Le Club Rythmique

Le Club Rythmique is a music group from La Réunion Island, launched by Jean-Jacques Cladère, and ed December 6, 1968, in the Journal Officiel de la République Française as "Club Rythmique de la Réunion. But : organisation et animation de soirées musicales. Siège Social : ancienne Rampe-du-Brûlé, B.P. 700, 6ème virage, Saint Denis".

Cladère was then the founder of Le Scotch Club, a VIP night club which he opened in 1963 in Saint Denis and managed until 1975. He was also the creator of the Disques Jackman record company and the owner of the first professional recording studio of the island, where almost all the artists of the Reunion scene of the time converged. He initiated the careers of Marie-Armande Moutou and Pierrette Payet, among others.

One day in 1968, Cladère spotted Fred Espel, Michel Adélaïde and Bernard Bertini during an afternoon of dancing that they hosted in a restaurant in L'Étang-Salé. It took them less than a week to found Le Club Rhythmique, whose breakthrough was very rapid. In fact, released in 1968, the first record enjoyed immediate success on the island thanks to its titles "Z'avocat Marron" and "Le P'tit Rhum de La Réunion", which were "on everyone's lips".

Le Club Rythmique was soon ed by many singers from Reunion who wished to be accompanied. They recorded for Benoîte Boulard, Jacqueline Farreyrol, Maxime Laope, Jacky Lechat and Germaine Vinson, but also for the Mauritians Mario Armel, Cyril Labonne and James Malherbe. At the same time, the training itself is enriched with new elements as the old ones leave : Bernard Bertini, Didier Beusher, Bernard Brancard, Bernard Carpin, Roger Carpin, Alain Choby, Betty Ebrard, Roger Ebrard, Denis Gagneur and Janine Peretto all by Le Club Rhythmique at one time or another. And when Bernard Bertini ends up leaving the group, the Malagasy Del, Zizi, Suzy Raivo, Justin and Sylvain Marc compensate for this loss.

In 1975, Cladère left the island in a hurry, which led to the end of the training. Fred Espel and Roger Carpin continued the dances, but the singer and percussionist Michel Adélaïde, based in mainland , died in 1989 in a car accident.