Didier Levallet

Didier Levallet ( born July 19, 1944 in Arcy- sur-Cure ) is a French jazz double bassist and bandleader.

Levallet studied from 1963 to 1966 at the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme next to the Conservatory of the city. Since 1967 he lived in Paris, where he made his debut in 1969 at the Chat qui Pêche and performed with musicians like Georges Arvanitas, Ted Curson, Siegfried Kessler, Hank Mobley, Mal Waldron, Kenny Clarke, Johnny Griffin and Slide Hampton.

He also founded the group Perception ( 1970-1977, with Yochk'o Seffer, Siegfried Kessler and Mino Cinelu ) and Confluence ( 1975-1980, with Jean -Charles Capon and Christian Escoudé ) and 1972, the l' Association pour le développement de la musique improvisée. The late 1970s and early 1980s, he founded three other groups: two quintets and a great lineup. He also worked at this time in a trio with Dominique Pifarély and Gérard Marais and the Swing Strings System ( with Didier Lockwood, Bernard Lubat and Christian Escoudé ).

1987 belonged to Henri Texier Levallet addition, Sylvain Kassap, Claude Barthélémy, Gérard Marais and Jacques Mahieux the founders of the group Zhivaro. In 1992 he founded the group Générations ( with Jean -Louis Chautemps, Michel Marre, Manuel Rocheman, Simon Goubert, Glenn Ferris and Vincent Courtois ). In addition, he led other groups and belonged ( with Daunik Lazro ) to the Outlaws in jazz. He also worked among others at this time with Archie Shepp, Frank Lowe, Byard Lancaster, Charles Tyler, Chris McGregor, Mike Westbrook, Günter Sommer, John Lewis, Steve Lacy and Jeanne Lee.

From 1997 to 2000 Levallet led the Orchestre National de Jazz, he was director of the Scène Nationale de Montbéliard 2001.

Levallet gave jazz courses in many French cities. From 1981 to 1992 he headed the jazz class of the Conservatory of Angoulême, then until 2000, the Conservatory of Montreuil. In addition, he taught from 1996 to 2000 at the Conservatory of Lille jazz history and analysis.

Discography

• Scoop, 1983
• String Swing System: Euridice with Lionel Benhamou, Jean -Charles Capon, François Couturier, Dominique Pifarély, 2004