Biréli Lagrène (born 4 September 1966) is a French jazz guitarist who came to prominence in the 1980s for his

Django Reinhardt Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani people, Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Belgium, Belgian-born Romani jazz guitarist and composer in France. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe ...

–influenced style. He often performs in swing,

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

, and

post-bop Post-bop is a jazz term with several possible definitions and usages.Yudkin, Jeremy (2007), p. 125 It has been variously defined as a musical period, a musical genre, a musical style, and a body of music, sometimes in different chronological perio ...

styles.

Biography

Lagrène was born in Soufflenheim,

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, France, into a Romani family and community. His father and grandfather were guitarists, and he was raised in the Gypsy guitar tradition. He started playing at age four or five and by seven was improvising jazz in a style similar to that of

, whom his father admired and wanted his sons to emulate. In 1980, while in his early teens, he recorded his first album, ''Routes to Django: Live at the Krokodil'' (Jazzpoint, 1981). During the next few years, Lagrène toured with

Al Di Meola Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. Known for his work in jazz fusion and world music, his breakthrough came after joining Chick Corea's Return to Forever group in 1974. He launched, from 1976 afterwards, a s ...

Paco de Lucía Francisco Sánchez Gómez (; 21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamen ...

, and John McLaughlin, all of them guitarists, and played with

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

, and

Stéphane Grappelli Stéphane Grappelli (; 26 January 1908 – 1 December 1997) was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. ...

. He joined

Larry Coryell Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock ...

and

Vic Juris Victor Edward Jurusz Jr. (September 26, 1953 – December 31, 2019), known professionally as Vic Juris, was an American jazz guitarist. Music career Juris was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, but he moved with his family to Parsippany-Troy Hill ...

in New York City for a tribute to Reinhardt in 1984 and went on tour with Coryell and

Philip Catherine Philip Catherine (born 27 October 1942) is a Belgian jazz rock guitarist. Biography Philip Catherine was born in London, England, to an English mother and Belgian father, and was raised in Brussels, Belgium. His grandfather was a violinist i ...

. He also performed with

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, ...

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fus ...

, the

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian Americans, Canadian–American jazz pianist, Music arranger, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators i ...

Orchestra, Christian Escoudé, and

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...

. In 1989 he performed in a duo with Stanley Jordan. His collaboration with Italian guitarist Giuseppe Continenza, with whom he has performed in numerous concerts and festivals, including the Pescara Jazz and the Eddie Lang Jazz Festival, began in 1998, when the two met behind the scenes of a festival and started talking about each other's musical interests.

Awards

* "Django d’Or" for "French Musician" (1993) * "Les Victoires de la Musique" in the category of "Jazz Album" for the album ''Front Page'' (2001) * "Les Victoires de la Musique" nominated in the category of "Jazz Album" for the album ''Gypsy Project and Friends'' (2003) * "Django d’Or" for "French Musician" (2002) * "Django d’Or" for "People's Choice" (2002) * "Django d’Or" for "Balkan/Gypsy" guitar (2007) * Medal of "Chevalier des Arts & des Lettres" of France as awarded by Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication (2012)

Discography

* ''Routes to Django'' (

Antilles The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater An ...

, 1980) * ''Swing '81'' (Jazzpoint Records, 1981) * ''Fifteen'' (Antilles, 1982) * ''Down in Town'' (Antilles, 1983) * ''Django's Music Vol. 1'' with Mike Peters, Bob Wilber (Stash, 1985) * ''Stuttgart Aria'' with

and Vladislav Sendecki (Jazzpoint, 1986) * ''Bireli Lagrene and Special Guests'' with Larry Coryell, Miroslav Vitous (Jazzpoint, 1986) * ''Inferno'' (

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

, 1987) * ''Foreign Affairs'' (Blue Note, 1988) * ''Acoustic Moments'' (Blue Note, 1990) * ''Standards'' (Blue Note, 1992) * ''Live at the Carnegie Hall'' (Jazz Point, 1993) * ''Live in Marciac'' ( Dreyfus, 1994) * ''My Favorite Django'' (Dreyfus, 1995) * ''Blue Eyes'' (Dreyfus, 1998) * ''Duet'' with Sylvain Luc (Dreyfus, 1999) * ''Front Page'' (with Dominique di Piazza and Dennis Chambers) (2001) * ''Gipsy Project'' (Dreyfus, 2001) * ''Gipsy Project & Friends'' (Dreyfus, 2002) * Gipsy Project: ''Move'' (Dreyfus, 2004) * ''Djangology'' with WDR Big Band (Dreyfus, 2006) * ''To Bi or Not to Bi'' (Dreyfus, 2006) * ''Electric Side'' (Dreyfus, 2008) * ''Gipsy Trio'' (Dreyfus, 2009) * ''Mouvements'' (Universal, 2012) * ''D-Stringz'' with

Jean-Luc Ponty Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer. He is considered a pioneer of jazz-rock, particularly for his use of the electric violin starting in the 1970s. He rose to prominence for his colla ...

( Impulse!, 2015) * ''Storyteller'' ( Naive, 2018) * ''Solo Suites'' (PeeWee!, 2022) * ''Bireli Lagrene Plays Loulou Gasté'' (

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was formed in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its st ...

, 2023)

Filmography

* 1989 ''Super Guitar Trio - Live at Montreux'' * 2004 ''Bireli Lagrene & Friends:Live Jazz a Vienne'' (Dreyfus) * 2005 ''Django: A Jazz Tribute'' * 2005 ''Bireli Lagrene & Gypsy Project Live in Paris'' * 2006 ''Live in Paris'' (Dreyfus) * 2009 ''Monaco Dreyfus Night'' (Dreyfus) * 2017 ''Biréli Lagrène: Voilà!''

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagrene, Bireli 1966 births 20th-century French male musicians 20th-century French guitarists 21st-century French male musicians 21st-century guitarists Antilles Records artists French jazz guitarists French male guitarists French Romani people Gypsy jazz guitarists Jazz fusion guitarists Living people French male jazz musicians Manouche people Swing guitarists