Yan Tregger -

Yan Tregger is a French composer and vocalist who released numerous library recordings on assorted labels during the 1970s.

Background

Yan Tregger was born Edouard Scotto di Suoccio in Philippeville, French Algeria, now Skikda, Algeria. His parents were of Italian descent; his father managed a coastal delivery boat and his mother was a homemaker. Scotto began piano lessons at age nine, then took up trumpet to join a local orchestra called the Philharmonique. He formed his own orchestra in Philippeville. Scotto later enlisted for radio-transmission training and received a posting to Indochina, where he played trumpet for officers and worked on communications equipment.

Scotto returned to Algeria and passed the court-clerk examination. He married and spent his honeymoon in Nice, where he visited a local music shop to buy a Yamaha trumpet. Through contacts with the shop staff, he landed in a Côte d’Azur orchestra as a replacement for trumpeter Aimé Marelli. He began composing while he played with orchestras along the coast.

Scotto moved to Paris in the early 1960s and pursued singing through Le Petit Conservatoire de Mireille. He composed settings of two Pierre Seghers texts published in the 1964 collection Nouvelles chansons et complaintes. Scotto released the 1966 single “Derrière moi” and the 1967 record “Daniel, tu cries” under the Ted Scotto name. He also met director René Borg through Le Petit Conservatoire and wrote the opening and closing themes for the 1968 animated series Les Shadoks. Scotto recorded “Sorbonne 68” that same year with lyrics by Janine Prin.

Scotto also served as program director at Mood Media and reviewed recordings for company programs. He approached publishers with his compositions and accepted commissions for library records. Scotto adopted Yan Tregger to distinguish the library work from his releases as Ted Scotto. Tregger subsequently recorded Pictures for Éditions Musicales Neuilly as MC 8004, with music associated with Heurthey’s Murs d’Images for Houillères de France.

Discography:

Pictures (1970)
Freezing Point (1972)
Magnum (1973)
Stories (1973)
Schifters (1974 • Jacky Giordano & Yan Tregger)
Rythmiques statiques (1977)
Catchy (1978)
Ducks and Drakes (1979)
Yann Tregger Orchestra (1980)
Bloodnight (12ème Festival International de Paris du Film Fantastique et de Science Fiction) (1982)
Hypnosis (? • Yan Tregger / Daniel Scotto)
Pictures Pop Sound (?)
Pierres Elfiques (?)
Rhythm and Gimmicks (?)
The Pop World of Yan Tregger (?)
Timing No. 2 (? • Yan Tregger / Roger Bourdin To the Land of No Return)

References and notes

Born Bad Records — Space Oddities: Yan Tregger 1974/1991 interview and liner notes — the essential first-person biographical source. (Born Bad Records)
INA — Les Shadoks and BnF — Les Shadoks catalogue record — confirm Ted Scotto among the original 1968 music credits. (Madelen)
OpenArchives / University of Macedonia — Nouvelles chansons et complaintes — documents the two Ted Scotto settings published in 1964. (OpenArchives)
Encyclopédisque — Derrière moi, 1966 and Encyclopédisque — Daniel, tu cries, 1967 — early Ted Scotto discography. (Encyclopedisque)
Le Hall de la Chanson — Cabarricades 68 and Frémeaux — Voix du Parti Communiste Français — identify “Sorbonne 68” and its 1968 provenance. (Le Hall de la Chanson)
Library Music Themes — Neuilly catalogue — MC 8004 information and the Heurthey/Murs d’Images/Houillères de France sleeve credit. (Library Music Themes)
Gonzaï — Yan Tregger interview/profile — independently corroborates the court-clerk, Nice-orchestra, and Paris sequence. (Gonzaï)
BBE Music — Yan Tregger biography — useful for identity and later work, but unreliable for the claimed 1974 start of the Tregger alias. (BBE Music – Barely Breaking Even)