Renaud Garcia-Fons is a French double-bass player and composer, notable for his customised 5-stringed bass.

Career

Garcia-Fons' father is the painter Pierre Garcia-Fons, and his family is of Catalonian origin. In the early 1980s Garcia-Fons enrolled at the Paris Conservatory; he has studied with François Rabbath

François Rabbath

François Rabbath is a contemporary French double-bass player, soloist, and composer.He was born into a Syrian family of musicians but his only instruction came from a book written by a Parisian bassist Edouard Nanny...

 who taught him his special technique of playing arco

Arco

-Places:*Arco, a town in Trentino, Italy*Arco, Idaho, in the United States*Arco, Minnesota, a city in the United States*ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California, home of the Sacramento Kings-Companies:...

. Garcia-Fons is known for his melodic sense and his viola-like col arco sound.

Garcia-Fons is influenced by jazz and classical music and by flamenco

Flamenco

Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....

, new musette

Bal-musette

Bal-musette is a style of French music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s.Auvergnats settled in large numbers in the 5th, 11th, and 12th districts of Paris during the 19th century, opening cafés and bars where patrons danced the bourrée to the accompaniment of musette de...

, and "imaginary folklore" traditions. He started playing jazz in trumpet player Roger Guérin

Roger Guérin

Roger Guérin was a French jazz trumpeter and singer.Initially a violinist, Guérin studied trumpet and cornet at the Paris Conservatory and won a first prize there as a teenager....

's band. From 1987 to 1993 he was part of a French all-double bass ensemble L'Orchestre de Contrebasses before he played in the Orchestre National de Jazz directed by Claude Barthélémy

Claude Barthélemy

Claude Barthélemy is a Haitian former footballer who played at both professional and international levels as a striker.-Professional:Barthélemy spent time in the North American Soccer League with the Detroit Cougars.-International:...

. He collaborated with jazz musicians like Jean-Louis Matinier, Michael Riessler, Nguyên Lê

Nguyên Lê

Nguyên Lê is a French jazz musician and composer of Vietnamese ancestry. His main instrument is guitar, and he also plays electric bass guitar and guitar synthesizer....

, and Michel Godard

Michel Godard

Michel Godard is a French tuba player and jazz musician.Godard was admitted at the age of 18 to the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio-France. His ability to produce overtones and musicality leaves the listener surprised at how light a seemingly cumbersome tuba can sound...

. He contributed to recordings of Gerardo Núñez

Gerardo Núñez

Gerardo Núñez Díaz is a Spanish guitarist and composer. His roots lie in flamenco, but he has also ventured into fusion with other genres, especially jazz.- Career :...

 and to Middle Eastern players such as Kudsi Erguner

Kudsi Erguner

Kudsi Erguner is a Turkish musician. He is considered a master of traditional Mevlevi Sufi music and is one of the best-known players of the Turkish ney flute.-Biography:...

, Dhafer Youssef

Dhafer Youssef

Dhafer Youssef is a composer, singer and oud player. He developed an interest in jazz at an early age and clandestinely listened to it during his education at a Qur'anic school. He later left Tunisia to start a jazz career and has lived in Europe since 1990, usually in Paris or Vienna. He also...

, and Cheb Mami

Cheb Mami

Ahmed Khelifati Mohamed better known by his stage name Cheb Mami , is an Algerian-born raï singer...

.

Discography

• Légendes, 1992
• Alboreá, 1995
• Suite Andalouse, 1995
• Oriental Bass, 1997
• Fuera, 1999 (with Jean-Louis Matinier)
• Navigatore, 2001
• Entremundo , 2004
• Arcoluz, 2006
• La Linea Del Sur, 2009
• Méditerranées, 2010

External links

• Homepage
• [ allmusic.com profile]