Eddie Barclay

Ruault, the son of a café waiter and a post office worker, was born in Paris on January 26, 1921. He spent much of his early childhood with his grandmother in Taverny (in today's Val-d'Oise). His parents bought the Café de la Poste bar in the middle of Paris while he was a child and at the age of 15 he left school to work in the café. He had not enjoyed his studies but he taught himself music and piano. He particularly liked American jazz and embraced the music of Fats Waller. He often visited the Hot Club de France to hear the quintet of Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.

He became a pianist at "L'Étape" club in rue Godot-de-Mauroy, Paris, where his half-hour sets alternated with the young Louis de Funès, also at the start of his career. When the German occupiers of France banned jazz, he held regular social gatherings with other zazous at his home to listen to jazz records and illegal radio stations. Pierre-Louis Guérin employed him as a pianist at Guérin's first nightclub, "Le Club".

After the war, Eduard Ruault changed his name to Eddie Barclay and opened "Eddie's Club" in Paris. In 1947 he started a band which featured his wife, Nicole, on vocals under the name Eve Williams. Barclay and his wife started "Blue Star Records", using their apartment to store 78 rpm discs, with Barclay delivering them himself. Musicians on the label included Don Byas and Eddie Constantine. Barclay wrote songs with Charles Aznavour and Boris Vian, and with Vian he edited Jazz magazine.

In 1952 Alan Morrison, a visitor to Barclay's club, had invited him to visit the US to see the new recording technology that enabled the production of 45s and LPs. In 1955 Barclay agreed to manufacture and distribute Mercury Records in Europe. He took 60 masters to Pathé-Marconi's Paris factory and began promoting the new microgroove format to the French market. As well as releasing US records by the likes of Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Duke Ellington, Barclay engaged Gerhard Lehner, a German sound engineer, to make original recordings in Avenue Hoche, Paris. After selling 1.5 million copies of the Platters' "Only You", Barclay Records rose to become the top music production company in France. His success led to his nickname as "empereur du microsillon" (king of microgroove).

His francophone discoveries included the singers Hugues Aufray, Michel Delpech, Dalida (whom he launched in 1956), Mireille Mathieu, Claude Nougaro, and Eddy Mitchell. His artistes delighted in the artistic freedom that he afforded them, and in the trust that he placed in their judgement. ...

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