Personnel: Jacques Brel (vocals).
Recording information: L'Olympia, Paris, France (1961 - 1964).
If these two concerts--recorded at Paris's Olympia in 1961 and 1964, respectively--are any indication, Jacques Brel was as extraordinary alive performer as he was a singer and songwriter. Dramatic, witty, moving, and bursting with exuberance--at times ironic and at times quite earnest--Brel works his way through many of his best-known songs (and many that should be better known) with the accompaniment of a pianist, a full orchestra, and a rapturous audience. "Ne Me Quitte Pas," for example, is given such a stirring reading it is alone worth the price of the set.