Born in Martinique on April 22, 1910, Jenny Alpha arrived in Paris in 1929, where she died on September 8, 2010, at just the age of 100.
Very active professionally until death, she was the Oldest of French actresses.
Few women artists from the West Indies have marked the 20th century and the cultural life of France like Jenny Alpha.
Firstly by her longevity, but also by the diversity of her career, between music hall, theater and cinema, all served with charisma, positive energy, incredible vitality and a pioneering spirit that ignores obstacles and prejudices.
Acting career thwarted… music and dance, in plan B, but with panache
Jenny Alpha has always dreamed of being an actress, but the French colonial society of the 30s and 40s offered her few opportunities.
Persevering, she will have to wait until the 60s, to finally be able to flourish on the boards.
But it was in 1975 that she left the cabaret to devote herself definitively to the theater.
If the theater was the great love of his life, music allowed him to make a career, while waiting for the arrival of the big roles to his measure. Although a plan B for her, Jenny Alpha has led her career in music in the most beautiful way, in her own way, even in the singularity.
Jenny Alpha, Music-Hall star
From 1945 to 1950, Jenny Alpha began a successful career as a singer and dancer, which would take her from the Caribbean cabaret La Canne à Sucre, in the Montparnasse district, to casinos and provincial theaters and major European cities. His repertoire includes Creole music, French song and international standards.
Female Conductor for 16 years
After starting out as a soloist, Jenny Alpha decided to set up her own orchestra.
To do this, she selected the best musicians, white and black, of the time.
Being a conductor was an extremely rare thing for a woman at the time, black moreover, the only woman among men.
From 1950 to 1966, Jenny Alpha conducted the large orchestra, Les Pirates du Rythme, with a Jazz and "Typical" repertoire, a term used at the time to encompass music such as biguine, Afro music -Cubans and others.
More than an orchestra, it's a real show delivered by the musicians of Jenny Alpha, who stages them.
Among the musicians who have played in the big band of the Pirates of the Rhythm we note:
At the Piano:
• Joseph GINSBURG (father of singer Serge GAINSBOURG), for 8 years,
• The Togolese, adopted and raised in Germany, Bruce KWASSI,
• The Martinican, René LEOPOLD, English teacher on availability for academic inspection, ultra talented,
• The Haitian Maurice THIBAULT.
On the saxophone:
• Soprano: José BENJAMIN from Martinique, the first Caribbean saxophonist to play the soprano,
• Tenor:
• Roland FRACONNY
• Guadeloupean Georges COUDOUX
• Martinican Ti Marcel LOUIS-JOSEPH
• The illustrious Robert MAVOUNZY, from Guadeloupe, the greatest of West Indian saxophonists.
On guitar:
Guyanese of Guadeloupe origin, Roland PATERNE.
On drums:
Guadeloupean Noël TALQUONE and VARTIVANIAN
On the clarinet:
The Martinican Eugène DORENT
On violin and double bass: the talented Cuban JUNQUERA
On the trumpet: Jo SMITT
With Les Pirates du Rhythm, Jenny Alpha performs in casinos and seaside resorts in the provinces andthroughout Europe.
2008, La Sérénade du Muguet, her hit album
In 2008, at the age of 98, Jenny Alpha released a solo album, headed by the sure values that are the Martinican "all terrain" artist, Tony Chasseur and the French pianist, passionate of biguine that is David Fackere, director of the album.
On this album, she resumes her great successes in the company of guests such as the Frenchman Thomas Dutronc or the Mauritian Alain Ramanisum. The CD also contains the original versions of the "Sérénade du muguet" and of "Douvan Pote Doudou" which she had already recorded in particular, in 1953 with the orchestra of Guadeloupean Silvio Siobud.
Reading list
Poetry and songs in tribute to her husband
Faithful to the memory of her second husband, the great French poet, Noël-Henri Villard (1904-1984), with whom she shared more than 43 years of common life, Jenny Alpha organizes since 1985 each year, an annual evening of poetry and song in tribute to him.
Friend of intellectuals and Muse of great painters
A contemporary of French, Afro-American and West Indian intellectuals and artists from Paris in the 1930s and after the war, Jenny Alpha was a close friend of the surrealist poet Robert Desnos, met the painter Dali, Joséphine Baker, rubbed shoulders with the Césaire-Senghor-Damas trio at the start of the Negritude movement, attended the first congress of black writers in 1956…
In 1942, she was the muse of the painter Picabia, a Spanish artist, at the birth of the Dada movement who painted her portrait and she was chosen as a model in 1947, for a stamp symbolizing Martinique , created by Mr Lemagny, winner of the Grand Prix de Rome.
Distinctions
Knight of the Legion of Honor (January 1, 2009).
• Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (February 9, 2005)
• Knight of the National Order of Merit (June 20, 2000)
On April 22, 2000, in order to celebrate its ninetieth anniversary, the West Indian association, “ACACA” paid him a brilliant tribute in the presence of many West Indian and French personalities. That same day, Jenny Alpha was awarded the Gold Medal of Great Martinican Musicians by “Les Rencontres Musicales Anderson BAGOE”.
Memory of Jenny Alpha
Association "Friends of Jenny Alpha"
The Association "Friends of Jenny Alpha" has set itself the objective of promoting and implementing all actions and forms of expression aimed at perpetuating the memory of Jenny Alpha.
An autobiography
• Paris Créole Blues by Jenny Alpha with Natalie Levisalles, Éditions du Toucan, April 2011
Deux documentaires
Teaser of the documentary on actress Jenny Alpha directed by Thierry Desroses and Gilles Oddos.
A square
On June 15, 2013, a small square in the 15th arrondissement of Paris was named after the Martinican artist. A commemorative plaque is also visible on the Parisian facade of 39 rue de l'Abbé Groult where the artist lived for more than 37 years.
A plate
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