ABSTRACT
In a very direct way Barbara developed Edith Piafstyle under the joint auspices of Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel: she began her cabaret career in the 1950s by interpreting their songs, which she recorded on early albums with Ducretet-Thomson. Barbara continued to perform at Parisian theatres such as the Theatre du Chatelet in 1987 and Theatre Mogador in 1990, but there were few studio recordings and the rare new songs were included in the compact disc of the Mogador concert. In general, Piaf uniquely theatrical style became a little excessive in her last years, perhaps to compensate for her declining vocal powers: it came perilously close to self-caricature, and it was as if she was counting rather too much on her faithful supporters. The orchestrations used by Barbara are usually simple: she most often accompanies herself on the piano, with the addition of a bass and sometimes either an accordion or a saxophone as decoration on the earlier recordings.
