Didier Levallet (born 19 July 1944, in
Arcy-sur-Cure
Arcy-sur-Cure (, literally ''Arcy on Cure'') is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France.
The caves of Arcy-sur-Cure, just south of the commune, hold the second-oldest cave paintings known, after th ...
, France) is a
French jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
ist, composer, arranger and leader.
A self-taught
bassist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...
, Levallet made his professional debut in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in 1969, working with such artists as
Ted Curson
Theodore Curson (June 3, 1935 – November 4, 2012) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Life and career
Curson was born in Philadelphia. He became interested in playing trumpet after watching a newspaper salesman play a silver trumpet. Curson's fath ...
,
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III (April 24, 1928 – July 25, 2008) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Nicknamed "the Little Giant" for his short stature and forceful playing, Griffin's career began in the mid-1940s and continued until the month of ...
,
Kenny Clarke
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...
,
Mal Waldron
Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Wa ...
,
Hank Mobley
Henry "Hank" Mobley (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986) was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to descr ...
,
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz.
Biography Early life
Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but ...
,
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley (born 15 June 1938) is an English free improvising drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.
Biography
Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by the age of eight, he first began playing the drums at s ...
,
Steve Lacy,
Harry Beckett
Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett (30 May 1935 – 22 July 2010) was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player of Barbadian origin.
Biography
Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados, Harry Beckett learned to play music in a Salvation Army ...
and
Didier Lockwood
Didier Lockwood (11 February 1956 – 18 February 2018) was a French violinist. He played in the French rock band Magma in the 1970s, and was known for his use of electric amplification and his experimentation with different sounds on the electri ...
.
Levallet was director of the French National Jazz Orchestra from 1997 to 2000
He has also served as an educator at the L’École Nationale de Musique in
Angoulême
Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; oc, Engoleime) is a communes of France, commune, the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Charente Departments of France, department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern Franc ...
, and regularly hold workshops and music concerts in
Cluny
Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon.
The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...
, France.
References
1944 births
Living people
People from Yonne
French jazz double-bassists
Male double-bassists
French jazz composers
Male jazz composers
Avant-garde jazz double-bassists
Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite
21st-century double-bassists
21st-century French male musicians
Brotherhood of Breath members
Orchestre National de Jazz members
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