Dimitri Vicheney (born Dimitri Wyschnegradsky, 16 February 1924 24 June 2020), known professionally as Jacques Demêtre, was a French historian of

blues music Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

who was one of the first Europeans to recognise and support

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but is performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of African Americans of the fi ...

. Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, he was the son of Hélène Benois, a Russian surrealist painter, and Russian-born

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

composer

Ivan Wyschnegradsky Ivan Alexandrovich Wyschnegradsky ( ; September 29, 1979), was a Russian composer primarily known for his microtonal compositions. For most of his life, from 1920 onwards, Wyschnegradsky lived in Paris. Life Ivan Wyschnegradsky was born in Sai ...

. His grandfather was

Alexandre Benois Alexandre (Alexander) Nikolayevich Benois (; Salmina-Haskell, Larissa. ''Russian Paintings and Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum''. pp. 15, 23-24. Published by Ashmolean Museum, 19899 February 1960) was a Russian artist, art critic, historian, ...

, a noted 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 Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, particularly

Django Reinhardt Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani people, Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Belgium, Belgian-born Romani jazz guitarist and composer in France. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe ...

. However, after the end of the war he preferred listening to

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

, 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, ...

, 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 that he develo ...

Champion Jack Dupree William Thomas "Champion Jack" Dupree (July 23, 1909 or July 4, 1910 – January 21, 1992) was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer. His nickname was derived from his early career as a boxer. Biography Dupree was a New Orle ...

and others, and in 1951

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1893 or 1903August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African-American audiences. In the 19 ...

played in Paris, accompanied by

Blind John Davis Blind John Davis (December 7, 1913 – October 12, 1985) was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer. He is best remembered for his recordings, including "A Little Every Day" and "Everybody's Boogie". Biography Davis was born in ...

. Vicheney began collecting blues records after visiting London, and was soon recruited by

Charles Delaunay Charles Delaunay (18 January 1911 – 16 February 1988) was a French author, jazz expert, co-founder and long-term leader of the Hot Club de France. Biography Born in Paris, France, the son of painters Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay, Charl ...

to write articles on blues music for the magazine ''

Jazz Hot ''Jazz Hot'' is a French quarterly jazz magazine published in Marseille. It was founded in March 1935 in Paris. Early years ''Jazz Hot'' is acclaimed for having innovated scholarly jazz criticism before and after World War II — jazz criti ...

'', using the

pen-name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

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 occas ...

and

Brownie McGhee Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was bor ...

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 McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chica ...

, John Lee Hooker,

Elmore James Elmore James ( Brooks; January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...

Tampa Red Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was an American Chicago blues musician. His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago ...

Kokomo Arnold James "Kokomo" Arnold (February 15, 1896 or 1901 – November 8, 1968) was an American blues musician. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense style of playing and rapid-fire vocal delivery set him apart from his contemporaries. He got his ni ...

, 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 Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that afici ...

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 vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is compo ...

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

References

External links

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