Claude Sommier

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Claude Sommier (* 1952 in Fort-de-France ; † July 22, 2009 ) was a French doctor, jazz pianist and composer from Martinique .

Live and act

Sommier grew up in Paris, took classical piano lessons at the conservatory and then dealt with jazz as an autodidact . He also played guitar and saxophone. He completed a medical degree in five years with no music practice . As a qualified general practitioner with emergency and tropical medicine training, he founded his first professional jazz trio in 1979 with Francis Dewader (d) and Stéphane Cognac (b). Together with the formation Humair Jeanneau Texier they played among other things at the Forum des Cholettes . In 1980 he worked on Roland Brival's album Creole Gypsy . In 1981 he returned to Martinique to work with a new trio formation. Concerts in the Caribbean and Central America followed, with Monty Alexander , among others .

After his return to the capital, he founded the quintet Djoa in 1985 . At the La Défense Jazz Festival in Hauts-de-Seine , the combo won the competition in 1986. In the following year, Sommier and Djoa won the Jazz à Vienne Festival ; and recorded his debut album Pigment , which featured Luther François (saxophone), Marc-Michel le Bévillon (bass), Marsio Mamie (percussion) and Ramon Lopez (drums).

In 1993 he received a composition prize at the Concours International de composition Jazz of the CMAC de la Martinique, which Gonzalo Rubalcaba was chairing. In the 1990s he also played in a duo with Xavier Desandre Navarre and expanded to the trio with Eric Vinceno and Marc-Michel Le Bevillon. In 1995 the live album A Cologne was created . He also worked on a musical and scenic adaptation of Derek Walcott's poem Vendredi Crusoé . He often appeared in the famous Parisian jazz club New Morning . After one last album ( Calalou , 1996), Sommier had to end his active music career in 1999 because of a severe neurodegenerative disease, but continued to compose, among other things. a. for the jazz singer Tangora. This close collaboration resulted in the album Colorada , which came out in 2005. Most of the lyrics were also from Sommier. The musicians Marc-Michel le Bévillon, Eric Vincenot, François Laizeau von Djoa accompanied them. The pianist Andy Emler took Sommier's place in the combo in the last years of his life.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Report of death at martinique.la1ere.fr ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / martinique.la1ere.fr
personal data
SURNAME Sommier, Claude
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French jazz pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort-de-France , Martinique
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 2009