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Gabriel Yacoub
French musician (1952–2025) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gabriel Yacoub (4 February 1952 – 22 January 2025) was a French musician and visual artist. He was a lead member of the French folk and folk rock band Malicorne from its formation in 1973, as a pioneer of the revival of traditional music in contemporary formats.[1] He later also played and recorded solo music, including to his own lyrics.
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Life and career
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Yacoub was born in Paris on 4 February 1952[1] to a Lebanese father and a French mother.[2] His early musical interests, in the 1960s, was American folk music, first by Bob Dylan, then by Woody Guthrie[1] and real American traditional music.[3] He was inspired, but looked for something with French cultural roots.[3] He became a guitarist and singer with the group of harpist Alan Stivell who introduced him to traditional Breton music[3] and toured France in 1971.[1][4]
Before founding Malicorne, Gabriel and his then wife Marie Sauvet recorded the experimental album Pierre de Grenoble in 1973.[4][5] This was originally intended to be the name of the group. It included contributions from Breton guitarist-singer Dan Ar Braz.[6] In 1973, they co-founded Malicorne, to revive traditional French music[3] and combined modern instruments, including guitar, electric guitar and bass guitar, with traditional instruments such as bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and krumhorns.[1][5] Gabriel played guitars, mandolin, Epinette des Vosges and banjo, while Marie played electric dulcimer, bouzouki and hurdy-gurdy. They made a number of successful albums, of which the 1976 Almanach was regarded as the most popular.[5]
In 1978, Yacoub recorded a solo album called Trad. Arr., which featured English fiddler Barry Dransfield as guest;[7] he played traditional French tunes with acoustic guitar, and began to write and compose original songs.[1]
After disbanding for the first time, at the end of 1981, Malicorne reformed in different configurations in 1984, in 1986 and again from 1987 to 1989.[8] The group played in its original line-up for a single concert on 15 July 2010, in La Rochelle[8][5] and finally, in November 2011, with a new line-up. In August 2017, a concert in Paimpol, as part of the Sea Shanty Festival, was the band's last appearance.[8]
In 1986, the final year of Malicorne, Yacoub recorded Elementary Level of Faith,[9] an album of electric folk-rock, with the Hungarian composer Ivan Lantos and the singer and keyboardist Nikki Matheson.[1] In 1990, his next album, Bel, was back to acoustic guitar.[1] It features a string quartet as well as bagpipes played by Jean-Pierre Rasle (who had previously recorded, from 1982 to 1983, with the Albion Band). Yacoub toured as a duo with Marie in 1990. In 1994 he released Quatre, featuring an orchestra and a choir. He worked with fiddler Nathalie Riviere and bassist Yannick Hardouin from 1998.[1]
In February 1995, he performed at the Palais des Sports, in Paris, opening for Bernard Lavilliers, and in May that year at La Cigale.[9]
In 2002, he wrote a book of poetry and lyrics, called Les choses les plus simples ("The simplest things"), distributed by Harmonia Mundi[10][11] and recorded an album of his own songs in English, The Simple Things We Said.[12]
In July 2013, Yacoub was honoured as an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.[13]
Yacoub died after a long illness at a hospital in Bourges on 22 January 2025, at the age of 72.[4][14][5]
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Discography
Yacoub made many recordings, with Marie Yacoub (before, during and after Malicorne), as lead singer and musician with Malicorne, and solo, including:[1][10]
Gabriel and Marie Yacoub
- Pierre de Grenoble (1973)[15]
Malicorne
- see also Malicorne discography
Solo
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References
External links
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