St. Germain is Paris's Ludovic Navarre who has been around for quite some time making elegant and sophisticated electronic influenced jazz music. His early works were recorded under numerous monikers such as Deepside and Modus Vivendi. The early tracks were floaty electronica house tracks: his Deepside track 'French' and the self titled 'Modus Vivendi' contained bubbly acidic moments with a very electronic house flavour.
Around the early 1990s though Ludovic had an inspired change of direction. He undoubtedly had a great talent for making house records but you get the impression that he wanted to do something new and push the boundaries a little. This is exactly what he did when he began his St. Germain phase. Under this guise he began to put together tracks that had an underlying jazz feel. The emphasis had switched from electronic to more organic cross breeding of forms and ideas. He essentially decided to get together with some like minded musicians such as trumpeter Pascal Ohse (who went onto make the excellent 'Soel: Memento' album), Malik on flute and Edouard Labor on saxophone and make great sounding dancy nu-jazz house tracks. This was not a completely new idea but with their blend of skill and new ideas it sounded excitingly fresh and funky. They essentially had a live jazz and funk jamming session recorded together with beats and house rhythms added by Monsieur Navarre.
Since the excellent 1995 'Boulevard' debut they have made 'Tourist' in 2000 and Ludovic Navarre has used the success of these two albums to put together all sorts of great deep jazz compilations on many record labels. The best of these include 'Lounge' (2002) on Buddha Lounge and his 'Pres de Cafe' Volumes 1 to 8 on Wagram records. Ludovic Navarre has arguably done more than any other musician to bring fresher, deeper, funkier jazz sounds to electronica and house music. He has championed the music prolifically and deserves special mention on these pages.
The video below is of St. Germain's 'So Flute' from the 'Tourist' album:
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1) Boulevard |
2) Tourist |
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3) From Detroit to St. Germain |
http://www.bluenote.com/artistpage.asp?ArtistID=3670
Discography [title/(format)/label/year]
Releases:
French Traxx EP (CD, EP) Fnac Music Dance Division 1993
French Traxx EP (12", EP) Fnac Music Dance Division 1993
Motherland EP (CD, Maxi) Fnac Music Dance Division 1993
Motherland EP (12", EP) Fnac Music Dance Division 1993
Mezzotinto EP (CD, EP) F Communications 1994
Mezzotinto EP (12", EP) F Communications, Play It Again Sam (PIAS) 1994
Motherland EP (12") D:vision Records 1994
Alabama Blues (CD, Maxi) F Communications 1995
Alabama Blues (12") F Communications 1995
Alabama Blues (12", Promo, S/Sided) F Communications 1995
Alabama Blues (7") F Communications 1995
Boulevard (CD, Album) F Communications, Play It Again Sam (PIAS), Rough Trade Germany 1995
Boulevard (2xLP) F Communications 1995
Boulevard (Cass) F Communications 1995
Boulevard (2xCD, Ltd) F Communications 1995
Boulevard 1/3 (12") F Communications, Play It Again Sam (PIAS), Rough Trade Germany 1995
Boulevard 2/3 (12") F Communications 1995
Boulevard 3/3 (12") F Communications 1995
Alabama Blues (Revisited) (CD, Maxi) F Communications 1996
Alabama Blues (Revisited) (Promo 1) (12") F Communications 1996
Alabama Blues (Revisited) (Promo 2) (12", Promo) F Communications 1996
Alabama Blues (Revisited) Part I (12") F Communications 1996
Alabama Blues (Revisited) Part II (12") F Communications 1996
Muse Q The Music (CD, Maxi) F Communications 1996
Muse Q The Music (12") F Communications 1996
From Detroit To St Germain (CD) Creative Vibes 1999
Rose Rouge (12") Blue Note 2000
Rose Rouge (CD, Maxi) Blue Note 2000
Rose Rouge (CD, Maxi) Blue Note 2000
Rose Rouge (CDr, Promo) Blue Note 2000
Rose Rouge Revisited (12") Blue Note 2000
Sure Thing (CD, Maxi) Blue Note 2000
Tourist (CD, Album, Dig) Blue Note 2000
Tourist (2xLP) Blue Note 2000
Tourist (2xCD) Blue Note, Blue Note 2000
Tourist (2xCD, Ltd) Blue Note 2000
Tourist (CD) Blue Note 2000
Tourist (CD) Blue Note 2000
Tourist (Cass, Album) Blue Note, EMI Music (France) 2000
Tourist (2x12", Album, Gat) EMI Music (France), Blue Note 2000
Boulevard (CD) Gold Jam Records 2001
It's A Sure Thing Part 2 (CD, Single, Enh) Blue Note 2001
It's A Sure Thing Revisited (12") Blue Note 2001
Rose Rouge (12") Blue Note 2001
So Flute (10") Blue Note 2001
So Flute (10") Blue Note 2001
So Flute (CD, Maxi) Blue Note 2001
So Flute (12") Blue Note 2001
So Flute (CD, Single, Car) Blue Note 2001
Sure Thing (CD, Maxi, Enh) Blue Note 2001
Sure Thing (12") Blue Note 2001
Sure Thing (CD, Maxi) Blue Note 2001
Sure Thing (12") Blue Note 2001
Sure Thing Revisited (10") Blue Note 2001
Tourist + ƒ¿ (CD) Toshiba EMI Ltd 2001
Boulevard (New Version) (CD) PIAS America 2002
Chaos (CD, Maxi) Blue Note 2002
Boulevard / From Detroit To St. Germain (2xCD) PIAS France 2004
Mezzotinto EP (CD, EP) Zone3 2004
Remixes:
Never (12") Never (St. Germain Rev... Blue Cucaracha 1994
Jericho Jerk (12") Jericho Jerk (St. Germ... Philips 1997
Métamorphose - Messe Pour Le Temps Présent (CD) Jericho Jerk (St. Germ... Philips 1997
Métamorphose - Messe Pour Le Temps Présent (2xLP) Jericho Jerk (St. Germ... Philips 1997
Métamorphose - Messe Pour Le Temps Présent (CD) Jericho Jerk (St. Germ... Philips 1997
Metamorphose - Messe Pour Le Temps Présent (CD) Jericho Jerk (St. Germ... FFRR (US) 1997
Sound Of The City Vol. 4 - Paris (LP) Cumba Letu (St. Germai... Universal Jazz (Germany), Motor Music 1999
Sound Of The City Vol. 4 - Paris (CD) Cumba Letu (St. Germai... Universal Jazz (Germany), Motor Music 1999
Variation (CD) Jericho Jerk (St. Germ... Philips 2000
Variation (3x12") Jericho Jerk (St. Germ... Philips 2000
Production:
Memento (CD) Warner Jazz France 2003
Bootleg Details
No tracklistings available
