Juliette Gréco (1927-2020) was a French singer, actress, muse and style icon. She had a turbulent childhood but an epic life. The former included abandonment by her Corsican father, disavowment by her mother and raising by grandparents and nuns. Her mother and sister were interned at Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany, she was jailed during the Nazi occupation, and experienced hard-scrabble poverty in Paris after the War.
She spent post-Liberation years in Paris frequenting Saint-Germain-des-Prés cafes and bars like the late-night cellar jazz club Le Tabou. There, according to Jean Cocteau, she “reigned...by her sheer presence” and immersed herself in political and philosophical bohemian culture. Jean-Paul Sartre installed her at the storied Hotel La Louisiane boarding house on rue de Seine in the Latin Quarter that became a home base for musicians and writers. Sartre wrote lyrics for her that he explained were "lusterless words" that became "precious stones" in her voice.
Her close association with writers, poets and artists like Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Boris Vian, Jacques Prevert, Albert Camus, Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Cocteau led to the nickname "la muse de l'existentialisme." Her distinctive looks (high cheekbones, deep-set eyes, straight, long dark hair with thick bangs and ample makeup) and dress (cast-off black trousers and cashmere polo neck) made her a style icon celebrated by French photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau.
She spent post-Liberation years in Paris frequenting Saint-Germain-des-Prés cafes and bars like the late-night cellar jazz club Le Tabou. There, according to Jean Cocteau, she “reigned...by her sheer presence” and immersed herself in political and philosophical bohemian culture. Jean-Paul Sartre installed her at the storied Hotel La Louisiane boarding house on rue de Seine in the Latin Quarter that became a home base for musicians and writers. Sartre wrote lyrics for her that he explained were "lusterless words" that became "precious stones" in her voice.
Her close association with writers, poets and artists like Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Boris Vian, Jacques Prevert, Albert Camus, Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Cocteau led to the nickname "la muse de l'existentialisme." Her distinctive looks (high cheekbones, deep-set eyes, straight, long dark hair with thick bangs and ample makeup) and dress (cast-off black trousers and cashmere polo neck) made her a style icon celebrated by French photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau.
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Her singing career began in 1949 at the Right Bank cabaret Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit ("The Ox on the Roof"). More an interpreter than a composer or lyricist, her husky, intimate voice and style made a mark. She adopted a style of "voice poems" set to music.
That same year, she began an affair with American jazz musician Miles Davis that lasted on-and-off until his death in 1991. Both were 22 and both fell in love. Besides finding Greco in Paris, like other American jazz musicians of the time Davis found "the freedom of being in France and being treated like a human being." But, determined to return to America and already married and knowing American racial prejdice, he never asked her to marry him, which he explained to Jean-Paul Sartre: "Because I love her." During those same years, Greco gained a reputation as a “croqueuse d’homme” (man-eater), marrying three times and engaging in relationships with Albert Camus, Darryl Zanuck, Quincy Jones and Sacha Distel.
Her singing career began in 1949 at the Right Bank cabaret Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit ("The Ox on the Roof"). More an interpreter than a composer or lyricist, her husky, intimate voice and style made a mark. She adopted a style of "voice poems" set to music.
That same year, she began an affair with American jazz musician Miles Davis that lasted on-and-off until his death in 1991. Both were 22 and both fell in love. Besides finding Greco in Paris, like other American jazz musicians of the time Davis found "the freedom of being in France and being treated like a human being." But, determined to return to America and already married and knowing American racial prejdice, he never asked her to marry him, which he explained to Jean-Paul Sartre: "Because I love her." During those same years, Greco gained a reputation as a “croqueuse d’homme” (man-eater), marrying three times and engaging in relationships with Albert Camus, Darryl Zanuck, Quincy Jones and Sacha Distel.
Gréco, Davis,
Ph Jean-Philippe Charbonier
Greco's best-known songs were "Paris Canaille" (1962, originally sung by Leo Ferré), "La Javanaise" (1963, written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco) and "Déshabillez-moi" (“Undress Me,” 1967). She often sang tracks with lyrics written by French poets like Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian, as well as singers like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. Her 60-year career concluded in 2015 when she began her last worldwide tour titled "Merci."
Juliette Gréco Song:
La Javanaise