Jean-François Quiévreux (25 July 1926 – 5 February 2012), better known as Jef Gilson, was a French clarinetist,

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, arranger,

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, composer and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

leader. "In the occupation of which he initiated groups" proved Gilson "an excellent grasp of the 'discovery' and the promotion of young talent."

Life and work

Classically trained as a clarinetist, Gilson began playing with

Claude Luter Claude Luter (23 July 1923 – 6 October 2006) was a jazz clarinetist who doubled on soprano saxophone. Luter was born and died in Paris. He began on trumpet, but switched to clarinet. He might be best known for being an accompanist to Sidn ...

in the band of

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sull ...

. In 1947 he switched to the piano. He formed a big band in 1963, members of which included, at various stages, Bill Coleman,

Bernard Vitet Bernard Vitet (26 May 1934 – 3 July 2013) was a French trumpeter, multi-instrumentist and composer, co-founder of the first free jazz band in France (1964) together with François Tusques, Michel Portal Unit (1972) and Un Drame Musical Inst ...

, Ivan Jullien, Michel Portal, Jean-Louis Chautemps,

François Jeanneau François Jeanneau (born June 15, 1935, Paris) is a French jazz saxophonist, flautist, and composer. Jeanneau studied flute under René Leroy at the Paris Conservatory, but was an autodidact on saxophone.Michel Laplace, "Francois Jeanneau". '' The ...

, Michel Portal,

Jean-Luc Ponty Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz violinist and composer. Early life Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano. At sixteen, he was admitt ...

, Bernard Lubat, Lloyd Miller and

Henri Texier Henri Texier (born 27 January 1945) is a French jazz double bassist. At the age of sixteen, fascinated by the double bass, Texier became a self-taught bassist, crediting Wilbur Ware most as an influence. He formed his first group with Georges ...

Woody Shaw Woody Herman Shaw Jr. (December 24, 1944 – May 10, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, arranger, band leader, and educator. Shaw is widely known as one of the most important and influential jazz trumpet ...

and Nathan Davis performed and recorded with the orchestra in spring 1965.Clergeat, André; Barry Kernfeld
"Gilson, Jef".
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 8 December 2022. In addition, in 1965 he joined the vocal sextet

Les Double Six Les Double Six (also known as the Double Six of Paris) was a French vocal jazz group established in 1959 by Mimi Perrin. The group established an international reputation in the early 1960s. The name of the group was an allusion to the fact that the ...

, first as and a member, later as its musical director. Gilson's recordings, on which early compositions with tempo changes (''Enfin!'', ''Œil Vision''), bitonal layers and chromatic topics are included, first appeared on a mini label. Some of the

harmonic function In mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes, a harmonic function is a twice continuously differentiable function f: U \to \mathbb R, where is an open subset of that satisfies Laplace's equation, that is, : \f ...

has been overridden in his compositions since 1964, without, being exclusively free jazz oriented (New Call from France, MPS 1966). Commercial success did not materialize, so that in 1968 Gilson temporarily went to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. In 1971 he returned and concentrated first on

ethno jazz Ethno jazz, also known as world jazz, is a subgenre of jazz and world music, developed internationally in the 1950s and '60s and broadly characterized by a combination of traditional jazz and non-Western musical elements. Though occasionally equ ...

and later "total improvisation". In 1973 he founded his label, Palm, on which are especially the recordings with his orchestra Europamerica, and with Butch Morris. For this more arranged record, which started reflecting his achievements of free jazz, he was awarded the 1978 Prix Boris Vian. Up to his final days he lived withdrawn in Ardèche.Profil von Jef Gilson - Mort du jazzman Jef Gilson, bei Radio France, 6 February 2012.
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Bibliography

Ekkehard Jost, Europas Jazz. 1960-1980. Frankfurt a.M. 1987,

References

External links

* *
Byron Coley article on Jef Gilson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilson, Jef 1926 births 2012 deaths French jazz pianists French male pianists French composers French male composers French classical clarinetists Conservatoire de Paris alumni French jazz saxophonists Male saxophonists French music arrangers People from Guebwiller 20th-century French pianists 20th-century French musicians 20th-century saxophonists 20th-century French male musicians French male jazz musicians