Raymond Fonsèque (born November 27, 1930,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– November 19, 2011) was 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

trombonist and tubaist. Fonsèque studied cello and piano formally, then switched to trombone at age 17 under

André Hodeir André Hodeir (22 January 1921 – 1 November 2011) was a French violinist, composer, arranger and musicologist. Biography Hodeir was born in Paris and trained as a classical violinist and composer. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, w ...

. In the 1950s and 1960s he performed widely with early jazz and blues musicians, including

Lil Armstrong Lillian Hardin Armstrong (née Hardin; February 3, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in t ...

Sidney Bechet Sidney Joseph Bechet ( ; May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important Solo (music), soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Ar ...

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Don Byas Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas (October 21, 1912 – August 24, 1972) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also l ...

, Peanuts Holland, and Nelson Williams. He also played with French bandleaders such as Michel Attenoux,

Claude Bolling Claude Bolling (10 April 1930 – 29 December 2020) was a French jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and occasional actor. Biography He was born in Cannes, France, and studied at the Nice Conservatory, and then in Paris. A child prodigy, by the ...

Jacques Hélian Jacques Mikaël Der Mikaëlian better known as Jacques Hélian (born in Paris, 7 June 1912 - died 29 June 1986), was a famous French orchestra conductor for French music-hall. Biography Born of an Armenian father (descendant of Armenian bourge ...

, and

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 Sidne ...

, and worked in contemporary idioms with Jacques Denjean, Raymond LeSénéchal, Bobby Jaspar, and Tony Proteau. Later in his career he played with

Cat Anderson William Alonzo "Cat" Anderson (September 12, 1916 – April 29, 1981) was an American jazz trumpeter known for his long period as a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra and for his wide range, especially his ability to play in the altissimo regis ...

, Bill Coleman, Wallace Davenport, and

François Guin François Guin (born May 18, 1938, in Contres, Loir-et-Cher, Contres) is a French jazz musician and bandleader. Guin is a musical polymath, having learned violin, piano, voice, trombone, trumpet, and flute. As a trumpeter, he worked with Marc Lafe ...

. Fonsèque advocated for a double equal temperament called ''super temperament'' with 24 notes per octave, allowing to play thirds according to

just intonation In music, just intonation or pure intonation is a musical tuning, tuning system in which the space between notes' frequency, frequencies (called interval (music), intervals) is a natural number, whole number ratio, ratio. Intervals spaced in thi ...

References

*Michel Laplace, "Raymond Fonsèque". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed.

Barry Kernfeld Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians. Education In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at ...

. *Raymond Fonsèque, ''Procédé Fonsèque de 24 sons par octave assorti de la notion de « super-tempérament »'', in ''Bulletin du G.A.M.'' No. 113, Paris, 1986. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fonseque, Raymond French jazz trombonists Musicians from Paris 1930 births 2011 deaths