“Jean-Paul died of a long illness,” Jean Chocun told AFP, citing the family of the deceased and confirming information from Ouest France.
“We are in shock with Jean-Louis” Jossic, the third “Jean” founder of Tri Yann, “we knew that Jean-Paul was sick but we hoped”, added Mr. Chocun, very moved.
After 50 years on stage, Tri Yann said goodbye to the public on September 12, 2021 in Nantes, ending a career with exceptional longevity for this group which had largely contributed to popularizing Breton music with its many hits.
“People carried us. They were both happy and unhappy to see us leave and we were both happy and unhappy to say goodbye to them”, had launched following this final concert Jean-Paul Corbineau, already sick.
“His condition had improved and during the last concerts he was fine. We were able to do that in the best conditions,” recalls Jean Chocun.
The trio’s first performance took place in December 1970 near Carnac (Morbihan), in front of a handful of friends. Jean-Paul, then buyer for a supermarket in Nantes, Jean Chocun, administrative assistant at the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, and Jean-Louis Jossic, history-geography teacher, then go on to Breton balls.
popular success
Very quickly, they call themselves the “Tri Yann an Naoned” (the “Three Johns of Nantes” in Breton).
Fans of Bob Dylan and Hugues Auffray, they struggle to modernize Breton and Celtic music and get it out of its ghetto, to “make it something more popular, more open”, said in 2020 Jean-Paul Corbineau.
This music was at the time seen as “music of rednecks with costumes, headdresses…”, according to Jean-Louis Jossic.
At their beginning, they are criticized because they sing mainly in French, considered by some purists as not being Breton enough, but popular success quickly silences the grumpy.
Tri Yann’s first album sold out in a few hours and, in 1972, they performed at the Olympia as the opening act for Juliette Gréco, becoming professional musicians in the process.
After rather acoustic albums, mixing covers of traditional songs and personal compositions, Tri Yann begins a more rock turn which remains one of its distinctive signs.
Tri Yann has to his credit more than three million albums sold, concerts at the Zénith, Bercy, and even at the Stade de France, as well as in many foreign countries. In France, they broke the longevity record of the Jacques Brothers.
“We never found the success we had natural and normal,” smiled Jean-Paul Corbineau, referring to the 50-year career of the three friends.