- country:France
- style(s):Reggae, Soul
- label:SUPERFRUIT
- artist posted by:Les Oreilles Bleues
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New York, New York, February 1st 2006 - As a child
Jehro’s imagination was fuelled by the dreams of
his Greek-Italian-Corsican mother, and the songs
of his Georges Brassens-inspired singer of a father.
So it’s no surprise that he grew out of an eventful,
if not quite misspent, adolescence in the Panier
area of Marseille by putting his voice to the songs
of the great French artists. Aged twenty he left his
native Mediterranean shores and crossed the
Channel to pursue fame and fortune in London.
There, in a Hammersmith artists’ squat to be
precise, he happily immersed himself in pop, rock
and reggae, surrounded by Spanish and Jamaican
musicians. Perfecting his skills as a guitarist by
tirelessly covering all his favorite pop standards, he
broke free from his native French by lending his
voice to the songs of his new-found idols - he
literally fell in love with Bob Marley’s music, its
roots and its spirituality, when busking to it in the
tube. Having been put through his paces in a rich
and colorful array of bands and venues, Jehro
decided it was time to move on he and made Paris
his next port of call, settling in a small hotel on the
rue Marcadet in the 18th district. A new city meant
new haunts : Pigalle, Montmartre, Belleville, Saint-
Germain…
Long sleepless nights, smoke-filled bars and
whispered secrets from woozy girls provided the
backdrop, as well as the human and emotional
inspiration, to which, a few years later, he would
pen the lyrics and the tunes of his first solo album.
“L’arbre et le fruit” was released by Chrysalis / EMI
under his real name Jérôme Cotta, earning him
well-deserved praise from the French critics. That
was in 1999 - Jérôme’s songs were to be heard on
the radio, whilst the man himself cultivated a
fondness for the exotic cuisine of Paris’s 10th
district, evenings amongst friends, and good
bottles of Bordeaux. In his spare time he took to
jamming in the studio of a couple of new
acquaintances he met in the courtyard of his block
of flats: Christian Brun and Richard Minier. By giving
him the opportunity to explore new musical
avenues, the Marathonians Superfruit crew for a
time turned Jehro away from his solo career and
sparked a profitable artistic collaboration. From
indo-electro theme tunes for the advertising
industry through calypso-pop songs co-written and
sung for the Marathonians’ “A Tropical Soul
Adventure” LP (Superfruit, 2003), Jehro was
gradually finding his own distinctive voice.
Somewhere in the South of France, in a little village
full of sing-song accents and surrounded by ochre-
red hills and olive groves, he came up with the first
tune of an album almost entirely written in English,
“Shantytown Carnival,” produced by the
Marathonians duo and signed to their Superfruit
record label. Jehro’s self titled debut is an album
inspired by Caribbean and American grassroots
music (reggae, folk, latin etc.), full of snapshots and
tales from the lives of ordinary people