Raphaël Imbert, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Pierre-François Blanchard, Sonny Troupé
Biography Raphaël Imbert, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Pierre-François Blanchard, Sonny Troupé
Raphaël Imbert
saxophonist and jazz composer, recipient of a ‘Villa Médicis hors les murs’ award for his research into sacred music and jazz, who won the 28th national jazz competition at La Défense in 2005 with his ensemble Newtopia. Selfmade man, Raphaël Imbert started jazz at Marseille Conservatory with Philippe Renault and met there regional musicans with whom he plays regularly (Emile Atsas, Jean-Luc Difraja, Vincent Lafont, Pierre Fenichel...). He wins with Jean-Jacques Élangué the first price of Marseille Conservatory and creates 2 groups "Hemlé orchestra" and " Atsas imbert consort", with whom he will play in numerous festivals (Vienne, Nice, Fiesta des Suds, Théâtre des Salins...). He develops his taste for composition and the most eclectic musical situations. He creates a vision of music and jazz connected to spirituality very essential to the jazzman approach. For this purpose, he creates « Nine Spirit » to play "sacred music" of Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler and others, and to produce shows which are inspired by powerful texts written by Théodore Monod, Amadou Hampatê Bâ, Martin Luther King ... Raphaël Imbert worked on a study focused on the Sacred in Jazz and becomes recipient of Villa Médicis Hors Les Murs, managed by AFAA and the french foreign affairs ministry which enabled him to stay in New York during october 2003. Raphaël Imbert develops many teaching project in Marseille Conservatory, at Festival Cluny and Fai’art. He belongs to the Orchestre National de Jazz administration board since september 2004 and wins the 28th national jazz competition at La Défense in 2005 with his ensemble Newtopia. He writes music for cinema and television for Philippe Carrése et Isabelle Boni-Claverie projects. Raphaël Imbert manages 2 groups within the Nine Spirit Company, 2 records are released with Zig Zag Territoires Label : la Suite Elegiaque"with Newtopia Project (ZZT 061103) , and a special christmas album, Pieces for Christmas Peace with Sixtine Group distribution Harmonia Mundi.
Jean-Guihen Queyras
»Er hat das Cello neu erfunden«, schreibt die Zeitschrift Diapason über Jean-Guihen Queyras, der zu den vielfältigsten und außergewöhnlichsten Cellisten weltweit gehört. Mit derselben Begeisterung widmet sich Queyras sowohl alter als auch zeitgenössischer Musik. So konzertiert er mit Spitzenensembles für historische Aufführungspraxis wie dem Freiburger Barockorchester und bringt zugleich regelmäßig neue Werke von Komponisten wie Bruno Mantovani und Thomas Larcher zur Uraufführung.
Jean-Guihen Queyras gastiert auf den bedeutendsten internationalen Bühnen. Auch in Hamburg ist er ein gern gesehener Gast: Im Großen Saal der Elbphilharmonie führte er etwa Bachs Cellosuiten in einer Choreografie von Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker auf und gestaltete mit Emmanuel Pahud und Eric Le Sage einen Abend in der Laeiszhalle. Die Kammermusik liegt ihm ohnehin sehr am Herzen; so ist er Gründungsmitglied des Arcanto Quartetts und bildet ein festes Trio mit Isabelle Faust und Alexander Melnikov.
Seine eindrucksvolle Diskografie versammelt unter anderem Aufnahmen der Cellokonzerte von Edward Elgar, Antonín Dvořák, Robert Schumann, Philippe Schoeller und Gilbert Amy. Jean-Guihen Queyras unterrichtet als Professor an der Musikhochschule Freiburg und ist künstlerischer Leiter des Festivals Rencontres Musicales de Haute-Provence im südfranzösischen Forcalquier.
Pierre-François Blanchard
Born in 1981 in Nantes, Pierre-François Blanchard studied classical piano for ten years, before heading to jazz and improvised music. It was as a jazzman that he started his professional life, playing in festivals and on stages in the West region with his bands (La Belle Vie Trio, Lazuli Quartet, ...). At the same time, he trained at the CNR in Saint-Nazaire and obtained the DEM, then the D.E of Jazz.
In 2004, he was asked to compose and direct the music for "Marat-Sade" and "Dom Juan" within the Théâtre Icare Company, directed by Christophe Rouxel. On this occasion, he developed an interest in theatrical music that he will pursue: he composed the music for “Octavie” with Le Ministère De l'Amour Company, then “L'Autri-Chienne”, “Animitas” and "La Boîte Noire" for the actress Daniela Molina and the Panthéâtre Company.
Jazz pianist keen on free improvisation, he went to study at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in 2007. It will be a decisive initiation and a pianistic journey. He studied the instrument with Jasper Soffers, counterpoint with Karst De Jong, and obtained a Master in jazz piano. He created the Azure quartet (2008-2012) which plays in many festivals in Holland, as well as in Latin America. Pierre-François is at the same period finalist of YPF jazz competition (2009) and semi-finalist of Martial Solal Competition (2010).
In 2006 he created the boNObo-trio which collaborated with the Moroccan brotherhood Aïssawa then with Médéric Collignon (album "toGEther" in 2012, label Neuklang). The group was a finalist for the Tremplin Jazz à la Défense in 2012. He also collaborated with the Panthéâtre Company led by Linda Wise and Enrique Pardo. In this international context of creation and vocal and theatrical studies, he taught improvisation and joined as a pianist and composer in several productions. He developed his research around a practice of free improvisation on the piano used as a means of teaching vocal performance.
In 2012, he became the pianist of Pierre Barouh, reviving his taste for singing accompaniment. He is the musical co-director of the 50th anniversary of Saravah at the Trianon in December 2016.
He participated in the Salon Idéal since 2015, a concept imagined by Arièle Butaux, where musicians of all stripes meet to merge, experiment freely and without borders. He collaborated with Thomas Savy, Guillaume de Chassy, Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter, Irina de Baghy, Noëmi Waysfeld, the Zaïde Quartet ... In 2016, he joined Raphaël Imbert on the "Music Is My Home" project, then recorded "Music Is My Hope "(Jazzmag shock) winner" Unclassifiable Album "at the Victoires du jazz 2018.
He has been working for several years alongside the singer Marion Rampal, as a duo, and in the latter's trio - with Anne Paceo-: Main Blue. The eponymous album, released in January 2017 by e-motive records, is praised by critics. In 2019, he recorded a duet with her "Le Secret", with guests Archie Shepp and Raul Barboza. The album, hailed by critics - Télérama, coup de coeur L'Humanité - reveals affinities between romantic melancholy and Blues, combines in an untimely and creative musical gesture two modernities that fertilized the twentieth century.
He regularly accompanies Archie Shepp in his quartet (2017-2020), of the project in tribute to Sydney Bechet in June 2018, and more recently on the project "Art Songs & Spirituals" played Barbican Theater at the London Jazz Festival in November 2018.
Pierre-François regularly returns to the Brussels stage as part of Bossa Flor programming, first as a pianist for Pierre Barouh (2013-2016), then with Marion Rampal since 2017 or pianist in concerts of bossa nova and French songs with Didier Sustrac and Philippe Quevauviller.
Sonny Troupé
was born in February 1978. His father, George Troupé, a saxophonist, introduced him to a variety of music styles (jazz, gwoka, classical music, latin music, zouk…). The first instrument he played was the “ka” drum. Though he was taught to play in the traditional way, he rapidly evolved toward a more modern approach. At 6, he joined Kimbol, a band of Modern GwoKa, as a” Makè”, ka drum solo. At 8, he began studying drums and vibraphone by himself. From 1986 to 1995 he learnt music theory and ka at Marcel Lollia Music School in Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe. In 1994, Theomel Ursul taught him the traditional rhythms of the French West Indies (beguine and mazurka).
In 1996, he left Guadeloupe to France. His musical experience was enriched by his participation in a symphonic orchestra, standard jazz bands, metal, fusion, soul, funk and reggae groups. He also studied at the Conservatoire National de Toulouse, in the Agostini Drum School from which he graduated and got the Superior Prize in piano, option Harmony Jazz.
For more than 10 years he has been playing with David Murray, Kenny Garrett, Reggie Washington, Mario Canonge, Daby Touré, Trio Laviso, Raghunath Manet, Solo Cissoko, Dédé Saint Prix… He also created the Sonny Troupé Quartet in 2010, the Fabso concept in 2007 and an Afro jazz punk trio “La face cachée des sous-bois” in 2003. He did studio recording with Jacques Schwarz Bart, Magic Malik, Lionel Loueke, Alain Jean Marie, Linley Marthe, Grégory Privat, Franck Nicolas…
