Christian Escoudé

Christian Escoudé ( born September 23, 1947 in Angoulême ) is a French jazz guitarist.

Escoudé was introduced by his father and his uncle Gusti Malha, to whom he later dedicated the album Gousti, in the tradition of gypsy music. His musical idols were next to Django Reinhardt and Charlie Parker, Erroll Garner and Coleman Hawkins, he heard on the radio. As a teenager he played in an American chapel in the U.S. military clubs in Angoulême, where he became acquainted with the classics of American popular music and jazz standards.

From 1968 to 1971 he was a member of the orchestra of Aimé Barelli in Monte Carlo. After that he went to Paris, where he came into contact with jazz music and with musicians such as Louis's Eddy, Bernard Lubat, Steve Potts, Gus Nemeth, Christian Lété, Didier Levallet, Michel Portal, Martial Solal and Slide Hampton worked. He joined in a quartet with Michel Graillier, Aldo Romano and Alby Cullaz (later Jean -François Jenny -Clark ) and with cellist Jean -Charles Capon.

Subsequently, he joined several jazz festivals: so in 1978 at the Festival of Nice, where he among other things, played with Stan Getz, Bill Evans, Philly Joe Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Konitz, Shelly Manne and Elvin Jones and 1979 in Dakar with René Urtreger, Pierre Michelot and Daniel Humair.

In 1980 he undertook a world tour with John McLaughlin. In 1981, he joined the orchestra of Martial Solal and founded with Olivier Hutman, Nicolas Fiszman and Jean- My Truong his first quartet ( in the Fiszman and Truong were replaced by Jean -Marc Jaffe and Tony Rabeson later). In 1983 he founded a duo with Didier Lockwood and 1985 his first trio with Boulou Ferré Gitan and Babik Reinhardt, son of Django Reinhardt, the later David Reinhardt replaced. In 1988, he played in a quartet with Jean -Michel Pilc and the brothers François and Louis Moutin and in the octet with Paul Challain Ferret, Jimmy Gourley, Frédéric Sylvestre, Marcel Azzola, Vincent Courtois, Alby Cullaz and Billy Hart.

In 1990 he joined in New York City to Pierre Michelot, Hank Jones and Kenny Washington. In 1992 he founded with Paul Challain Ferret and Frédéric Sylvestre his second Trio Gitan, with whom he recorded the album Holidays. Was released in 1998 the album A Suite for Gypsie, whose music is a fusion of jazz and rock. In 2003, a seventeen -piece big band Escoude, 2004, the Nouveau Trio Gitan. In 2005 he played with Marcel Azzola the album Ma ya. Ya one.

In 1976 he was awarded the Prix Django Reinhardt.

• Jazz guitarist
• French musicians
• Born in 1947
• Man