Sylvain Luc
Encyclopedia
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) is a French jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
. His musicality, his great sense of improvisation
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
and his virtuosity
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
, and unique, technical abilities with the guitar have earned him high (but discrete) praises from all around the world, including from many musicians he has played with. He is very regularly on tour, but very rarely makes appearances in high profile jazz festivals. As a result, he has little international recognition.
His most well known works are the two duet albums with Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...
, with whom he has toured many times. He is an ambassador for Godin
Godin (Guitar Manufacturer)
- History :Godin started building Robert Godin's guitars in 1972 in La Patrie, Quebec.Godin Guitars' head office is located in Montreal, and they build their instruments in six factories in four different locations, three in Quebec and one in New Hampshire....
guitars since 1993.
He is very attracted to duets, but has also been seen within trios (for instance his own trio, but also Trio Sud, and on tour in 2009 with Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
and Richard Bona
Richard Bona
Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...
) and more rarely with larger groups.
Childhood and musical studies
Sylvain Luc is born to a family of three, the youngest of three brothers. His two elder brothers (Gérard, the eldest, playing the accordionAccordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
and Serge, playing drums) were both musicians who regularly played in balls
Ball (dance)
A ball is a formal dance. The word 'ball' is derived from the Latin word "ballare", meaning 'to dance'; the term also derived into "bailar", which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for dance . In Catalan it is the same word, 'ball', for the dance event.Attendees wear evening attire, which is...
. At the age of 4, he laid his hands on a toy guitar with only three strings left on it and was acknowledged to accompany his brothers on rehearsals with accurate chords
Guitar chord
In music, a guitar chord is a chord, or collection of tones usually sounded together at once, played on a guitar. It can be composed of notes played on adjacent or separate strings or all the strings together...
, even at this time. As a result, he starts touring with his brothers in balls at a very early age.
Being immersed in a musical environment, he is regularly in touch with other musicians. One of them, late Joe Rossi (who taught accordion to his elder brother Gérard), hinted him to listen to (and offered him an LP of) Joe Pass
Joe Pass
Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
(Portraits of Duke Ellington
Portraits of Duke Ellington
Portraits of Duke Ellington is an album by jazz guitarist Joe Pass, released in 1974 . It is a tribute to jazz musician Duke Ellington and was recorded shortly after his death...
). This, and other encounters at his parent's home (in particular guitar player Michel Ducau-Lucart, who offered him his first guitar), led him to listen to, and appreciate, jazz music.
At age 9, many things happen: while still touring with his brothers, he performs for the first time on an album with his brothers (Elgarrekin); he also plays in the first part of a concert of Joe Dassin
Joe Dassin
Joseph Ira Dassin , more commonly known as Joe Dassin, was an American singer-songwriter best known for his French songs of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
with a local group; and he enters the conservatoire of Bayonne. While the guitar is his instrument of choice, there were no courses for the guitar at the conservatoire, so he chose to study cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
instead, and gains a taste for classical music. Sylvain is grateful for his studying the cello, for this gave him much strength in his fingers, which would later help him for the guitar.
At age 12, he performs on a second album with his brothers, Oinakarin. He also becomes fluent with other instruments along the way: the mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and the bass.
Beginning of solo career
At age 15, he forms a group of jazz music (the "Bulle Quintet") and quickly gains recognition: two years later, in 1982, he and his group were elected laureate of the international festival of San Sebastian.He quickly becomes the most sought-after guitarist and bassist in the Basque region, and begins to tour regularly. In 1985, he met Marie-Ange Damestoy and became her guitarist, arranger and composer. Two years later, in 1987, they were nominated revelation of the Printemps de Bourges
Printemps de Bourges
Le Printemps de Bourges is an annual music festival that is held in Bourges, France, during five days. It is now a major event in France and Europe....
.
In Paris, and afterwards
In 1988, he came to live in Paris and became an arranger, composer and accompanist to many different French artists, including Al JarreauAl Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
, Catherine Lara
Catherine Lara
Catherine Lara is a French violinist, composer and singer.-Music career:As a child, Lara studied violin and received the first prize of chamber music at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1966....
, Michel Jonasz
Michel Jonasz
Michel Jonasz is a French composer-songwriter, singer and actor. His compositions include: La boîte de jazz, Joueurs de blues and Les vacances au bord de la mer....
, all while being the bassist for the Richard Galliano
Richard Galliano
Richard Galliano is a French accordionist.-Biography:He was drawn to music at an early age, starting with the accordion at 4, influenced by his father Lucien, an accordionist originally from Italy, living in Nice.After a long and intense period of study Richard Galliano (born December 12, 1950,...
trio.
Among the musicians he has played with are Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...
, Richard Bona
Richard Bona
Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...
, Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
, Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...
, Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
, Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Stéphane Belmondo
Stéphane Belmondo
Stephane Belmondo is a French jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and drummer. Including recordings made with his brother Lionel Belmondo and Yusef Lateef, he won the best French album category in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the best artist award in 2003 and 2004,...
, Manu Katché
Manu Katché
Manu Katché is a French musician of Ivorian origin, born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés on 27 October 1958. He is a drummer and songwriter.-Career:Session musician...
, Michel Portal
Michel Portal
Michel Portal is a composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist.Portal studied clarinet at the Conservatoire de Paris...
, Bobby Thomas JR, Andy Sheppard
Andy Sheppard
Andy Sheppard is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, George Russell and Steve Swallow.-Biography:Sheppard was born in Warminster,...
, Jacky Terrasson
Jacky Terrasson
Jacques-Laurent Terrasson is a jazz pianist better known as Jacky Terrasson.He was born in Germany, but his mother was American and his father French. He studied at the Berklee College of Music before playing in Chicago and New York City clubs. He gained increased attention on winning the 1993...
, André Ceccarelli, Jean-Marc Jafet, Alain Caron
Alain Caron (bass player)
Alain Caron is a French Canadian jazz bassist.The youngest of 11 children, Caron started playing bass at age 11 and began pursuing jazz at age 15...
, Didier Lockwood
Didier Lockwood
Didier Lockwood is a French jazz violinist. He played in the progressive rock/jazz fusion band Magma in the 1970s and is known for his use of electric amplification and experimentation on different sounds on the electric violin....
, John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
, Bernard Lubat, Lokua Kanza
Lokua Kanza
Lokua Kanza is a singer, songwriter, and composer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is known for his soulful, folksy sound, which is atypical of the dancefloor friendly soukous music that is common in the Congo.-Biography:...
, Richard Galliano
Richard Galliano
Richard Galliano is a French accordionist.-Biography:He was drawn to music at an early age, starting with the accordion at 4, influenced by his father Lucien, an accordionist originally from Italy, living in Nice.After a long and intense period of study Richard Galliano (born December 12, 1950,...
, Steve Lukather
Steve Lukather
Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer, arranger, and session guitarist on more than 1,500 albums...
, Keyvan Chémirani, Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
, Victor Bailey, Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
, Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...
and Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel
William Thomas "Tommy" Emmanuel AM is an Australian guitarist, best known for his complex fingerpicking style, energetic performances and the use of percussive effects on the guitar. In the May 2008 and 2010 issues of Guitar Player Magazine, he was named as "Best Acoustic Guitarist" in their...
.
In 1999, he founded the Trio Sud along with André Ceccarelli and Jean-Marc Jafet, an ensemble with which he obtained the "French Music Award for Jazz music" as the best formation of the year in 2003.
Since 2006, he has regularly found himself in the "String quartet," alongside Didier Lockwood
Didier Lockwood
Didier Lockwood is a French jazz violinist. He played in the progressive rock/jazz fusion band Magma in the 1970s and is known for his use of electric amplification and experimentation on different sounds on the electric violin....
, Victor Bailey and Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
.
In 2009 he toured across Europe with Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
and Richard Bona
Richard Bona
Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...
.
Instruments
Sylvain mostly plays with Godin Multiac guitars, both the nylon and steel string versions. The particular sound of this guitar has partly become part of his unique sound. He also, but less frequently, plays with the 5th Avenue series, always from Godin (he is seen with a black-colored 5th Avenue series on his album Standards).He also, but even more rarely, plays on classical guitars.
Playstyle
Sylvain plays mostly by fingerpicking, even with a steel string guitar. He also, but less frequently, uses a plectrum. Frequently he uses both techniques on the same tune.He has never used a guitar equipped with a tremolo arm
Tremolo arm
A whammy bar, tremolo arm/bar, or vibrato arm/bar is a component of a guitar, used to add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the strings, typically at the bridge or tailpiece...
.
His improvisation style, and even accompanying style, is quite unique, in that he is able to produce rich chords in "real time". He also sometimes detunes the sixth (and even fifth) strings of his guitars (sometimes up to an octave below normal), both to emulate a bass sound while accompanying and to accompany himself in solos.
Discography =
- 19931993 in musicThis is a summary of significant events in music in 1993.-January–February:*January 8 – The U.S. Postal Service issues an Elvis Presley stamp. The design was voted on in February 1992....
Piaia, solo album; - 19941994 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1994.-January–February:*January 25 – Alice in Chains release their Jar of Flies album which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first ever EP to do so....
Petits Déjà..., with Louis Winsberg; - 19991999 in music-Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....
Ameskeri, with Stéphane BelmondoStéphane BelmondoStephane Belmondo is a French jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and drummer. Including recordings made with his brother Lionel Belmondo and Yusef Lateef, he won the best French album category in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the best artist award in 2003 and 2004,...
; - 20002000 in musicSee also:* 2000 in music Record labels established in 2000-Events:*January – Gary Glitter is released from jail, two months before his sentence for sexual offences ends.*January 1**John Tavener is knighted in the New Year's Honours List....
Piaia Naia, with Francis Lassus; - 20002000 in musicSee also:* 2000 in music Record labels established in 2000-Events:*January – Gary Glitter is released from jail, two months before his sentence for sexual offences ends.*January 1**John Tavener is knighted in the New Year's Honours List....
Duet, with Biréli LagrèneBiréli LagrèneBiréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...
; - 20002000 in musicSee also:* 2000 in music Record labels established in 2000-Events:*January – Gary Glitter is released from jail, two months before his sentence for sexual offences ends.*January 1**John Tavener is knighted in the New Year's Honours List....
Nahia, with his brothers Serge (drums) and Gérard (accordion); - 20002000 in musicSee also:* 2000 in music Record labels established in 2000-Events:*January – Gary Glitter is released from jail, two months before his sentence for sexual offences ends.*January 1**John Tavener is knighted in the New Year's Honours List....
Sud, with Trio Sud; - 20022002 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2002.-Events:*February 3 – U2 perform during the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVI...
Trio Sud, with Trio Sud; - 20032003 in music-January:* January – following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people are arrested...
Ambre, solo album; - 20062006 in musicThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....
Joko; - 20082008 in music2008 was a huge year in music history with the emergence of pop superstars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry into the mainstream. Also, this is the year that is widely agreed upon by critics as the start of the fall of hip hop from the mainstream and the rise of Synthpop into the mainstream due to acts such...
Young And Fine, with Trio Sud; - 20092009 in musicThe following is a list of notable events and releases in 2009 in music. Susan Boyle's album I Dreamed a Dream became the biggest selling album in the world for 2009, selling 8.3 million copies in five weeks; more than any other artist's in the whole year...
Sumertime, with Biréli LagrèneBiréli LagrèneBiréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...
; - 20102010 in music2010 in music may refer to:*2010 in American music*2010 in Australian music*2010 in British music*2010 in Canadian music*2010 in European music *2010 in Irish music*2010 in Japanese music*2010 in New Zealand music...
Classics, solo album.
External links =
- Official homepage
- Dreyfus Records - Sylvain Luc
- Sylvain Luc, Myguitarsolo.com
- Sylvain Luc, Joko | Jazz and blues, Guardian Unlimited MusicThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 8 December 2006