Early Autumn
The Double Six of Paris (also known as Les Double Six) was a French vocal jazz group established in 1959 by Mimi Perrin. The group established an international reputation in the early 1960s. The name of the group was an allusion to the fact that the sextet used double-tracking techniques to enhance and “fatten” their sound, very much like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys did in the recording studio. The six members would all sing once to a recording track, then sing the exact duplicate performance again to a second track, “doubling” each individual vocal part. Singing in French, they performed jazz standards, favoring songs by Quincy Jones and Dizzy Gillespie, recording four albums between 1959 and 1964. The membership was fluid, with many different personnel on various recordings.
The group was not long-lasting. Because of Perrin’s continuing health problems (she had contracted tuberculosis in 1949); The Double Six dissolved in 1966. Several members of the group went on to join the Swingle Singers, which notably reproduced the works of Bach in the jazz vocal style. Here are a few rare recorded performances of Double Six from around 1965. Top video is Bobby Timmons’ Moanin’ … below that a pair of tunes beginning with Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ Boplicity, which then moves into something unidentified, very uptempo, and well worth the listen even if you don’t speak French!
