Like many jazz composers today, Edmund Dédé (1827-1901) was an American composer who found success only after emigrating to Paris. Born in New Orleans, the son of free Creoles of color who came to the Louisiana city from the French West Indies around 1809, Dédé studied clarinet under his father, a bandmaster, and subsequently violin and theory with several other European and free black musicians. His 1852 song 'Mon pauvre coeur' ('My poor heart') is the oldest surviving piece of sheet music by a New Orleans' Creole of color. Five years later Dédé left for Paris, where he composed not only light cabaret music but also ballets, operettas, string quartets, overtures, and a cantata. His music was published and he was accepted as a member of French artistic societies. His return to New Orleans in 1893 was brief, for he found the prejudice and segregation intolerable. The selection of Dédé's output recorded on this disc represents the genres in which he was most prolific: waltzes, polkas, songs for solo voice and choruses, and piano music. The quality of the dances is as high as that of the Viennese Strausses, and the vocal pieces are every bit as endearing as those of Stephen Foster. The performances, stemming from the 1999 Hot Springs Music Festival, are exceptional; director Richard Rosenberg and Naxos are to be commended for bring this engaging music to disc.
