Jean Jacques Perrey

Jean Marcel Leroy (20 January 1929 – 4 November 2016), better known as Jean-Jacques Perrey (), was a French electronic music performer, composer, producer, and promoter. He is considered a pioneer of pop electronica.Kreps, Daniel, "Jean-Jacques Perrey, Electronic Music Pioneer, Dead at 87"
''Rolling Stone'', 5 November 2016 Perrey partnered with composer-performer Gershon Kingsley to form the electronic music duo Perrey and Kingsley, who issued some of the first commercial recordings featuring the Moog synthesizer. Perrey was also one of the first to promote, perform, and record with the Ondioline, developed by Georges Jenny.

Biography

Early life

Jean Marcel Leroy was born in Amiens, in the north of France. He was given his first instrument, an accordion, at age 4 on Christmas Eve, 1933. He learned to play piano and studied music at a conservatory for two months,Bromwich, Jonah Engel, "Jean-Jacques Perrey, Electronic Music Pioneer, Dies at 87"
''New York Times'' (obit), 6 Nov. 2016 during which he and several classmates formed a jazz band, which performed at the school and at public venues. However, the school's director warned the students that they could either "continue playing jazz or continue your studies". Perrey was expelled from the conservatory for violating a prohibition against students performing in public; he later graduated from the Lycée d'Amiens. He studied medicine in Paris for four years, and planned to pursue scientific research. He was an avid reader of science fiction, in particular the works of Isaac Asimov, Aldous Huxley, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ray Bradbury, and took occasional work as an accordionist.

Start of music career

In 1950, while enrolled in medical school, Perrey heard inventor Georges Jenny playing and promoting his homemade Ondioline on a French radio show.Fourier, Laurent, "Jean-Jacques Perrey and the Ondioline", ''Computer Music Journal'', Vol. 18, No. 4, Winter 1994, MIT Press "With the audacity of youth erreyphoned the radio station and requested Georges Jenny's telephone number, which he was duly given," wrote music historian Mark Brend. "Perrey then phoned Jenny himself, saying he liked the sound of the Ondioline but couldn't afford to buy one." Perrey offered to promote the instrument if Jenny would give him one for free. After a visit to the inventor's workshop, Perrey was loaned an Ondioline. For six months Perrey practiced playing the Ondioline with his right hand while simultaneously playing piano with his left. Jenny was so impressed with Perrey's proficiency, he offered him a job as a salesman and product demonstrator. After earning substantial commissions on sales made during a trip to Sweden (during which he performed on TV), Perrey quit medical school and devoted his career to electronic music.

In 1951, singer/composer Charles Trenet heard about the Ondioline and requested a demonstration of the instrument by Perrey, who at the time was traveling to promote the new device. Trenet was so impressed that he hired Perrey for the recording session for the song "L'Âme des poètes" ("The Soul of Poets"). At a second session, Perrey played Ondioline on three more Trenet songs; the guitarist on two of those later tracks was Django Reinhardt. "L'Âme des poètes" became an international commercial success, and Perrey was asked to accompany Trenet on stage. "My collaboration with renetlasted a year," said Perrey, "during which I was able to meet other great artists and singers such as Yves Montand and Jacques Brel. I made my debut on radio and French television, not only as an accompanist of great singing stars, but also performing my own musical act." Perrey began to travel extensively, first in France and then abroad to attend international music fairs. Eventually he developed a cabaret act, "Around the World in 80 Ways", which was a showcase for the Ondioline's versatility. Perrey explained:

Thanks to the Ondioline, I could imitate instruments from around the world, such as bagpipes from Scotland, American banjo, Gypsy violin, soprano voice, Indian sitar, and so on. I made a world tour in music and finished it with a gag of whistling a tune. At the end, the whistling was still going on (thanks to the Ondioline), but I was drinking a glass of water. We all laughed.

Perrey's first commercially released recording under his own name was ''Prelude au Sommeil'' (''Prelude to Sleep''), issued in 1958, which was described by the artist as an "auditory recipe" to induce sleep in insomniacs. "I had the good fortune of meeting scientists who were interested in the possibilities of using electronic sound for psycho-medical purposes," Perrey later recalled. "Together we had the idea of creating sound complexes to induce calm in disturbed, agitated people. We created a team of researchers: acousticians, medical doctors, physicists, psychiatrists, a total of nine in all. I was the catalyzer, the musician. We spent many hours making experiments to determine which sounds would induce a state of serenity and calm."

In 1959 Perrey performed on a 10" LP entitled ''Cadmus, Le Robot de l'Espace'', a children's record issued on the Philips label; Perrey played Ondioline and provided sound effects. That same year, composer Paul Durand hired Perrey to provide Ondioline accompaniment for the main theme of the French-Italian tragi-comedic film '' La Vache et le Prisonnier (The Cow and the Prisoner)'', which starred French actor-singer Fernandel.

Relocation to New York

At the Studio of Contemporary Music Research in France, Perrey met Pierre Schaeffer, who had pioneered the avant-garde sound art form known as ''musique concrète''. Thereafter, Perrey began to experiment with tape manipulation. Around this time he performed at the Olympia Theater in Paris accompanying France's most acclaimed chanteuse, Edith Piaf, who became an enthusiastic proponent of Perrey's musical gifts. The association with Piaf, Perrey later wrote, proved pivotal in advancing his career.

Edith herself was very impressed by the immense possibilities of the Ondioline. From her, I learned many “tricks of the trade” having to do with show business and song arrangement. She gave me money to buy studio time, which allowed me to record a few pieces on magnetic tape which were a showcase for the Ondioline. She even decided herself which pieces I should record to obtain maximum effect. She was impeccable – very demanding. When she had decided that the tape was “almost perfect,” she told me, “Now you must mail this to a person I’m going to give you the name and address for in New York. I will write him as well, to let him know of your forthcoming correspondence. You’ll see; he will answer you.” It was impossible to debate with Edith; one always had to do as she decreed! Three weeks later, I received an envelope from America. There was no note enclosed – only a round-trip plane ticket with an open return date, plus one word written in big felt-tip pen on the envelope: “COME!” Thus began the fairy tale.

The man to whom Perrey had sent the tape was instrument contractor Carroll Bratman, the well-connected proprietor of Carroll Music.New York