Janko Nilovic -

Janko Nilovic (born May 20, 1941) is a Turkish-born French composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist who settled in Paris in 1960. He worked in French pop and library music before establishing a prolific run on Montparnasse 2000, where albums from Psyc’ Impressions onward combined jazz, funk, rock, orchestral composition, and studio experimentation. Nilović continued recording under his own name and for production-music labels while his 1970s catalog gained renewed circulation through reissues, sampling, and later collaborations.

Background

Janko Nilović was born May 20, 1941, in Istanbul, Turkey, to a Montenegrin father and Greek mother. His father worked for 35 years at the French embassy and played gusla and flutes; his mother, a native of Piraeus, sang Greek folk songs. After his father died, an older sister gave Nilović a piano and arranged lessons with Marthe Papazian. Nilović already played pan flute, harmonica, and violin and spent one year at Istanbul Conservatory, where he studied oboe and percussion.

At sixteen, Nilović played piano and sang in Istanbul clubs with jazz and Latin ensembles. He formed a jazz and rhythm-and-blues quartet at seventeen and completed his first arrangements. Nilović moved to Paris in 1960, where he gave piano and singing lessons and played clubs, hotels, and piano bars. He also studied harmony, counterpoint, fugue, analysis, and composition with Julien Falk.

Nilović learned guitar and double bass to join Greek trio Les Doussis. Bel Air released their 1961/62 group EPs Yassu and Escale aux îles grecques. By the middle of the decade, Nilović replaced Hervé Roy as pianist in Les Players, which toured and backed Jean-Jacques Debout, Pascal Danel, and Nancy Holloway. Christian Fechner at Vogue commissioned Nilović for pop arrangements, followed by work with Michel Jonasz and other French singers.

Nilović expanded into library sessions by the end of the decade, with Visions Fantastiques and the Hervé Roy collaboration Fugue à Katmandou among his 1968 Tele Music releases. He also partnered with American singer-songwriter Davy Jones on Ju Ju Records, which issued six singles across 1968–69. Montparnasse 2000 director Louis Delacour approached Nilović in 1969 and introduced him to label owner André Farry, who offered Nilović a long-term album contract with control over repertoire, and Nilović prepared the jazz-rock material for Psyc’ Impressions.

Discography: