Bruno Blum

Bruno Blum (born October 4, 1960, Vichy, France) is a French singer songwriter, guitar player, music producer and musicologist sometimes nicknamed "Doc Reggae".

He is mostly known for his work in the reggae, Caribbean music, rock music and African musics fields, and also works as a cartoon and comic book artist, illustrator, painter, photographer, video director, writer, journalist, music historian, interpreter and speaker.

On the back cover of his extensive Electric Dandy Lou Reed biography, his publisher introduced him in the following words: "A musician and producer, illustrator and speaker, and a legendary music journalist for Best Magazine, Bruno Blum lived in London during the reggae-punk years."

Perhaps his most important effort in the musicology field is the book Les Musiques des Caraïbes, which extensively depicts the history of each Caribbean island's original music before the 1960s 'big mix.' Each chapter of the book is based on a CD box set booklet originally released by Frémeaux & Associés and later extended for the book purpose, which allows the reader to listen to each chapter's contents.

Forewords by Roger Steffens and French ex-Minister of Justice of Guyane origin Christiane Taubira complement this major undertaking.

Blum has published many cartoons, illustrations and comic strips in several of his books, in U.K. comic books and newspapers as well as a long list of French magazines, including Best, Actuel, L'Environnement Magazine, Panda Magazine and Hara-Kiri.

As a teenage bass player with Private Vices he was part of the late 1970s London punk movement and was later the first French musician to record and release dub music, as well as afrobeat.

He has released several French songs albums (including the classic reggae album Nuage d'Éthiopie) in a wide variety of styles.

"Viens Fumer un P'tit Joint à la Maison," a reggae pastiche of the drinking hit song "Viens Boire un P'tit Coup à la Maison" obtained over four million views on YouTube.

His versions of Bob Marley's "War" also adapted in French as "Guerre," was another couple of hits.

Influenced by the electric, genuine analog sound and militant spirit of the 1970s, his wide array of works melt into a coherent whole, where different styles are approached in true eclectic fashion.

Alternatively playing blues, dub (which he often mixes himself on analog sound boards ), rock, jazz, afrobeat, reggae, etc., he is playing "Organic culture music guaranteed to be played without machines by live, free-range musicians".

His successful French ("Guerre") and English versions of Bob Marley's "War" recorded with the Wailers gave him some international exposure and recognition.

He also created Human Race Records, a vinyl record label in Jamaica.

According to Roger Steffens in the Human Race anthology booklet notes, he is an "independent polymath thriving on passion" and always funded his own recordings, which put forward his individual, idiosyncratic lyric style.

He occasionally records "updated" pastiches of well-known songs in both English and French, including I Feel-Like-I'm-A-Fixin'-To-Die Rag, the Viens fumer un p'tit joint à la maison hit and satirical songs such as "Ça Bouge (sur la place Rouge)".

His own French songs output often displays puzzling double-entendre lyrics.

Originally renowned as the enfant terrible of French rock critics based in London in 1977–1982, Bruno Blum started out in teenage punk group Private Vices in London in 1977–81.

He gradually embodied an adventurer-musician globe-trotter figure, a free-spirited, astute lyric writer and a remarkable guitar player, as well as a historian of English-speaking popular music, photographer and skilled graphic artist.

A fully bilingual (English-French) vegan and ecologist, he has lived without drugs or alcohol for over twenty years.

In the "Human Race" CD booklet, a Blum production, noted American reggae historian Roger Steffens described him as "a virtuosic polymath" and concluded: "An artist, producer, director, archivist, musician as well as author of and contributor to dozens of books [including 'Jamaïque, sur la piste du reggae,' where Blum tells his own account of his musical adventures in Jamaica], Doc Reggae stands supreme among France's reggae chroniclers in his perceptive observations and the impressive variety of his accomplishments, not the least of which can be found on the album you now hold."

A Blum-produced version of "War" featuring a duet between Haile Selassie and Bob Marley reached number one in British magazine Black Echoes charts in April 1998 and remains an enduring reggae classic.

Blum is known, among other things, for his work with the press-acclaimed Asmara All Stars and on Serge Gainsbourg's two studio reggae albums, which he has produced new mixes of, as well as dub and deejay versions in 2003.

He also produced a definitive mix of Serge Gainsbourg's Gainsbourg Et Cætera Palace live album in 2006.

In 2013 he was awarded a Prix Coup de Cœur de l'Académie Charles Cros for his 3CD set and booklet for Jamaica Folk, Trance, Possession - Roots of Rastafari 1939–1961, and in 2021 a Prix Coup de Cœur Musiques du Monde de l'Académie Charles Cros for his Les Musiques des Caraïbes set.

Written in a lively style, several of his books on music history give him an authority status in the French-speaking world.

These include Lou Reed, Bob Marley and John Lennon biographies, best-seller Le Reggae, a fully illustrated Jamaican travel journal autobiography and a major contribution to best-selling Le Dictionnaire du Rock.

His bilingual English-French documented music reissues (he runs three series of documented CD box sets for Frémeaux & Associés for which he wrote substantial, informative ethnomusicologic booklets) have become scholar references.

Major Bob Marley & the Wailers reissues with U.S. partner Roger Steffens have also given him some international recognition.

He is often working as an interpreter, has published many translations and texts in English, including English versions of his many Frémeaux & Associés booklets, translated six books including Bruce Conforth's award-winning Robert Johnson biography and has also directed several documentaries for television.

In addition, Blum has moved on and published two substantial surveys on societal issues: his book ''Shit!

In 2015 two "Super DeLuxe" triple CD sets were released in the form of books: Gainsbourg and the Revolutionaries (Gainsbourg's three reggae albums in the Blum mixes form, including 8 previously unreleased tracks) and Gainsbourg in Dub, which contains 50 previously unreleased dubs.

He also released his own dub work, much of it done in Jamaica, on his Sophisticated Love album by Dub De Luxe.

First and foremost a singer-songwriter in the French tradition, Blum also performs steadily with his rock/soul/blues and reggae bands as a singer and lead guitar player.

His abounding, dense world often includes a touch of humour, and his art complements his Jamaica, Nigeria and USA-inspired music.

In 2015, he formed Cabaret Végane, the first all-vegan group, releasing an album of mostly original songs the following year and playing several shows in Paris, singing with female singer Joy Gross, who stars in 'Clémentine est végane,' a hit music video on Facebook; (also in English as 'Clementine Is a Vegan').

Following the demise of the record industry, Bruno Blum was also one of the first French musicians to release most of his output on brunoblum.bandcamp.com, where most of his recordings can be heard.

Besides his extensive work as a lyric writer, Blum has completed a master's degree in music, musicology, creation and society and speaks worldwide on the history of reggae music, African musics and other rock and blues culture-related subjects as well as veganism.

His reggae lectures come with his reggae photography exhibition.

Tout Sur Le Cannabis includes an autobiographical chapter and the 2016 De Viandard à Végane'' is written in the form of an autobiography depicting his growing awareness of veganism through his musical career.