Debbie de Coudreaux’s valentine to a city she obviously adores, Have a Little Paris on Me, exudes a joie de vivre that won’t quit.  Through songs, de Coudreaux tells the story of her love affair with Paris and she has the theatre chops to do it with élan and authority.  Showcasing her stage background with chatty tunes like Speaking French and Feathers, de Coudreaux infuses her song lyrics with dramatic fire, unwrapping the romance, joy, humor and angst so identified with the City of Love.  Notable is her pairing of Paris Blues and Paris Is a Lonely Town, plumbing the depths of loneliness, while Not Exactly Paris reveals most charmingly that even if it’s not exactly Paris, a special love affair has a similar intoxication.  Le Temps is a lilting yet relentless drive to savor life, and the aching love song, La Chanson des Vieux Amants, brims with heartbreak.

Using different collaborators for orchestrations and arrangements provides de Coudreaux with an intoxicating cocktail of old and new standards and theatre songs, all with the French twist.  It’s a smooth and varied flow from start to finish, evidenced early with a quick shot of An American in Paris bubbling into the heady delight of Bonjour Paris!  I Love Paris mixes and mingles with April in Paris, turning on a dime from nostalgia to swing, and back again, an intriguing arrangement by Shelly Markham.

Have a Little Paris on Me by Francesca Blumenthal could have inspired the title of de Coudreaux’s CD.  It’s an irresistible tune reflecting the seductiveness of this most beguiling of cities, and Debbie de Coudreaux’s debut CD is a sparkling way to pay a visit.
                            Read more...
                        

                            
Because she spent eight years exhibiting her talents (singing talents, that is) at Paris' Moulin Rouge, she think's it's a nice idea to "Have a Little Paris on Me." Perhaps with this show, she'll help repair current French-American relations. She has the pizzazz to do so.
                            Read more...
                        

                            
Dear Debbie...

Like the touch of rain she was
On a man's face and hair and eyes
When the joy of walking thus
Has taken him by surprise.

A superb performance by a lady of unequal class, poise and beauty...I loved her as Julie in "Showboat," and anxiously awaited this CD.  I most assuredly was not disappointed.
                            Read more...
                        

                            
Debbie de Coudreaux, one of the world’s greatest true Cabaret artists, performers, singers, and personalities…a world-class star. Admired and recognized all over Europe as the only American Cabaret super star who rivaled and surpassed the legendary Josephine Baker right here in Paris!! This lady did it all: Writer, philosopher, dancer, thinker, poet, spokesperson, model, musicals and Broadway leading actress, headliner, first page shining celebrity and Cabaret super “artiste”. In France, she reigned as the queen of the legendary “Moulin Rouge”, and she did it wherever she went, wherever she performed and whatever she took part in. de Coudreaux’s “Have a Little Paris on Me” is absolutely different from all and any contemporary French Cabaret recordings. It is one hundred per cent Parisian, One hundred per cent pure musical. One hundred percent pure musical gold. Debbie de Coudreaux is clever. She is a visionary, for she knew that while preserving the originality and authenticity of the French ballads and the song of “Les Annees Folles de Paris”, the spirit and the charm of the cozy “Boites de Nuits” of old Paris, its poets, adventurers, gigolos, musicians, artists, troubadours, “canailles” and existentialists, she had to embrace the needs and changes of new treatments and tempos of modern music. Thus, she kept the original cache of the Parisian ballad and incorporated a New Orleans-1940 Blues up beat blended with sultry Louis Armstrong-Duke Ellington jazzy touch. And this added magic to the magic of her voice. You will tremendously enjoy her songs…beautiful songs like “Bonjour, Paris”, “I Love Paris” or “April in Paris”. What a delight! What a beauty! What a style!

What you get in this CD is a trilogy of absolutely magnificent musical arrangements, superb orchestrations and sparkling voice.
                            Read more...