Nessim Jacques Canetti (30 May 1909, Ruse,

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

– 7 June 1997,

Suresnes Suresnes () is a commune in the western inner suburbs of Paris, France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,482 as of 2020. Suresnes borders the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, ...

) was a French

music executive A music executive or record executive is a person within a music company, in particular, a record label who works in senior management and makes executive decisions over the label's artists. Their role varies greatly but in essence, they can over ...

and a

talent agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds work for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, dancers, and other professionals in various entertainm ...

. Born into a Sephardic Jewish family, his parents were Jacques Elias (Elieser) and Mathilde (Mazal) (née Arditti) Canetti. He was the brother of the Nobel Prize-winning author

Elias Canetti Elias Canetti (; 25 July 1905 – 14 August 1994; ; ) was a German-language writer, known as a Literary modernism, modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and nonfiction writer. Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, to a Sephardi Jews, Sephardic Jewish fam ...

(1905–1994) and of Georges Canetti (1911–1971), a researcher and professor at the Pasteur Institute. Canetti studied at the

École des Hautes Études Commerciales HEC Paris () is a business school and ''grande école'' located in Jouy-en-Josas, a southwestern outer suburb of Paris, France. It offers Bachelor, MiM, MSc in International Finance, MBA, EMBA, executive education, professional developm ...

. Canetti joined the Polydor record company in 1931. There, he persuaded

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

to record her first album of French songs, and also worked on recordings of classical music by the Galimir Quartet. He had developed a strong interest in jazz, and organised "Jazz Hot" tours of jazz artists to university towns, during the course of which he brought

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Cab Calloway Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...

, and

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

to France. In 1936, he became artistic director of the programme "Le Music-hall des jeunes" at ''Radio-Cité'', which began his long-term artistic involvement with French ''chanson''. During World War II, Canetti worked in

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for Radio-France Alger, and established a theatre with

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and Pierre Dac. After World War II, he became artistic director at Polydor, and in 1947, he opened the ''Théâtre des Trois Baudets'' in the Pigalle district in Paris. This venue hosted a great number of famous French performers, including

Georges Brassens Georges Charles Brassens (; ; 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. As an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and ...

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Serge Gainsbourg Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...

, Francis Lemarque,

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, and

Juliette Gréco Juliette Gréco (; 7 February 1927 – 23 September 2020) was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are "Paris Canaille" (1962, originally sung by Léo Ferré), "La Javanaise" (1963, written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco) and "Désh ...

, and served as an artistic testing ground for potential recording artists of interest to Canetti. He built up in parallel a catalogue of ''chanson'' recordings for the Philips label, in addition to work for Polydor, and also the Fontana label. In 1963, Canetti left Philips and founded his own production company, ''Les productions Jacques Canetti'', and record label, Disques Canetti, which featured such artists as

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...

Jacques Higelin Jacques Joseph Victor Higelin (; 18 October 1940 – 6 April 2018) was a French pop singer who rose to prominence in the early 1970s. Early life Higelin was born on 18 October 1940. His father, Paul, a railway worker and musician of Alsatian de ...

Simone Signoret Simone Signoret (; born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker; 25 March 1921 – 30 September 1985) was a French actress. She received various accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, a César Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and ...

Serge Reggiani Serge Reggiani (born Sergio Reggiani; 2 May 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an Italian-French actor and singer. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight. After studying acting at the Conservato ...

, and

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of th ...

. The ''Théâtre des Trois Baudets'' closed in 1967. In 1978, Canetti published his memoir, ''On cherche jeune homme aimant la musique'', whose title derived from a job advertisement from Polydor which read "Cherche jeune homme aimant la musique et parlant couramment allemand" ("Seeking young man who loves music and speaks fluent German"). Canetti married Lucienne Vernay in 1947. The couple had three children, Colette, Françoise and Bernard.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canetti, Jacques 1909 births 1997 deaths People from Ruse, Bulgaria Bulgarian Sephardi Jews HEC Paris alumni 20th-century French Sephardi Jews 20th-century French businesspeople French music industry executives Bulgarian expatriates in Austria Bulgarian emigrants to France Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery