Dimitri Vicheney (born Dimitri Wyschnegradsky, 16 February 1924 24 June 2020), known professionally as Jacques Demêtre, was a French historian of blues music who was one of the first Europeans to recognise and support Chicago blues. Born in Paris, he was the son of Hélène Benois, a Russian surrealist painter, and Russian-born experimental composer Ivan Wyschnegradsky. His grandfather was Alexandre Benois,famous painter, decorator and scenographer of the Russian Ballets. During the Second World War, he listened to radio shows by Hugues Panassié, and developed an interest in jazz, particularly Django Reinhardt. However, after the end of the war he preferred listening to

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

to bebop, which he disliked. A French record label,

Disques Vogue Disques Vogue was a jazz record company founded in France by Léon Cabat and Charles Delaunay in 1947, the year after the American Vogue label ceased. They originally specialized in jazz, featuring American performers such as Sidney Bechet, D ...

, began issuing current American blues records, by

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

, Champion Jack Dupree and others, and in 1951 Big Bill Broonzy played in Paris, accompanied by Blind John Davis. Vicheney began collecting blues records after visiting London, and was soon recruited by Charles Delaunay to write articles on blues music for the magazine '' Jazz Hot'', using the pen-name Jacques Demêtre. Christian Casoni, "Interview: Jacques Demêtre, Le matin Français du blues", ''BluesAgain'', 2007
Retrieved 25 June 2020 He met

Sonny Terry Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and oc ...

and Brownie McGhee in 1958, Christian Casoni, "Interview: Jacques Demêtre, Le bonheur d'avoir eu raison", ''BluesAgain'', 2007
Retrieved 25 June 2020 and in 1959 made his first visit to the United States, with Marcel Chauvard. In the U.S., where blues music was largely overlooked by mainstream culture, he met blues musicians in Chicago, Detroit and New York City. He met, photographed and interviewed Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Tampa Red, Kokomo Arnold, Champion Jack Dupree and many others, and on his return published the results in ''Jazz Hot''. The interviews were republished in book form in 1994 as ''Voyage au Pays du Blue'' (''Land of the Blues''). The trip reportedly inspired English writer Paul Oliver to undertake his own research in the U.S. in 1960. Demêtre later edited blues and

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

compilations. He died in 2020 in Paris, aged 96. "Décès de Jacques Demêtre", ''SoulBag'', 25 June 2020
Retrieved 25 June 2020

References

External links

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Jacques Demêtre (1924-2020)
at ''Soulbag.fr'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Demêtre, Jacques 1924 births 2020 deaths French writers about music French people of Russian descent Blues historians