Vincent Segal, cellist – The Proust Questionnaire

Vincent Segal kindly agreed to continue this series of the famous Proust Questionnaires, slightly revisited in the Couleurs Jazz spirit…

A unique way to take the first steps into the world of these remarkable jazz musicians—artists of our time.

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-For you, what is the height of musical misery?
Playback.

-Where would you most like to live?

At home. I’ve been living there for nearly 40 years, in Paris. I love my street, the courtyard of our building…

-Your ideal of happiness on earth?
La Pointe aux Chèvres, near Cap Fréhel. There’s a contemplative happiness there, and a slightly hermit-like feeling.

-For which wrong notes do you have the most indulgence?
Those that are improvised, or when the instrument goes out of tune because of cold, heat, or even the monsoon…

-Who are the fictional heroes you prefer?
I love Augie March and Herzog, the characters of Saul Bellow. Complex figures, often in bad faith, but always singular.

-Who is your favorite classical musician?

Pierre Penassou, my cello teacher. He taught me how to play, and I listened to him live throughout my youth. Now I listen to him on recordings. He was part of the legendary Parrenin Quartet. They played Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud magnificently. He had studied with Calvet and Maréchal. His way of making the cello resonate was extraordinary. He was a friend of Rostropovich, Xenakis, Dutilleux, Constant, Ferras, Barbizet, Perlemuter…

Dominique Pifarely, Didier Petit, Christophe Roy, Emmanuelle Parrenin… we are all connected to Pierre Penassou or the Parrenin Quartet.

-Your favorite heroines or divas in real life?

The Nemtanu sisters, so at ease with music and the violin. True heroines of life.

-Your heroines in fiction?

Stéphane Audran, always beautiful and intriguing, so Parisian.

-Your favorite painter?
Kenneth Alfred, engraver and painter from Port of Spain. His delicate and demanding work offers a wonderful world to those who take the time to look.

-Your favorite jazz musician?
It’s like choosing among children, impossible. There are those I never heard live (like Monk, Parker, Bechet, Rex Stewart, Mingus, Dolphy, Teddy Bunn, Éric Kloss etc.…), those I heard in fact since childhood like John Lewis, Dizzy, Sam Woodyard, Slam Stewart, Ron Carter, Don Pullen, Ernest Ranglin, Carla Bley, Geri Allen, Oliver Johnson, and the, those I had the chance to play with, record with, learn from, live : Glenn Ferris, Nana Vasconcelos, Greg Cohen, Jean-Marie Machado, Cyro Battista, Rido Bayonne… and today’s musicians. I listen to jazz all the time.

-Your favorite quality in a man?
I don’t know. Like Robert Musil, I think it’s difficult.

-Your favorite quality in a woman?
All the qualities of my wife.

-Your favorite virtue?
Altruism and courage.

-Your favorite occupation?
Sleeping, the refuge of sleep.

-Who would you have liked to be?

A deep-sea fish.

-My main character trait?
The bad one.

-What do I like most about my friends?
That they are very different.

-My main fault?
The black anger.

-My dream of happiness?

I think I am quite happy.

-My greatest unhappiness?
The deportation of my family and slavery. Our family is irreparably marked by these.

-What I would like to be?

A fish in the water

-My favorite color?
A certain blue by Kenneth Alfred.

-The flower I love?
The violet.

-My favorite bird?
The blackbird and its stratospheric song.

-My favorite prose writers?
Saul Bellow, Elsa Morante, Alberto Moravia, Gustave Flaubert, Claude Levi-Strauss, Kraznahorkai, Andre Chastel, Georges Bataille, Gershom Scholem, Milan Kundera, Mario Vargas Llosa, François Bon, Regina Spektor, Aaron Appelfeld.

-My favorite poets?
Aimé Césaire, Paul Celan, Mandelstam…

-My heroes in real life?
My family, people from my neighborhood, my friends from Bamako, São Paulo, Oakland, Istanbul, Jerusalem…

-My heroes in history?
Discreet and magnificent anonymous people.

-My favorite names?
Ram Narayan, Doudou Ndiaye Rose, Hélio Oiticica…

-What I hate the most?
Being late.

-The reform I admire the most?
The reform of the universe.

-The natural gift I would most like to have?
To be completely gaseous.

-How would I like to die?
After making love in my sleep. Unlikely, alas.

-My definition of jazz?
Like time, it cannot be defined.

-My current state of mind?
Impatient to go to sleep.

-My motto?
Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas. I have always loved Webern…

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