative, her husky alto voice a whisper, on Wednesday night at Club Congress, the songstress owned the stage, and her voice had grown considerably, recalling not just the softness of French pop diva Francoise Hardy, but the strength of such 70s antecedents as Patti Smith and Stevie Nicks.
The "Paris One Takes" were recorded after 30 dates with a particular version of her band in December in Paris, where Dissard maintains a residence. Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sluys tracked the songs, and we must take the band at their word that they are, in fact, single takes.
This configuration of the Dissard experience features Brian Lopez on guitar and vocals, Olivier Samouillan on viola and accordion, Geoff Hidalgo on bass and Sergio Mendoza on drums and piano.
Dissard is currently working on a new album and soaking in some rays in Tucson. She is thrilled to be back, and happy to bring home this document of her travels.
