La Grande Dame de la Chanson Creole

The French chanson tradition has shone a spotlight on many great singers through the years, singers as varied as the 1930s and 40s starlet Edith Piaf to today's Franco-Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra. One singer with a big reputation in both the French Antilles and in France is Moune de Rivel, and Frémeaux's three-CD set seeks to be a fairly definitive overview of her golden period, from 1949 to 1962.

Enthusiasts of Antillean muzurkas and biguines will enjoy the first CD's tracks, on which de Rivel is backed by the exuberant Orchestre Creole, while the most intriguing songs are the folklore Haitien ones, with nods towards the voodoo tradition. However, the majority of the set is firmly located in the world of Parisian chanson, where a European orchestra supports de Rivel's distinctive and often beautiful voice to pleasant but rather generic effect.

This is a lovingly presented and intriguing historical document but, on balance, its enchantments do not fully stand the test of time. It is a shame that de Rivel never returned to record in the Antilles, where more rhythm and verve – perhaps via a small combo setting – may have inflected her work for the better.