Michel Roques (musician)

Michel Andre Guy Roques (born April 15, 1936 in Toulouse , † March 29, 2007 in Orsay ) was a French jazz saxophonist (tenor), clarinetist and flutist (among other instruments).

Michel Roques had been blind since he was 15 and learned jazz himself. As a qualified physiotherapist , he decided to live as a professional musician in Paris in 1960 and quickly became a sought-after sideman. a. by Claude Guilhot , Dominique Chanson and Georges Arvanitas . In 1965 he published “Jazz on Bach” with René Urtreger , Jacques Thollot and Michel Gaudry at Fontana. In 1966 he formed his own trio in which the drummer Franco Manzecchi and Henri Texier (a short time later Benoît Charvet , who was to become the actual bassist, and most recently Patrice Caratini ) played bass. With this formation he recorded seven albums over the next five years, including Safari , which earned him the Django Reinhardt Prize . During this time he played a lot in the jazz club "Blue Note" in Paris, but also at the Paris Jazz Festival and at the Nuit Du Jazz . His trio booked other festivals, such as B. in Antibes, Lille, Bilzen, Juans-Les-Pins and Montreux. He accompanied u. a. Kenny Clarke , Bud Powell , Sonny Gray , Johnny Griffin , Dexter Gordon , Pony Poindexter , Pharoah Sanders (1968), Joe Henderson (1968).

From the mid-1970s it became quiet around him and from the 1980s, back in Toulouse, he played in duos with Siegfried Kessler and Roger Guérin .

In 1969 he received both the Prix ​​Django Reinhardt and the Soloist Prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival , where he played with his trio. In the US magazine Downbeat he was also listed as "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition". The referendum by the French magazine Jazz Hot in 1970 voted him the best tenor saxophonist and his trio took second place.

Two soundtracks from his trio for Metro Golwin Meyer and Columbia .

Web links

• Jazz in Toulouse to Roques

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on Michel Roques in Fichier des personnes décédées , accessed on July 5, 2020.