Georges Brassens, who was born in Sète on 22 October 1921 passed away on 29 October 1981, causing an outbreak of national mourning in the French music world. Given Brassens's status as one of France's greatest 'chanson' stars, it is hardly surprising that the 20th anniversary of his death has provoked such a flurry of musical and literary tributes. "Simply the effect of arithmetic fetishism!" declares Joël Favreau, Brassens's second guitarist (who, is, in fact, the last of the singer's surviving musicians). Favreau has now added his own personal homage to "the master", releasing Salut Brassens, one of the best of the current tribute albums, on the Harmonia Mundi label.

"I thought it would be interesting to shed a bit more light on Brassens's music," Favreau explains, "My idea was not so much to invent new things, but rather to develop what was already implicitly there in his songs." Teaming up with French accordionist Jean-Jacques Franchin, Favreau picked out a dozen of his favourite Brassens's songs and the pair recorded them in an improvisational spirit. "I think it's OK for us to have changed the rhythms of Brassens's songs," Favreau says, "After all, when Brassens used to sing in private, he used to change things all the time himself! He'd say things like: 'Oh, I just decided to throw in a couple of arpeggios, because you have to have a bit of variation now and then!' I think you have to be free to interpret his work how you want to today, you know, not feel honour bound to respect structure and form. I mean, I don't personally feel I've got to grow a moustache and smoke a pipe before I can sing Brassens. In fact, I'd say there was only one thing to avoid – and that's trying to be too like him, you now, using two guitars and a bass and rolling your R's as you sing!"

"I know I'm one of the last 'dinosaurs'," says Favreau, heaving a great sigh for comic effect. And it's true that most (older) French music fans will remember his baby face and cherubic curls bobbing along beside Brassens on TV shows or sitting next to the legendary 'chanson' star in the photos of Brassens's later recording sessions. Favreau actually met Brassens long before he began working with him though. In fact, the pair's meeting dates back to when Favreau was working as Colette Chevreau's guitarist and they performed as part of a collective tour on which Brassens was the headlining star.

"As soon as I'd finished playing with Colette," Favreau recalls, "I'd take my guitar backstage to Brassens's dressing-room and sit down and strum a few chords with him. But there was no question of me working for him at that time because Barthélémy Rosso was still playing second guitar on the studio recordings with him then. It was only years later, after Rosso's death, that Brassens picked up the phone and called me – in any case, Brassens would never have actually fired anybody! It was only after he'd hired me that I found out that he'd told Colette Chevreau that she'd better look out because he was going to steal her guitarist! I was singing on the cabaret circuit at the time, but as soon as I started playing with Brassens I stopped singing his songs. I felt really inhibited to begin with, but at the same time I was happy to make myself useful with my guitar. When Brassens was ready to go into the recording studio he'd send me a cassette of his new songs so that I could sit down and work out the second guitar part – then I'd go along and show him what I'd done as if I were a kid taking in my homework. I never once dared ask him to show me a song in its raw, unfinished stage!"

Besides pursuing an active recording career on his own account, Favreau has also established himself as one of Brassens's greatest posthumous performers. After playing as part of a trio with Brassens's double bass-player, Pierre Nicolas, Favreau went on to arrange and produce the compilation Ils chantent Brassens (a compilation featuring covers of Brassens classics recorded by the likes of Francis Cabrel, Richard Gotainer, Pierre Richard and Josiane Balasko). Then, on Maxime Le Forestier's advice, he decided to start singing Brassens himself. And, after all those years spent accompanying Brassens on guitar, he certainly has an intimate working knowledge of the repertoire.
"Brassens's songs have got such depth and density to them that it would be impossible for a comedian to work them into his routine," explains Favreau, "His songs work in a relatively simple, straightforward way and if you start trying to exaggerate them and play up certain things, you end up falling flat on your face! I think the main difference between performing them now and at the time they were written is that they have become classics in their own right. And, because they've been so well 'assimilated' it allows you to try something a little different now. I mean, if there'd always been a batucada rhythm in Brave Margot it would have acted as a distraction. But it's because the song's been known in a completely different form that you can come along and try and bring something new to it." Favreau certainly has no qualms about stepping outside the original schemas of Brassens's songs. "Transmitting things literally," he says, "is like erecting a church to preach the letters, the words and the rites – the only problem is, doing things that way you end up with an empty shell!" Changing the rhythm and the tempo of Brassens's classics, Favreau and Franchin have added some superb guitar and accordion 'choruses'. Favreau even dared to make an audacious cut in Le Bulletin de santé, a song about sexual disease which originally included the line about STDs "causing harm to your virile attributes, but rarely putting your life in danger". The song was obviously written several decades before the advent of AIDS and, as Favreau points out, "Even though purists would hate to admit it, it's not something Brassens would have sung today."

What counts first and foremost for Favreau is that Brassens's work should continue to be sung. And his shows are certainly a living testament to that – by the end of a Favreau concert even the most reserved members of the audience are singing along with him!

Salut Brassens (Harmonia Mundi)

Joël Favreau will be in concert in Montpellier (31 October), at the "Mairie du XIVe arrondissement" in Paris (7 November), in Montmorillon (9 November), before embarking upon a mini-tour of the Seychelles and Mauritius (22 November – 1 December). After that fans can catch him in Belfort (4 December).