Julien Lourau (born 3/2/1970) 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 ...

saxophonist. He is the son of sociologist René Lourau. Julien Lourau made his début in the group Trash Corporation with guitarist

Noël Akchoté Noël Akchoté (born 7 December 1968) is a French guitarist in free improvisation, classical, experimental, and free jazz. Career Starting on guitar at when he was eight years old,Philippe Carles, André Clergeat et Jean-Louis Comolli, ''Dict ...

and pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic. He also founded the group Olympic Gramofon with Sébastien Martel,

Vincent Ségal Vincent Ségal (born 1967 in Reims, France) is a French cellist and bassist. He studied at the National Music Academy of Lyon and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. He is mainly known for the variety of his collaborations and unusual proje ...

Eric Löhrer The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

, Cyril Atef, and

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. In 1992, Julien Lourau won the first soloist prize in

La Défense La Défense () is a major business district in France, located west of the city limits of Paris. It is part of the Paris metropolitan area in the Île-de-France region, located in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in the communes of Courbevoie, ...

and went on to set up his Groove Gang. In 1999, he experimented with electronic music for his album ''Gambit'' which attracted a following from young French people and led to a number of successful concerts. He won that year's jazz trophy at the "Victoires de la Musique" awards. He returned to a more traditional jazz in 2002 with the album ''The rise'', regarded as his most mature album. 2007 saw the release of ''Julien Lourau vs Rumbabierta'' which combines Lourau's avant-garde jazz with Afro-Cuban sounds. Julien Lourau also collaborated with the hip hop dance collectif le Groove Gang in a show untitled « Come fly with us ». By doing so, he encountered the French hip hop dance pioneer Bintou Demébélé, who was at the moment a member of the Groove Gang. Julien Lourau will thereafter invite her to dance at some of his concerts. His composition includes forms absorbed from Latin, African, Caribbean and European folk music.

Kevin Le Gendre Kevin Le Gendre is a British journalist, broadcaster and author whose work focuses on Black music. He is deputy editor of '' Echoes'' magazine, has written for a wide range of publications, including ''Jazzwise'', ''MusicWeek'', ''Vibrations'', ' ...

Julien Lourau ''Saigon Quartet'' Review
BBC, 2010-02-08. Retrieved 2010-06-03

Discography

* ''Groove Gang'' (Label Bleu, 1995) * ''City Boom Boom'' (Warner, 1998) * ''Gambit'' (Warner, 2000) * ''The Rise'' (Label Bleu, 2001) * ''Fire & Forget'' (Label Bleu, 2005) * ''Forget'' (Label Bleu, 2005) * ''Julien Lourau VS Rumbabierta'' (Label Bleu, 2007) * ''Quartet Saigon'' (Naive, 2009) * ''Duo'' (2birds1stone, 2015) * ''Julien Lourau & The Groove Retrievers'' (2birds1stone, 2017)

References

External links

Official site

Julien Lourau's page at Label Bleu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lourau, Julien 1970 births Living people French jazz saxophonists Male saxophonists 21st-century saxophonists 21st-century French male musicians French male jazz musicians Naïve Records artists Warner Records artists Label Bleu artists