Geoffroy De Masure

Geoffroy De Masure started playing trombone and piano at fourteen years old. From 1985 to 1989 he studied at the Conservatoire in Avignon classical trombone with Professor Bernard Buffet and Jazz with André Jaume. He started playing professionally at 18 in rock and funk band and got his first jazz engagements with his own bands. In 1989 he toured extensively Germany for 8 months with Harald Junkhe and Georg Preuss (Mary and Gordy show).

In 1990 he then moved to New York to further study and experiment jazz life there, he studied privately with trombonist Robin Eubanks. He participated in the Banff Center for The Arts Jazz program in Canada which was to be a essential influence and had profound impact in his evolution as a musician, with artistic head Steve Coleman, and faculty staff Rufus Reid, Robin and Kevin Eubanks, Marvin Smitty Smith, Kenny Wheeler, Stanley Cowell.

Back to France in 1991 he then played in Passages medium band with Manu Pekar they later recorded with Dave Liebman and he started writing compositions for his own band Quadrature. At only 22 years old he attracted attention from musical director Denis Badault and become member of Orchestre National de Jazz for 3 years that lead to work with such greats as Johnny Griffin,Larry Schneider,Toots Thielemans…he was asked to write and arrange a piece for the orchestra.

He started gaining interest in teaching music with the many workshops that this orchestra gave around France. He studied privately with Trombone solo from Ensemble Intercontemporain Benny Sluchin. He developed with co-members of Hask collective an original music based on strong approach to rhythm and aural concept that would lead into bands like Urban Mood, collaboration with alto sax Guillaume Orti. From 1994 to 1997 he taught trombone and jazz combos at Ecole Nationale de Musique de Bobigny for 3 years.

From 1991 to 1998 he played and recorded with many groups on the French jazz scene : Marc Ducret, Laurent Cugny, Serge Adam «Quoi De Neuf Docteur», Yves Robert, Luc Le Masne, Jean Marc Padovani, Malo Vallois, Hubert Dupont, Jean Christophe Cholet, Hervé Sellin…He then started working in Brussels with colleagues from Aka Moon band for collaborative concerts and recordings with world-music greats (Doudou N’Diaye Rose, Umayalpuram Sivaraman),as well as beginning collaborations with medium band Octurn, and pianist-composer Kriss Defoort in cross discipline projects with dance and opera. He was also very active on the Instants Chavirés underground scene of improvised music.

In 1997 he was awarded best soloist at La Defense Jazz Competition and 2nd composition price. Following this intense period in 1997 he started uniting Tribu and Bzzz Puk his own bands around his compositions that later lead to two recordings. He then integrated Belgium band Octurn and write ambitious pieces for double rhythm section projects that were documented on De Werf label..He also had opportunity to play on festivals with Joe Lovano, Charlie Haden, Mark Turner, Lee Konitz, Greg Osby, Albert Mangelsdorff, Fred Hersch, Nguyen Lê. In 2001-2002 he recorded and toured Europe with alto sax -composer Steve Coleman and his band Five Elements, and assisted him in workshop organization and translation for French audience. Geoffroy De Masure teaches privately trombone students and give many workshops around Europe, in Royal Music Academy in London, in Brussels and in France. He also wrote didactic pieces for large ensembles and made demonstration of his instrument in various schools.

He has been involved in many cross cultural projects with traditional music from Cambodia (with Jean Marc Padovani), India (Aka Moon), Morocco (Laurent Blondiau « Al Majima »); he traveled thrice to Turkmenistan to collaborate with his band Tribu and local traditional musicians , he is currently working on an ambitious project mixing elements from traditional Arab and Tunisian folk music and Jazz that will lead to a double CD in 2007.

His interest in rhythm is obvious in his work as well as microtonal subtleties and the uses of mutes and voice to further expand his instrument’s expression. He is now mostly devoting himself to 3 projects that he leads :

- His powerful trio Bzzz Pük with bassist Linley Marthe (Mauritius) and drummer StéphaneGalland (Belgium).

- His quintet Tribu with Bo Van Der Werf (bs) , Nelson Veras (g), Jean Luc Lehr (eb),Chander Sardjoe (dms).

- Last Night in Tunisia is a collaboration with Jasser Haj Youssef (vln) on Tunisian folkmusic involving many jazz and traditional musicians .

He plans on working on French Caribbean and Guyana as well as Turkmen folklore soon.

Discography

*Tribu 2001 (Musivi)
*Bzzz Puk 2001 (Jas Records)
*Orchestre National de Jazz « A plus tard » 1992 (Label Bleu)
*Orchestre National de Jazz « Monk, Mingus, Ellington » 1993 (Label Bleu)
*Orchestre National de Jazz « Bouquet Final » 1994 (Label Bleu)
*Quoi de neuf Docteur « A l’envers » 1995 (Doc)
*Quoi de neuf Docteur « 51° Below » 1996 (Doc)
*Compilation Nato « Les Films de ma Ville » 1995 (Nato)
*Odejy « Suite Alpestre » 1997 (Pee Wee Music)
*Malo Vallois Quartet « Complix-cités » 1997 (Pan Music)
*Hubert Dupont « Dans le Décor » 1997 (Pee Wee Music)
*Aka Moon « Elohim » 1997 (Carbon 7)
*Ronan Robert Réunion « En concert » 1996 (Pixie)
*Manu Pékar « Passages » 1998 (Gorgone Production)
*Jean Marc Padovani « Jazz Angkor » 1998 (Hopi)
*Jean Marc Padovani « Minotaure Jazz Orchestra » 1998 (Hopi)
*Mercoledi & Co « Sous les pattes du Lion » 1998 (Mercoledi & Co)
*Thot 1999 (Doc)
*Kris Defoort and Dreamtime 1999 (De Werf)
*Aka Moon « Invisible Sun » 2000 (Carbon 7)
*Octurn 2000 (De Werf)

External links

* [http://www.geoffroydemasure.com]