Jean-François Dutertre

Who is Jean-François Dutertre?

Jean-François Dutertre is a French singer-songwriter and player of the hurdy-gurdy, épinette des Vosges, and traditional French music. He also plays the bodhran and the bouzouki.

He has been a member of the band Mélusine and a house collaborator on the disk Le Chant du Monde. He is a great proponent of modal music and has conducted numerous workshops. He is an advocate of the professionalisation of traditional musicians and singers and defends their rights in the CIMT.

Born in 1948 to Norma parents, he studied literature and also taught. He worked as a phonothécaire at the department of ethnomusicology at the musée de l'homme, and became enammored of traditional music, particularly French. He became involved in the Folk Revival of the 1960s, and joined the first French folk-club, Le Bourdon, and traveled to collect music in Quebec and Ireland in 1969 and 1970, as well as in Vosges from 1970-1972.

From 1975 to 1983, he was the executive producer and director of the collection of the label Chant du Monde, where he also worked to develop the Anthologie de la musique traditionnelle française. He played in the folk group Melusine from 1975-1990.