Marc Ducret trio

Den franske gitarvirtuosen Marc Ducret er en av nåtidens røffeste improvisasjonsmusikere. Han har musikalsk slektskap med gitarister som Nels Cline, Raoul Björkenheim, David Torn og Bill Frisell, og bruker rockens estetikk på jazzens premisser. Ducret har en fantastisk teknikk og instrumentbeherskelse, og har utviklet trioen med Chevillon og Echampard siden 1999. Trioen har fire utgivelser bak seg og sammen leverer de energisk og krevende rock på Belleville.

www.marcducret.com

The description "guitar trio" is much too bland for the band with which Marc Ducret comes to Moers . This formation is the guitar trio for miles around. Unbelievable grooves produce music which seems to know no boundaries, and which takes shape as a result of the intuitive communication of these three musicians. Ducret describes this Paris trio as his laboratory and his new beginning.

Moers Music 2006

(VILNIUS JAZZ FESTIVAL 2006)

Vilnius Jazz presents one of the most unconventional ensembles in French contemporary music scene - the celebrated Marc Ducret Trio.

Trio leader, composer and guitarist Marc Ducret is among today's most original improvisers. Self-taught, extraordinarily gifted musician does not restrict himself to a particular style, writes distinctive and unexpected music - attacking with ferocious electric guitar outbursts or drifting into subtle impressionistic abstractions, resounding with rock hits or approaching post-bop, bursting into noise avalanches or playing with bits and pieces from the world of flamenco and classical music. One of the most unconventional guitarists empowered by acoustic and electric, bass and baritone guitars produces a unique sound, embracing all imaginable music forms.

Born in Paris in 1957 Marc Ducret began his professional career in 1975, playing bass in dance bands, rock and folk groups, accompanying singers and singing himself, and working as a studio musician. This experience was his 'Alma Mater'. As a guitarist he debuted in 1986 playing with Patrice Caratini octet. The same year he became a member of the first French Orchestre National de Jazz, and formed his own trio, becoming a regular performer on the domestic and international concert and festival scene. The following year his trio recorded its debut album La Théorie du Pilier.

Marc Ducret soon gained recognition - he was awarded Django Reinghardt Prize in 1987, in 1988 and 1989 Jazz Hot magazine elected him the best French jazz guitarist, and in 1989 he was hailed as SACEM star. His career picked up and before long as a soloist he became much demanded abroad.

Since 1991, collaboration with American saxophonist Tim Berne brought Marc Ducret recognition in the motherland of jazz. He has since worked in a number of formations led by Tim Berne, including duo, Big Satan, Caos Totale and Bloodcount. Marc Ducret recoded several solo albums, released on T.Berne's Screwgun label. A regular member of New York Factory, Marc Ducret today is one of the few European musicians regularly playing overseas.

Marc Ducret also collaborates with Larry Schneider, David Friedmann, Michel Portal, Joachim Kühn, Franco Ambrosetti, Didier Lockwood, Miroslav Vitous, Enrico Rava, Adam Nussbaum, Django Bates, David Sanborn, Joey Baron, Michel Godard, Dominique Pifarély, David Linx, Bobby Previte and many others, works with various groups, including AKA Moon, Acoustic Quartet with Louis Sclavis and Dominique Pifarély, Andy Emler quintet, François Jeanneau orchestra Pandémonium, Copenhagen Art Ensemble, Daniel Humair and Antoine Hervé ensembles, François Corneloup quartet, performs as a duo with percussionist Bobby Previte and his quartet Latin for Travelers. Lithuanian jazz aficionados had the chance to get to know Marc Ducret in Birštonas'2004, were he performed with Toxikum quintet.

In addition, Marc Ducret performs solo and with his own ensembles, including tentet Seven Songs, exploring the music of the '60s with a very personal touch. Marc Ducret formed the present line-up of the trio in 1997, after accumulating experience of working in similar formations.

Trio's double-bassist and composer Bruno Chevillon (b. 1959) is among the most startling jazz bassists on the French jazz scene. This astonishingly elegant and subtle musician in known from his work with Michel Portal, Louis Sclavis, Paul Motian, Stephen Oliva and Daniel Humair ensembles. His solo concerts were repeatedly praised as unforgettable, in particular critically acclaimed Pasolini ou la Rage Sublime. He also collaborates with JeanMarc Foltz.

Drummer Eric Echampard (b. 1970) is a representative of a young generation of French jazzmen. He has collaborated with Marc Ducret since 1995, and made his name for his precision, suggestiveness and elegance, and at the same time incredible drive and creativity.

Penchant to drumming since childhood, as an adolescent he got interested in jazz and improvisation. He studied classical and contemporary percussion at the Lyon conservatoire. Eric Echampard started his professional career in 1991, when he joined Jacques Di Donato quintet. Shortly after the drummer started collaborating with Louis Sclavis, Philippe Deschepper, François Jeanneau, and Michel Eddelin. In the mid-nineties he took part in Systeme Friche, a large ensemble of improvisers managed by Jacques Di Donato and Xavier Charles, performed in ORJA big band and Bernard Strubber orchestra. Presently Eric Echampard also works with Michel Pertal quartet, Andy Emler trio and MegaOctet, and since 2000 has formed a widely acclaimed duo with Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen.

Jurate Kucinskaite /used by permission of the Vilnius Jazz Festival (october 2005)