Dan Ar Braz -

Dan Ar Braz is a French guitarist and vocalist who backed Alan Stivell on eight albums and played in the Seventies folk groups Mor and Gabriel et Marie Yacoub. After a brief stint with Fairport Convention, Braz released three solo albums (1977–79) on Hexagon, followed by three Eighties titles on Keltia.

Background

Dan Ar Braz was born Daniel Le Bras on January 15, 1949, in Quimper, Finistère, France. His father worked as a car-body repairer and sang recreationally. Daniel’s older brother, Pierre, brought home rock ‘n roll records by Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.

Le Bras borrowed the family guitar as a child and received a semi-acoustic instrument for his 1962 communion. He took three lessons with a Quimper teacher, then continued by ear with records slowed on the family turntable. Le Bras attended Saint-Louis boarding school in Châteaulin. He later attended Le Likès in Quimper, where he played rhythm guitar in a school group built around material by The Shadows. He spent two subsequent years at a Quimper hotel school with placements in Morgat and Bénodet.

Le Bras joined amateur group Les Rebelles, which became Les Mods and ran through summer 1965 as Les Donalds. In 1966, he appeared at a March rock festival in Pont-l’Abbé and played a Plomodiern wedding dance under bandleader Jack Thierry. Le Bras then played with Les Jerrys, whose drummer Michel Santangeli became a recurring collaborator. In autumn 1967, he joined accordionist Lili Ronac’h in Les Kelts and worked dance halls across South Finistère. Le Bras left hotel school after two years of study and placements.

Alan Stivell, Mor, Fairport

Le Bras first saw Celtic harpist Alan Stivell at the 1966 Festival de Cornouaille. He met Stivell the next year while working as a server at a restaurant in Bénodet. Le Bras entered military service soon afterward. He continued dance engagements with Brest group MK Gods and accepted occasional Stivell concerts in Brittany. Le Bras debuted in Stivell’s backing band on the 1971 album Renaissance de la harpe celtique. Stivell gave him the Bretonized stage name Dan Ar Bras around the February 1972 Olympia concert.

Meanwhile, Ar Bras formed the acoustic duo Serge et Dan with guitarist Serge Derrien. They expanded into Mor, a trio with guitarist Jean Nin. Mor played cabarets and Stivell support slots around Brittany and cut two tracks at Château d’Hérouville for the multi-artist compilation Puissance 13 + 2. In 1973, the trio released its lone album, Stations, on Thélème. Ar Bras also played on the Gabriel and Marie Yacoub album Pierre de Grenoble under producer Hugues de Courson.

Ar Bras remained with Stivell through tours abroad and the 1974–76 albums E Langonned, Live in Dublin, and Treman Inis. In 1975, fellow Stivell sideman formed the folk combo Ys. Fiddler Dave Swarbrick joined the Stivell group in 1976 and recruited Ar Bras into Fairport Convention. Ar Bras settled near Oxford and toured England, Germany, and Scandinavia with Fairport.

Ar Bras returned to Stivell for a spring 1977 Australian tour and the concept album Raok Dilestra (Antes de Desembarcar). Meanwhile, he gathered material developed in England and Brittany into a solo project with Hugues de Courson. Ar Bras entered Studio Frémontel in Normandy in summer 1977 to record Douar Nevez for Hexagone.

Discography: