Many who have an interest in traditional folk and world music will be sorry to hear of the death of John Wright (not the John Wright who fronted the John Wright Band, and who died in 2008, but the other musician of that name.)

John, who was born and raised in England, but settled in Paris in the mid-1960s, and who found employment in the ethnomusicology section of the Musée de l'Homme, will be remembered as the godfather of the French folk music revival, co-founder of the Paris folk club Le Bourdon in the 1960s, world authority on the Jew's harp, researcher into mediaeval stringed instruments, collector and ethnomusicologist, and an outstanding fiddle player. He later moved from Paris to Angers, where he continued his research at an age when most people would already have retired. Recently he was surveying mediaeval carvings of rebec players and working on a set of plans for a reconstruction of a rebec; fiddles of all varieties were a passion of his, along with the Jew's harp.

He died on Wednesday 4th September.

He leaves a widow, the equally distinguished singer and folksong scholar Catherine Perrier, to whom, I am sure, we send our deepest condolences. Our condolences, too, to Michael and Lucy Wright.