Y12W13 .ORCHESTRE LÉARDÉE DU CÉLÈBRE BAL COLONIAL DE LA RUE BLOMET - EDAMYSO

The most of you probably already know and remember this great song from Lola Martin compiled by Hugo Mendez (Sofrito-UK) in the great compilation 'Tumbélé' released on SoundWay Records.
Here is the 1st version composed and played by Ernest Léardée and his orchestra in November 1930 in Paris, and released the same year on Salabert record.

Deep, sensitive and touching document from the very beginning of the French Caribbean music in Paris, this fantastic part of the patrimony has been compiled by the over interesting label 'Frémeaux & Associés' on a double cd only.

Check 'Edamiso'

extract from 'Biguine, Valse et Mazurka Creoles (1930-1943) Vol 2'

ERNEST LÉARDÉE (1896-1988)

From the little people of Fort-de-France, Ernest Léardée lost his mother at age of 6 and his father at 9 years old. He was raised by his sister Yaya and start practicing very early all kinds of small jobs. A carpenter, Marius Collat​​, introduced him to music and taught him the violin. The boy is not long to accompany him in the ball of Martinique. Léardée became an apprentice hairdresser while continuing to play the violin in the orchestra of Leon Apanon. He soon earns enough money to start on his own.

In 1919, Stellio comes from Guyana and hired him to play with him at the Gaumont Cinema in Fort-de-France. In April 1929, is the departure for Paris. But Léardée soon left Stellio to form his own orchestra Bal Blomet. He records his first records in 1930 on Salabert. He then abandoned the violin to start playing clarinet and tenor saxophone. He opens successively several cabarets in Paris (l’Élan Noir, le Mirage…).

In February 1938 he went on tour in Germany, Austria and Hungary. In May 1940 he is in Lille when the Germans invaded France. He retired in the Yonne department during the four years of Occupation. From the Liberation Ernest Léardée restarts his musical activity as a conductor in numerous Parisian cabarets, dance halls of the Marne, Province's balls, beach resorts in the summer...

In the '50s and '60s, he participates in the new vogue for Cuban and Latin American rhythms: Cha cha cha, Mambo, Baïon, Samba, Guaracha, Rampa ... which he recorded several records. He retired in 1970 at Fontenay-sous-Bois, where he died in April 1988. Ernest Léardée also led a casino in Saint-Pair-sur-Mer, he founded a music publishing, he is the interpreter of a television commercial for a brand of rice, and left to SACEM more than three hundred compositions.

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