
Marcel Dadi was a Tunisian-born Jewish French virtuoso guitarist known for his finger-picking style which faithfully recreated the instrumental styles of American guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jerry Reed. He became a personal friend of country star Chet Atkins. Dadi released several LPs and some instructional videos before his early death. His recordings featured a mix of compositions by his American heroes and original compositions of his own in a similar style. A feature of his early LPs was that they included a tablature booklet, allowing guitarists to learn the tunes for themselves. Dadi often recorded tunes dedicated to his friends, such as "Roger Chesterfield," dedicated to Roger C. Field with whom he first went to Nashville in 1975 to visit Chet Atkins. Marcel Dadi immigrated to Eilat (Israel) on the Red Sea, in 1983, and lived there with his wife and young son for several years before moving back to France. In 1988, Eric Clapton, his long-time family friend, came to Eilat to visit Marcel Dadi. On 17 July 1996, en route from New York City to Paris with his band and his long-time friend Serge Sloimovits, Marcel Dadi died when the Boeing 747-131 operating TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long Island.[1] He was returning from the United States to France after being honoured at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame. Marcel Dadi's body was recovered as were those of all of the other victims. He is buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel. Marcel was honoured as one of the five "Certified Guitar Players" by Chet Atkins.