Francis Dreyfus
Francis Dreyfus ( born 1940 in Le Raincy, † June 24, 2010 in Neuilly -sur -Seine ) was a French music agent, music producer and publishers in the fields of jazz, rock, pop. He is the founder of Dreyfus Records.
Life and work
Dreyfus organized as a teenager with friends in a Parisian suburb a weekend jazz club. As a student of law and politics at the Institut d' Etudes Politiques ( he was cultural attaché be ) he started in 1963, moonlighting as a music publisher ( SPAA, Editions Labrador ) and the agent with the songs of his school friend Eddy Vartan, who for musicians such as Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan wrote. With " You're the One ", sung by Petula Clark, they had a # 1 hit in the United States. In the late 1960s David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Pink Floyd, Ten Years After, Jimmy Cliff, T. Rex were added. Later, his publishing house " Francis Dreyfus Music" acquired managed by Iceland Music and Chrysalis Music catalogs. Further additions were from the 1980s, Al Jarreau, Marcus Miller, David Sanborn, Miles Davis / Jazz Horn ( 1981-1984 ), Benny Golson, Ornette Coleman, Rickie Lee Jones, Charles Mingus, Alice Cooper and American TV series like "Dallas". The coronation had the rights to Elvis Presley in France from 1989.
In 1971, Dreyfus his first record label " Disques Motors". Here Jean Michel Jarre released in 1972 his first records, then in the 1970s, major international successes were ( " Oxygene " 1976 " Equinoxe " 1978). He had hits with the singer Christophe early 1970s. With Jarre he organized regularly spectacular concert events, first in Paris in 1979 on the Place de la Concorde and 1981 in China.
In 1991 he founded his own jazz label " Dreyfus Jazz", followed in 1993 by his American label " Dreyfus Records ". He brought, inter alia, there Pictures of Didier Lockwood, Michel Petrucciani, Richard Galliano, Eddy Louis's, Biréli Lagrène, Philip Catherine, the Mingus Big Band, Roy Haynes, Ahmad Jamal, Steve Grossman, Sylvain Luc, André Ceccarelli, Rosario Giuliani, the singer Anne Ducros, pianist Jean -Michel Pilc and Marcus Miller out. In a series of "Jazz Reference" classic jazz recordings are reissued in improved sound quality - without following the fashion, the alternate takes to complete in his words " terrible ". In his experience, the poor quality of the available recordings was the cause why even many young jazz musicians would listen to classic recordings by Charlie Parker little about. With the artists of his label, he organized regular " Dreyfus Jazz Nights " for example, in Paris and New York ( first 1993 at the Montreux Jazz Festival).
He is the father of actress Julie Dreyfus (born 1966 ) from his marriage (1965 to 1973) with actress Pascale Audret ( 1936-2000 ).