Jean Bertola (1922,

La Roche-sur-Foron La Roche-sur-Foron (; Arpitan: ''La Roche'') is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. It is located about 23 km (14.2 mi) southeast of Geneva, Switzerland. La Roche-sur-Foron sta ...

– 1989) was a French pianist, composer, singer, music arranger and

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

. A talented pianist, he worked in a

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

radio station putting music to texts sent by listeners. He later started arranging for many renowned artists including

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( ; ; ; born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a Armenians in France, French singer and songwriter of Armenian descent. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice: clear and ringi ...

in his début. He won the disc prize in 1957. After a career in singing melodies, he became artistic director with the French label

Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

. A singer songwriter, he became close and artistic secretary for

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 ...

and backup vocalist on some of Brassens' albums in the 1970s. He released his own album ''Dernières chansons'' in 1982, with text and music from Brassens, and a second album in 1985 titled ''Le Patrimoine de Brassens''.

Sources

*Louis-Jean Calvet, ''Cent ans de chanson française'', Paris, Éditions L'Archipel, coll. "Archi Poche", 2006, 520 p. (Re-editions of a book first published by Éditions du Seuil in 1972) 1922 births 1989 deaths People from La Roche-sur-Foron French art directors 20th-century French male pianists {{France-musician-stub