Marcel Dadi: Lamented French Fingerpicker
By Miche Archetto:
Marcel Dadi was a fine French fingerpicker, who died at 44 in a flight accident in 1996. He was flying back to France after being honored at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame. Here is his rendition of Merle Travis’ “Saturday Night Shuffle” in the early 90s, when he appeared on the Nashville Now show.
Some biographical information can be found on wikipedia:
“Marcel Dadi (20 August 1951 – 17 July 1996) was a Tunisian-born Jewish French guitarist known for his finger-picking style which faithfully recreated the instrumental styles of American guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jerry Reed. He became a personal friend of country star Chet Atkins.
Born in Sousse, Dadi released several LPs and some instructional videos before his early death. His recordings featured a mix of compositions by his American heroes and original compositions of his own in a similar style. A feature of his early LPs was that they included a tablature booklet, allowing guitarists to learn the tunes for themselves. Dadi often recorded tunes dedicated to his friends, such as “Roger Chesterfield,” dedicated to Roger C. Field with whom he first went to Nashville in 1975 to visit Chet Atkins.”
He used to play also in duo with Jean-Félix Lalanne.
Here is an example of them playing together.
Author: Robert Harris
