Part of the Blog to Yves Duteil

Jean Dufour was my booking agent for many years. He was also one of many artists, including Felix Leclerc, and was the architect of our meeting in the Isle of Orleans facing the city of Quebec. We lived together large and beautiful moments. He has just published "Stolen Portraits" (The waterfront Editions), here are extensive excerpts from what he has anointed me (illustrated by Jose Correa) ...

YVES DUTEIL A fragrance of eternity

During the years 1970/80, Claude Dejacques, artistic director at Philips has often been considered a true artist. Talented, discreet, malicious, he knew perfectly well deal with the privileged place he advised the wisest, most efficient, most favorable to the development of their careers. He had a nostalgic look, his face slightly inclined, soft-spoken, as if he could not forget some painful memories of a life of adventure. We worked together in preparing and promoting a series of albums of Felix Leclerc which I was the agent. He supervised the recordings and my proposed text and photos for the covers and press releases. Full trust, then a friendship brought us together. It is not chance that made me pick up the phone one day in 1977.

- "John, do you know Yves Duteil? "

- "I know a few songs, including turns, which I like much, but I never met the artist. "

- "He is currently at the Theatre de la Ville. You wanna see? "

- "I really work, but I will. "

I can easily imagine the meaning of his statement and I would like a prudent reserve. I can not work with people I feel alive and I appreciate the talent ... Some artists, not least, have already applied for a collaboration which I knew by instinct more than reason, that n 'unsuccessful. But Dejacques is the reference. The theater is full. Yves Duteil between calmly directing. He is tall, thin, guitar on a set of jeans, the hair to the shoulders. It responds to the applause of a discrete inclination of the torso ... and begins. An hour of magic to a room quivering with happiness. So much for the dedication and the questions he answers with surprising gentleness. No doubt: it just happened something. An event freed the music hall. The revelation of a great song by the text, music and voice. A rarity in short, among the artists of his generation. All these considerations and a lot of thoughts cluttering my thoughts returned to my office where Sylvie Dupuy, who shares my responsibilities, I expect, between skepticism and irony.

- "So? You've yet to have ... "

But this is no longer an issue. She understands. Two days later, we find ourselves in the office. He is accompanied by Noelle, his wife. Closer, her long hair framing a face with fine features and regular. I am impressed by the vivacity of look and smile availability. The simplicity of our system does not seem concerned. (...) This first meeting foreshadows an agreement cloudless. All parameters are defined, studied, quantified uncompromising, but above all, it is love for work well done, boundless loyalty and mutual respect which is added that of the public that are the basis of our agreement. (...)

It was then that the unexpected will happen. Felix Leclerc began a tour that will take him to the major regional capitals. A Montelimar, that night, an alley leads to the winds from the lodge to the scene. It is very cold, wet cold very different from, Continental, Quebec. Bronchi from Felix not resist. Sick, he was forced to stop and regain the recitals Belle Province to follow the emergency treatment for the condition. Dismay, sadness, but it must react quickly. I ask the producer Pathé-Marconi, where Yves records, provide me fifty copies hors commerce of the double album he has recorded so I can send them to the organizers of the tour Leclerc, accompanied by a press kit . We modify some of the timing and routes. The tour is saved and Yves Duteil is on the orbit of the success he never left. (...)

In Brussels, where, thanks to its passage, his record company held a great feast in his honor, an elderly gentleman comes to me, dressed in black and wearing an Astrakhan: "I wish, Sir, to meet Yves Duteil . "

- "It's about what, sir, and who shall I say? "

In a radiant smile of pride:

- "I am the father of the artist"

This moment of emotion has not left my memory. Well here it is torn, this veil of uncertainty that could oppose a father to his son once again asserts itself in nature and a desire masked velvet, despite painful trials, sarcasm and disillusionment will not disarm .

Yves Duteil, with his acoustic guitar and acoustic music does not claim anything other than fidelity to his convictions, which somewhat disconcerted criticism. (...) Yves Noelle and live the story of a couple passionately united and invincible in an environment sometimes aggressive on the lookout for all events. Take the triumph of a child elected song of the century in 1987 by a popular poll on the initiative of RTL and Canal + triggers a stream of derision and malicious critics. (...)

In the meantime, and for a tour in Quebec, he met Félix Leclerc and won his friendship. When he returned to Montreal, two years later with the language at home he received the ovation of the most moving of his career. His fight to defend the French language will not be alone. Twenty years of collaboration with Pathé Marconi EMI saw became a nightmare. The new President of the firm causes a conflict that lasted ten years. During this difficult period, Yves will have to fight to impose his talent and confirm its magnificent course. He will find warm BMG understanding that will enable it to assert its commitments in the following language from home. The next album pays tribute to the struggle for Peace and Justice with revealing titles such as The Tibetan, which resists the Chinese oppression, Dreyfus, which he is the great-nephew, and Grand'pèreYitzhaak, Yitzhaak Rabin, victim he, too, intolerance of his times.

My relationship with Dreyfus allowed me, beyond "The case", to evoke the man, through those who knew and loved Yves Duteil said.

While not against the current, the convictions of Yves, its commitments are not going in the direction of the easy sells. It then enters a phase of counting the scene, one can ennoble. This close contact with the public will not stop, despite the trials that lie ahead.

In 1999, he decided to present his recital, always acoustic, stripped in a formula that emphasizes authenticity. He prepares his return to Bobino with her pianist, Michael Precastelli and should reconsider the colors of his success without affecting the essential: the quality of its lyrics and the music, served by the sincerity and purity of interpretation.

Difficult year, as painful Noelle is sick and is fighting with a courage that is admired by his family and stimulates the determination of the team in preparing the new show. Once again, the public is by appointment, conquered by the complicity and the emotion that emanates from this duo. The old man in astrakhan cap leaves this world in which this small-son. Life goes on ...

We must continue to defy the weight of sorrow and poor jokes. It seems that the natural kindness of a man has become detrimental to his talent, recognized and loved by the public, but shunned by the easy irony of the media. Duteil does not cause. It reflects modestly in all grades of his battle in a new album Without waiting, and his confidence in the future. (...) While echoing the fury of the world, it continues to meet with the public rate of 70 concerts a year. Highways in Santiago pilgrimage and rough paths of the GR 20, in the heart of Corsica, which is also home port, he traveled the route in the serenity of a man open to the realities of his time. (...)

The pediment of the City Council Précy sur Marne, the Tibetan flag flown alongside the French flag. The wisdom of the East and the Dalai Lama inspired this symbol of freedom fraternal mayor of the commune. "I am a paradox! "He said, baptized Catholic by his parents in a Jewish family anchored to the memory of Captain Dreyfus. I now found Yves Duteil as I knew him. Warm, friendly, accomplice of my torment and my little pleasures, discreet and this at a time. It often makes me regret having prematurely ended my career in Paris. But dreams vanish in the morning. Nothing had prepared me for such responsibilities whose success has dazzled me with a brilliance that I must first artists who have honored me with their trust and their friendship. This is what I thought that's nearly thirty years on the road to Figari Porto Vecchio, shaken by the arguments of Yves, who had associated friendship to dissuade me reason to stop We lived separately particularly arduous tests and if I beat in time, the color of my white plume is solely responsible. I have just experienced an intense emotion, a July evening in the Festival guitar break in Albi. Before a huge audience, enthralled by the artistic quality of the recital and human, in sharing a sunset radiating from the stage and the pink brick of the cathedral, Yves Duteil has once again offered the fullness of his art.

I borrow my conclusion Nery, (interviewed by Robert Migliorini in The Cross May 16, 2009): "I sincerely hope that people who have the same prejudices as those I may have previously found an opportunity to discover the Yves Duteil today and man it can be simple. Prejudice is a simplistic version of self-assurance, and if we agree to put its passions and certainties in the pot of those around us, so I think it comes out of gold and true human values. "

Stolen Portraits, Jean Dufour (The Waterfront, editions)

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