Frédéric Yonnet is a French musician, producer and recording artist who is best known for his use of the harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 as a lead in jazz, R&B, funk, gospel and hip-hop influenced music. His ability to play chromatic scales on a diatonic harmonica gives him access to twice as many notes as the instrument is designed to deliver.

Described by Rolling Stone as Prince's "killer harmonica player", Yonnet gained popularity for his on-stage performance with music icon Prince

Prince

Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...

 and his harmonica duels with the legendary Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

. Yonnet has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists including David Foster

David Foster

David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...

, Bob James

Bob James

Bob James is the name of:*Bob James , jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer of music*Bob James , former baseball player for the Expos, Tigers, and White Sox...

, Patti Austin

Patti Austin

-Life and career:Austin was born in Harlem, New York. She made her debut at the Apollo Theater at age four and had a contract with RCA Records when she was only five. Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington have proclaimed themselves as her godparents....

, Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu

Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...

, John Legend

John Legend

John Roger Stephens , better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career...

, India.Arie

India.Arie

India.Arie is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and record producer . She has sold over 3.3 million records in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album.-Background:Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado...

, Angie Stone

Angie Stone

Angie Stone is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She has been nominated for three Grammy Award. She is more successful on the charts R&B charts, with four Top 10 albums, forms including a number one album and 10 singles on the R&B chart,...

, Kindred The Family Soul

Kindred the Family Soul

Kindred the Family Soul, also referred to as Kindred, are an American R&B, soul, and neo soul duo consisting of the married couple of Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon...

, Justin Beiber, American Idol’s Randy Jackson

Randy Jackson

Randall Darius "Randy" Jackson is an American bassist, singer, record producer, music manager, A&R executive, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is best known as a judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew...

, The Jonas Brothers

Lines, Vines and Trying Times

Lines, Vines and Trying Times is the fourth studio album by the Jonas Brothers and their third album released under Hollywood Records. It was released June 16, 2009 in the U.S. The album received mixed reviews from critics and fans. In its first week, Lines, Vines and Trying Times sold 247,000...

 and Grand Corps Malade

Grand Corps Malade

Fabien Marsaud better known by his stage name Grand Corps Malade, often abbreviated GCM, born on July 31, 1977 in Le Blanc-Mesnil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France is a French slam poet-Biography:...

.

Early life

Yonnet was born in Pont L'Eveque

Pont-l'Évêque, Calvados

Pont-l'Évêque is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France. It has given its name to a type of soft cheese .-Population:-Transport:* A13 autoroute* A132 autoroute...

, Normandy, France. He is the younger of two sons born to French-Guyanese mother, Armande (Galas) Yonnet and Dominique Yonnet, a French civil engineer and part-time comedian and theater actor. His paternal grandfather, Jacques Yonnet, was the noted French artist, writer and author of "Paris Noir” - a memoir that explores the dark heart of the City of Lights.  

As a child, Yonnet and his father performed as a comedy duo in small theaters across France. By the age of 14, he started playing drums and after demonstrating considerable promise as a drummer, he was selected to perform at the Marciac Jazz Festival.

Throughout his childhood, Yonnet suffered with asthma. By 19, he decided to revisit an instrument he had as a child, the harmonica. After dedicating time to mastering the instrument, he noticed a significant decrease in his asthma attacks. Today, he carries a harmonica instead of an inhaler and his past experiences as a drummer influences his rhythmic and percussive style of harmonica playing.

Music career

Yonnet’s music career began as a drummer but was short lived as he was frequently fired from bands for trying to play the lead. As a harmonica player he performed as a sideman and featured artist in numerous bands in France all the while observing the style of great trumpet players, saxophonists, and bandleaders.  He was a frequent guest on the French television network Canal Plus' Nulle Part Ailleurs, performing with Lol et le Groupe.  

In 1998, while performing at the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

, Yonnet met several Americans who encouraged him to showcase his talent in the United States. In 2001, Yonnet moved to Washington, DC where he performed in area festivals and clubs, quickly developing a reputation as a “genre-bending” harmonica player.  Yonnet released a sampler CD titled, Blowing Your Mind in Every Key of the Harp.  The CD included five tracks including "Amazing Grace", recorded live at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ

West Angeles Church of God in Christ

West Angeles Church of God in Christ is a Baptist Christian church and a member of the Church of God in Christ denomination. It is located in the West Adams Historic District of Los Angeles, California, USA....

, Los Angeles, CA. Six additional songs were added to the sampler CD and it was ultimately renamed and released in 2005 as Front & Center.

After hearing Yonnet’s music, comedian Dave Chappelle

Dave Chappelle

David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His...

 invited him to make guest appearances during Chappelle’s 10-city Block Party Concert tour in 2006. Later that year, Yonnet, along with Erykah Badu and Goapele

Goapele

-Early life:Goapele's South African father Douglas Mohlabane was an exiled political activist who struggled against the Apartheid System. Goapele's New York-born Israeli Jewish mother Noa had been attending protests since the age of 12. Noa attended Friends World College and was studying in...

, were invited to perform at the AACW Blues Festival (Yellow Spring, Ohio) hosted by Chappelle.  

During Chappelle’s introduction of Yonnet at Bluesfest, he tells the story of how he introduced Yonnet to Stevie Wonder when they were backstage at the 2006 Grammy Awards. “[Fred] pulled his harmonica out of his pocket in front of Stevie Wonder and I said ‘Damn’, and he started playing that harmonica, I was scared for him… and Stevie started doing like this, [swaying back and forth] now they hang out every Tuesday and Thursday.”

Yonnet and Wonder have performed together numerous times, always teasing the crowd with a competitive rendition of Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman.” It was during a Stevie Wonder concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden when Prince first saw Yonnet perform. Several months later, Yonnet was invited to record and ultimately tour with Prince.

Reality CD

In 2010, in a pioneering effort that combined technology, art and reality, Yonnet halted all aspects of production on his most recent project – recording, packaging and video – to give fans access to the raw and rough cuts of his work at various stages of the creative process. Yonnet coined the term “Reality CD” to describe the bold concept of allowing fans to observe key phases of the production. Yonnet’s work in progress, subtitled THE ROUGH CUT, is available exclusively to fans purchasing digital download cards at live concerts and online. A unique code gives users access to THE ROUGH CUT files. Email alerts announce when new material is available for download. Comments posted to the website will be considered in the subsequent REED MY LIPS: THE FINAL MIX, releasing in 2011 and eventually available on iTunes.

Instrument and Gear

Yonnet exclusively plays 1847 Classic and Silver harmonicas, designed by C. A. Seydel Söhne

C. A. Seydel Söhne

Christian August Seydel was the founder of the C. A. Seydel Söhne harmonica factory in Klingenthal/Sachsen more than 150 years ago. Steeped in tradition, the firma C. A. Seydel Söhne is the oldest harmonica factory in the world still in existence...

, the oldest harmonica manufacturer in the world. Yonnet plays his harmonicas straight out of the box and they are not customized. He used Shure Beta 87A microphones and Ultimate Ears 11 Pro and UE reference monitors.

Albums

• Blowing Your Mind In Every Key of the Harp (2001)
• Front & Center  (2005)
• Reed My Lips: The Rough Cut (2010)
• Reed My Lips: The Final Mix (TBD)

'

Collaborations

• Borders Jazz You Must Own, “Amazing Grace” (2001)
• Middle C Music Jazz All Stars, “Blues on Middle C”; “Jessie’s Blues”, “Peter’s Rhythm”, “Little Wing” and “Prelude and Samba” (2005)
• David Dyson Unleashed, “Southern Fried Go Go” (2008)
• Randy Jackson Randy Jackson’s Music Club, Vol. 1., “Wang, Dang, Doodle” (2008)
• Jonas Brothers Lines, Vines and Trying Times, “What Did I Do To Your Heart” (2009)
• Prince All Day, All Night, All Week, 4CD’s Live in Paris (2009)
• Native Son, Son Talk (2010)
• Grand Corps Malade, 3eme Temps (2010)
• India.Arie, Open Doors (TBD)
• Kindred The Family Soul, “Love Has No Recession” (2011)