Sometime in 1986, perhaps in a Paris café, Dominique Cravic, a singer, guitarist, and musical archivist, met Robert Crumb, an underground cartoonist, banjo and mandolin player, and jug-band aficionado. Over a few glasses of marc, to continue to speculate, they conjured up the idea for Les Primitifs du futur. Since then, they have recorded an impossible-to-categorize series of albums, with cover illustrations by Crumb, of which Les Crimes du Mussette is the fifth.

Weird and wonderful, it sounds like they rooted through an attic full of 78 RPM records, scribbled down some arrangements, and then played them on a collection of instruments they found in another attic, including accordion, sax, xylophone, clarinet, banjo, ukulele, theremin, Hawaiian guitar, bagpipe chanter (I’m guessing here), and musical saw.

The 27 short tracks are mostly voiced by Cravic, who talk-sings in the manner of an everyman Maurice Chevalier. He is often accompanied by the accordion, a customary instrument in the bal-musette style that remains a strong element of the eclectic range of styles they have managed to synthesize. They also include ragtime, jug, French chanson, and, to my ears, skiffle, just to get the list started.

The liner notes point out that “Les Crimes du Musette is also a gold mine for scholars, a veritable treasure trove.” Exploring the treasures is beyond my scope here, as each tune has a long history. A highlight for me is the humorous “Ukulele Lady” from 1925, which first delighted me on Arlo Guthrie’s 1971 album Hobo’s Lullaby. The song has also been covered by Bing Crosby, Peter Sellers, and Bette Midler.

A more serious item is “N’oublie pas Gréco” (Don’t Forget Gréco”) is a tribute to the legendary chanteuse and heroine of the French Resistance, Juliette Gréco, who died in 2020. You will also hear old chestnuts like “Fumée aux yeux” (“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”), “Boude pas” (“Take Five”), and “Prive d’amour” (“As Time Goes By”).

This record is a curiosity, but it is performed by serious musicians with total commitment. In this, I was reminded of the similarly indefinable Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks. Long-forgotten music and abandoned styles are given new animation with obvious enthusiasm and care. Speaking about himself and his collaborators, many of whom are in their seventies, Dominique Cravic says, “The young have fire, but we have light.” In its own little corner, Les Crimes du Musette shines bright.

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