Today, June 24, marks the first anniversary of the death of the French record producer FRANCIS DREYFUS at the age of 69. DREYFUS undoubtedly represented the figure of the ideal producer and publisher.
Dreyfus was clear about what was his vocation. So it was that after finishing his law studies in Paris formed the Parisian Society of Promotion of the Arts, a key institution since French record industry, while founded his first publishing company, Editions Labrador.
His instict for artists not only led him to discover musicians like Christophe, who to this day remains a legend in France, but to promote in France performers as David Bowie and Pink Floyd.
It was not until 1970 that he founded his first label, Disques Motors, which later derived in Disques Dreyfus, through which published works of musicians as disparate as successful, among them Jean Michel Jarre.
It would be his wife, Helen Dreyfus, who encouraged FRANCIS recruit the young musician he met at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales headed by Pierre Schaeffer. The partnership would be strengthened dramatically over 30 years, nearly two dozen albums and a series of concerts around the world that would change the concept of live music.
In 1991, FRANCIS DREYFUS which above all had a passion for Jazz, created a label specifically for that genre: Dreyfus Jazz. That label was joined by MICHEL PETRUCIANI and Marcus Miller among many others.
Even after the breakup in 2002 of tandem DREYFUS / JARRE , it is fair to remember that the work of Francis Dreyfus was decisive for JARRE. Without doubt, and these are words of JEAN-MICHEL “My music might not have been the same without the presence at my side of FRANCIS, or Helen, his wife, along all these years.”
Photo: PHILIPPE QUIDOR