Jacques Morgantini (21 February 1924 – 2 December 2019) and Marcelle Morgantini (''née'' Chailleux, 7 April 1925 – 23 September 2007) were French record producers and promoters of American

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 ...

music.

Biography

Jacques Morgantini was born in Montbéliard, eastern France in 1924. He became a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

fan after hearing his father's records, and while studying chemistry in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

organised a conference on jazz music addressed by

Hugues Panassié Hugues Panassié (27 February 1912 in Paris – 8 December 1974 in Montauban) was a French Music criticism, critic, record producer, and impresario of traditional jazz. Career Panassié was born in Paris. When he was fourteen, he was stricke ...

, the influential critic who was the president of the

Hot Club de France The Hot Club de France is a French organization of jazz fans dedicated to the promotion of "traditional" jazz, swing, and blues. It was founded in 1931 in Paris, France, by five students of the Lycée Carnot. In 1928, Jacques Bureaux, Hugues Pana ...

. Panassié invited Morgantini to become vice-president of the Hot Club, and in 1945 Morgantini set up the Hot Club de Pau. He started developing a network of contacts in the U.S., which provided a basis for him to invite American jazz and blues performers to perform in France. In 1951, with the support of the Hot Club of France, he invited Big Bill Broonzy to perform in the country. Jacques Gasser, "Biographie: Jacques et Marcelle Morgantini", ''Memoire de Blues'', August 2016
Retrieved 5 December 2019
Retrieved 5 December 2019 He worked as a salesman for an electrical company, and met Marcelle Chailleux at a conference he organised in Pau to discuss blues music. Marcelle, born in Sarthe, had been a fan of classical music but was drawn by the emotional power of the blues. They married in 1963. Through Jean-Marie Monastier, the owner of a record store in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

and later the founder of the Black & Blue record label, they invited further groups of blues musicians to play in France, including the Chicago Blues Festival tours managed by Monastier which featured such musicians as

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

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 ...

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''Roll ...

Memphis Slim John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxopho ...

and Koko Taylor . Some of the musicians, including John Lee Hooker and Memphis Slim, were recorded by the Morgantinis, either in their studio at their home in

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, or in

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

performance, and their albums were released by Black & Blue. The Morgantinis became friends with many of the performers, notably Jimmy Dawkins and Fred Below, who told them that several leading blues performers in Chicago had never been recorded. With their son Luc, Jacques and Marcelle Morgantini travelled to Chicago in the early 1970s, where they were guided around clubs by Dawkins, Below and Andrew "Big Voice" Odom. In 1975, Marcelle and Luc, together with Monastier, returned to Chicago determined to record struggling performers. She set up her own label, MCM Records, the name deriving from her initials, and on two trips in 1975 recorded club performances by

Willie Kent Willie Kent (February 24, 1936 – March 2, 2006) was an American Chicago blues singer, bassist and songwriter. Career Kent was born in Inverness, Sunflower County, Mississippi. Although he had played the bass guitar in Chicago's clubs since the ...

Willie James Lyons Willie James Lyons (December 5, 1938 – December 26, 1980) was an American Chicago blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He worked primarily in the West Side of Chicago from the late 1950s up to his death. Lyons was an accompanist to many mus ...

, The Aces, Jimmy Johnson, Luther Johnson, and Bobby King. The following year, she recorded Dawkins, Odom, Eddy Clearwater, Magic Slim, John Littlejohn,

Hip Linkchain Willie Richard (November 10, 1936 – February 13, 1989), who performed as Hip Linkchain, was an American Chicago blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. His best-known numbers were "Change My Blues" and "That Will Never Do". AllMusic described ...

, and

Andrew "Blueblood" McMahon Andrew "Blueblood" McMahon (April 12, 1926 – February 17, 1984) was an American Chicago blues bass guitarist, singer and songwriter. McMahon played bass guitar in Howlin' Wolf's backing ensemble for over a decade. He also backed a number of ...

. Her final visit to Chicago clubs in 1977 resulted in recordings by Jimmy Johnson and

Robert "Big Mojo" Elem Robert "Big Mojo" Elem (January 22, 1928 – February 5, 1997) was an American Chicago blues bass guitarist and singer. Although he recorded only one studio album in his long career, Elem was a part of the Chicago blues scene for over forty yea ...

, but in 1978 financial difficulties led to the closure of the MCM label. "Disparition de Marcelle Morgantini", ''Soul Bag'', 1 November 2007
Retrieved 5 December 2019
Retrieved 5 December 2019 Marcelle Morgantini's set of recordings was described by blues expert Stuart Constable as "a remarkable body of work, not only for the moment in blues history that it captures, but also because of the quality of the sound and the unique character of the performances. The blues was in transit at the time these recordings were made. In the work of Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Slim and Willie James Lyons, you can hear the seeds of blues-rock being sown. At the same time, there is much to bring joy to the hearts of Chicago traditionalists...". Stuart Constable, "Marcelle Morgantini: The Chicago Blues Box", ''Living Blues'' #205, February 2010
Retrieved 5 December 2019 Many of the MCM recordings were later released on CD by Storyville Records. Jacques Morgantini supervised many of the releases on the Black & Blue label. He wrote articles on the music, and

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

, and helped launch the RCA France "Black and White" blues series, many drawing on his own record collection. He produced the Jazz Forever and Blues Forever series of CDs in the 1980s, before creating a series of

compilation CD A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for rel ...

s for the EPM label and for Frémeaux & Associés as well as the Riverboat series of albums of

jump blues Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as ...

musicians. Marcelle Morgantini died in Gan in 2007, aged 82. Jacques Morgantini continued to record blues musicians, organise concerts, work as a music critic, and present radio programmes of jazz and blues. He received a Keeping The Blues Alive Award in 2017 from the Blues Foundation in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. He died in 2019, aged 95. "Disparition de Jacques Morgantini à l’âge de 95 ans ", ''France Blues'', 3 December 2019
Retrieved 5 December 2019

References

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