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 georges
moustaki
born 1934, Alexandria, Egypt. A singer, songwriter,
actor and film music composer of Greek ancestry, early
in his life Moustaki studied French which enabled him
to work in Paris as a journalist. He began to write songs,
and played the piano and guitar in the College Inn in
Montparnasse. He also met the gypsy musician Henri Crolla,
a cousin of Reinhardt, Django. Crolla introduced him to
the legendary performer, Edith Piaf, and in 1958, he became
her guitarist and lover. With Marguerite Monnet, who was
involved with many of Piaf's songs, he wrote "Milord",
which became Piaf's last big hit before she died three
years later. Her record spent 15 weeks in the UK chart
in 1960, easily beating a version by Vaughan, Frankie,
which had an English lyric by Decca recording manager
Bunny Lewis. Moustaki was driving the car late in 1959
when Piaf had her third serious car accident. He escaped
unscathed, and accompanied the singer on her ninth tour
of the USA, where their relationship was terminated following
her collapse onstage at the Waldorf Astoria, and subsequent
four-hour operation. In the 60s, long haired, with a grey
beard, Moustaki toured the music festivals, writing and
performing his own songs. These included the dramatic
"Le Gitan Et La Fille", "Un Etranger",
"Les Orgues De Barbarie", "Les Gestes",
which was memorably sung by Serge Reggiani and "Le
Meteque" (the outcast), perhaps the song most identified
with Moustaki, which ran: "Look at me, a bloody foreigner/A
wandering Jew, a Greek peasant/Hair all over the place,
eyes washed out . . ." In the 70s Moustaki worked
with Jacques Potrenaud on the film of Albert Cosseri's
book, Mendiants Et Orgueilleux, and played the central
character, Hadjis. He also composed the music for movies
such as The Man With Connections, Solo, The Five Leaf
Clover and At The Brink Of The Bench. Although little
known outside the French-speaking world, in the early
90s Moustaki had several albums in the UK catalogue. |
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