Nino Ferrer

Self-indulgent chameleon or master of artistic disguise? By all means, Nino Ferrer proved himself to be the "homme a tout faire" (jack of all trades) whom he agitatedly sang about in his theme song to the French television series Agence Interim. Ferrer was a late bloomer of the French yé-yé movement, with a legacy not as widely known as that of Jacques Dutronc or Michel Polnareff. His artistic trade should be viewed in the same vein, though; it was an eclectic brew of equal parts goofing around, subversive thinking, and pop genius. Ferrer was born in 1934 to a French father a...