“Ensemble”
Song by Ray Charles
If you have ever wanted to hear Ray Charles sing in French, you’re in luck. He does just that on the song “Ensemble”, the ninth song on the 2002 album Thanks For Bringing Love Around Again. The track, actually, is mostly sung not by Ray but by Ginie Line. Ray adds a verse in English, then duets with Line on two verses in French. Well, the same French verse, twice. Hey, cut him some slack – it’s still cool.
“I love French, but unfortunately for me I can’t really speak it.”
– Ray Charles
“Ensemble” is a heavy and chilly studio concoction, pretty and expansive and dramatic. It’s also lush and full of minor chords, a slow and sensual exploration of heartbreak. Ginie Line’s vocals are anguished – brash and loud, while Ray’s dark tenor balances her wailing energy with a more earthy and far more hopeful tone.
Arlette Kotchounian and Ray Charles
The song was written by Pierre Marie, a.k.a. MAMS, but the lyrics were courtesy of Varda Kakon and Arlette Kotchounian. Kotchounian was a major figure in Ray’s life. She first fell into Ray’s orbit when she introduced, and translated the French lyrics of, what became his great 1967 song “The Sun Died”. She was also his long-time lover from that point, and in 1976 they had a son, Vincent.
With that long history stretching back 35 years, it’s a pretty nice touch that she was able to participate in the final album Ray would release before his 2004 death.
Arlette Kotchounian in 2018, under a photo she took of Serge Gainsbourg and Ray Charles. (See the original here.)
“Ensemble” is the only song on Thanks For Bringing Love Around Again not to be recorded in California. It was done at a pair of Parisian recording studios, Ouistiti and PlusXXX. The strings were added at CRC Studios in Chicago.
“Ensemble” in France
This track, thanks not only to Ray Charles’s legend but also to Ginie Line’s voice and the loveliness of the song, was released as a CD-single in France. Also appearing on the disc was Ray’s stark “Mother”. Ginie Line and Ray Charles performed “Ensemble” on the popular French television show Star Academy on November 30, 2002. Ray sat at his piano as Line stood beside it, singing.
Ginie Line and Ray Charles after performing “Ensemble” on Star Academy.
In clips of the show, Ray apologizes (in English) for his attempts at French, and the duo perform the song live over the pre-recorded backing track. As on the CD version, Ray’s vocals are mixed lower than Line’s during the French sections that he sings. You can watch the entire clip beginning at the 7:45 mark here:
By the way, this isn’t the first time Ray Charles has attempted French. On his 1972 LP A Message From The People, his recording of “What Have They Done To My Song, Ma” features some backing female vocals in French. Ray, sensing a challenge, tries a couple lines. He humorously and exaggeratedly stumbles over the words, quickly announcing, “My French must be pretty bad, I better do this in English!”
And now here he is, thirty years later, giving real French a real go and doing… well, a bit better.
“Ensemble” is a gorgeous duet, in an emotional arrangement and, with its Ginie Line-dominated vocals and 75% French lyrics, a playfully experimental one for 72-year old Ray Charles.
