On September 19th the 94-year-old Charles Aznavour was on stage at the NHK Hall in Osaka, Japan. After a triumphant concert he returned to his home in Mouriès, the lovely olive-oil town in the south of France, and died there suddenly last Monday. It was a spectacular run for a man who outlived all his contemporaries, and indeed an entire musical tradition. His arrival nine and a half decades ago was the first of many unexpected plot twists: He was supposed to be born in America; his parents were only passing through France, awaiting final approval of their US visa...