Frank Ténot

Frank Ténot (born October 31, 1925 in Mulhouse ; † January 8, 2004 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a French journalist, jazz critic, jazz patron and publisher.

Ténot came into contact with jazz in the "Hot Club" in Bordeaux, of which he was president in 1944. After the war he stayed in Paris and started working as a jazz critic. From 1946 to 1948 he was secretary in the editorial team of "Jazzhot". At times in the 1950s he worked full-time as a technical employee for the Atomic Energy Commission ( Euratom ) based in Brussels. In Paris he was a close friend of Boris Vian , with whom he further developed the "science" of pataphysics invented by Alfred Jarry .

In the 1950s he published “ Jazz Magazine ”, which he had taken over from the head of a record company who did not want to continue it. In 1962 the pop magazine “Salut les copains” was added, which accompanied its eponymous program on “ Europe 1 ” and was widely distributed in France thanks to the popularity of Johnny Hallyday . With his friend and partner Daniel Filipacchi he made the well-known in France radio show “Pour ceux qui aiment le jazz” on “Europe 1” from 1955 to 1968 (and when Hachette bought “Europe 1” in 1986, he became president there). With Hachette, he built a newspaper conglomerate. In 1964 they founded the men's magazine "Lui", followed by "Pariscope" and "Photo". In 1976 they bought “Paris Match” (of which Ténot was also chief editor) and teamed up with Matra - the later “Hachette Filipacchi Publications” with him as CEO . These recently also included Hustler , Woman's Day, George, Journal de Dimanche and a Spanish TV program guide.

Ténot acquired the jazz magazine “ Jazzman ” and founded the music and book publisher “Editions du Layeur”. Until his death he wrote a monthly column in "Jazz Magazine". After he and Filipacchi had sold their shares in Hachette, Ténot founded the "Frank Ténot Foundation" in Marnay-sur-Seine , where he was mayor from 1995 to 2001, to support jazz organizations . He was friends with Jean-François Bizot (1944–2007), the founder of the radio station TSF, which broadcasts jazz around the clock. Ténot organized concerts at the Paris Olympia , with Miles Davis , Louis Armstrong and Sylvie Vartan , among others . In 2004 he received the Django d´Or European Jazz Prize .

His daughter Sarah continued to run the publishing house.

Works

• Je voulais en savoir davantage (autobiography), Albin Michel 1997,
• Frankly speaking - chroniques de Jazz de 1944 a 2004 , 2004
• Dictionnaire du Jazz 1967 (with Philippe Carles )
• Radios privées, radios pirates 1977
• Jazz encyclopoche 1977
• Le jazz 1983
• Boris Vian: Jazz à Saint-Germain 1993

Web links

• Frank Ténot in the Encyclopædia Universalis
• Literature by and about Frank Ténot in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Information on Frank Ténot in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .