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Josephine Baker was one of the most extraordinary, individual and distinctive artists of her era, an American singer, dancer and actor, who adopted France as her home. She established a reputation as an outrageous, stylish and provocative stage performer, defying all the norms of the day, as she appeared on the Folies Bergere stage wearing not much more than a bunch of bananas, and in the process of making music that was very particular to her persona. Apart from that, she became a heroine during WWII as an active participant in the French Resistance, working with Allied Intelligence services. This 75-track 3-CD collection covers more than three decades of her career, comprising recordings released in Europe on singles on the Odeon, Columbia, Parlophone labels, along with selected titles from her albums on Columbia during the 1950s, “Chansons Americaines”, “Josephine Baker”, “Encores Americaines”, and her US Mercury albums “The Inimitable” and “Avec Josephine Baker”, plus the RCA albums “Paris Mes Amours” and “The Fabulous”. It features performances in both French and English. Her music encompassed jazz, sophisticated pop, French chansons and more as it developed with the trends across the decades. This collection offers a fascinating cross-section of her work, and an intriguing showcase for a remarkable artist.
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