Back in the summer of 2011, I was working on my OTS article that would run in August.  That month’s featured OTS musician was D.C. based drummer Chris “Biscuit” Bynum.  One of the questions we ask all of our OTS musicians is “Who have you played with?”  So, Chris starts listing a bunch of names, including Frederic Yonnet, whose name was unfamiliar to me at that time.  I asked about him, and Chris began telling me about Fred Yonnet and the instrument he plays, the harmonica, and how really good he is. “This dude is amazing, and off the chain with the harmonica.” He said.  But, for whatever reason, I missed Fred’s show when he played Blues Alley.

Fast forward to the early spring of 2012.  While attending a Karen Briggs concert at the Berks Jazz Festival, Karen brought out a special guest, Mr. Frederic Yonnet.  He played a couple of songs, and I have to say, Biscuit Bynum was right, he blew me away. 

Fast forward one more time to late spring of 2012.  I made it a point to catch Frederic Yonnet’s show at Blues Alley.  Biscuit was right, he is “amazing and off the chain.”  When I think of harmonica, I think blues or country.  This music was neither; it was jazz, it was R&B, it was world music, it was all kinds of good music. 

Yonnet played music from his “reality” CD, Reed My Lips, which included “Only You,” and “The Kid in Me.”  He also played a song that he collaborated on with Israeli musician Idan Raichel called “Toure.”   At one point during the show, he came off stage and hugged and shook hands with people in the audience as he played his harp. (If you’ve ever been to Blues Alley, you know that this is hard to do because it is a very small venue with not a lot of room to move around.)  He brought a woman from the audience onstage with him and danced with her.

Before starting one of his songs, “Voice,” he encouraged the audience to get their phones out and take pictures, Tweet, and post to Facebook about the show.  In fact, at certain points during the rest of the show, Yonnet and his band members checked their phones, snapped a few pictures, and read the postings.  Nothing like using technology in your live show!

I did not want the show to end.  I could have listened to him play some more.   Frederic Yonnet is an artist with a unique talent.  In the music world, sometimes it’s hard to tell the players because many of them sound alike.  Here is somebody that sounds like no one else I’ve heard before.  He describes his sound as urban jazz, which is just a part of what I heard from him.  I think his music is much more than that.  It’s more than that.  The smooth jazz community needs to seek him out and embrace his music.  He’s that good.  I look forward to hearing him perform again.  Check him out smooth jazz lovers.