Marc Ducret

Born in Paris in 1957, Marc Ducret has since the early 1980s developed a singular career in contemporary jazz and improvised music, on electric as well as acoustic guitar. Self-taught, he first makes his mark with a playing nourished by rock and bebop before directing his language toward more open forms, where writing, improvisation and a tension inherited from experimental musics coexist closely. His stint with François Jeanneau's First National Jazz Orchestra in 1986 marks an important milestone, as do his ongoing collaborations with Tim Berne in the 1990s, which permanently place him on the international avant-garde scene. Marc Ducret also leads his own groups in parallel, notably in a trio with Bruno Chevillon and Éric Échampard, as well as in a large ensemble. His leader discography includes, among others, La Théorie du pilier (1987), Le Kodo (1988), Gris (1990), News from the Front (1991), (detail) (1998), Qui parle? (2003), the Tower series begun in 2011, Métatonal (2015) and Lady M (2019). Marc Ducret's writing is characterized by complex architectures, dynamic ruptures, a taste for rough timbres and a constant movement between jazz, rock, contemporary music and free improvisation.