Jean-Jacques Milteau

Born in Paris in 1950, Jean-Jacques Milteau has established himself over the decades as one of the French harmonica players most active in blues and related American music. Trained in the wake of folk, rock and blues discovered in the 1960s, he develops a playing centered on the diatonic harmonica, with a flexible approach that moves between blues, rhythm and blues, soul, country and folk. After recording beginnings in the 1970s, notably with New Bluegrass Connection on L’Herbe bleue in 1975, Milteau becomes a highly in-demand accompanying musician with French chanson artists, while continuing a solo career. His solo discography includes Explorer (1991), Routes (1995), Merci d’être venus (1996), Bastille Blues (1999), Memphis (2001), Blue 3rd (2003), Fragile (2006), Soul Conversation (2008), Consideration (2011), Lead Belly’s Gold with Eric Bibb (2015), CrossBorder Blues (2018), Lost Highway (2021) and Key to the Highway (2024). Milteau has also developed stage projects in duo or larger formations, often with guitarist Manu Galvin, and has collaborated extensively with blues and soul musicians and singers, while maintaining a regular radio presence around the blues.