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Milteau to enthral Delhiites with Blues

Madhur Tankha

The musical revolution of rocking 1960s motivated him

JEAN JACQUES MILTEAU: One of the most awesome blues musicians

NEW DELHI: There is something to cheer about for music connoisseurs. Jean-Jacques Milteau, rated as one of the world's finest Blues musicians, is all set to mesmerise Delhiites with his brand of music at The Ashok hotel here this coming Saturday.

Organised by Alliance Francaise de Delhi in collaboration with Embassy of France in India, Spedidam and The Ashok, the programme will begin at 6-30 p.m. on the concert day.

If Milteau had followed the path life had initially mapped out for him, he would have only seen the colours of the world on postcards he spent hours classifying as a postal clerk in Porte d'Italie district of Paris. As luck would have it, the musical revolution of the rocking 1960s motivated Milteau to put his foot forward in the world of music. At that time, the famous Beatles and the Rolling Stones could not express any praise for the Blues, a music Milteau soon discovered through the likes of Sonny Terry, Rice "Sonny Boy Williamson" Miller and Little Walter Jacobs. The small Marine Band invented by Matthias Hohner a few decades earlier may have been cheap but it was hard to master. Patiently honing his skills on what he affectionately called his "lip ruin", Milteau gradually earned his title as a musician. As his interest for musical experiments grew, he sailed through the 1970s' sprinkling warm and blue notes on dozens of recordings by the cream of French singers like Charles Aznavour, Eddy Mitchell and Jean-Jacques Goldman.

After some time, the skilful sideman turned into a respectable bandleader who churned out album after album. After the release of "Explorer" earned him a "Victoire de la Musique" (the French equivalent of a Grammy), Milteau won over ecstatic audiences everywhere he played.

In 2002 Milteau won "Grand Prix Jazz de la Sacem" (French Society of Authors), an award for his instrument work and musical career while in 2003 he was conferred another "Victoire de la Musique".

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