Les yeux noirs

Les Yeux Noirs is a famous traditional Russian gypsy romance of the 19th century, and a gypsy jazz standard.

The lyrics were written in 1843 by the Ukrainian Romantic poet-writer Yevhen Hrebinka (1812-1848), dedicated to his first wife Maria Vasilyevna. The poem was first published in the Russian literary gazette Literatournaïa gazeta on January 17, 1843. The very moving music, full of elation, joy, melancholy and nostalgia, is inspired by a waltz by the Russian-German composer Florian Hermann, with arrangements by Serguey Gerdel, published on March 7, 1884, whose original scores have been lost.

Russian opera singer and actor Fédor Chaliapine (1873-1938) popularized the song abroad with his own version. The most famous musical version of the song was written by Adalgiso Ferraris, and published, while he was still in Russia after 1910, with the German publisher Otto Kuhl. Ferraris then published it again with Éditions Salabert in Paris, under the title "Tes yeux noirs (impression russe)" with Jacques Liber, in England, on October 9, 1931. An early example of Ferraris' music is recorded in the Pathé archives, in 1932, by violinist Albert Sandler.

In instrumental form, Les Yeux Noirs also became a Gypsy jazz standard with versions by Django Reinhardt; Art Tatum also gave a trio version (Dark Eyes).