"Kasper Tranberg (b. 1971 in Denmark) is a composing improviser who plays cornet and trumpet and likes poetry.

Kasper took up the trumpet at the age of ten and was playing in local march and brass bands soon.

Early studies with Prof. Søren Emtoft from The Royal Conservatory of Music, Denmark. Aged 19 Kasper began studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, US where his main teachers were legendary Herb Pomeroy and trumpeter Greg Hopkins. In 1993 Kasper returned to Copenhagen and got his first major gig with Mercer Ellington at The Duke Ellington Conference in 1994.

At the same time guitarist Niclas Knudsen and Kasper had formed the quartet "When Granny Sleeps" which recorded three successful albums with a.o. David Liebman and Ray Anderson. The band toured in Europe and also performed at The Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York, US.

In the late 1990's Kasper and guitarist Jonas Struck formed the band BUGPOWDER with space-trombonist Mads Hyhne and drummer Laust Sonne. The hard hitting unit recorded two albums, performed quite a bit and was nominated to a Nordic Music Council Award for the album "Autoabsence" released on Kaspers label Bugpowder Records formed in 1998.

Kasper also worked and recorded with many important Danish artists like : Pierre Dørge, Ib Glindeman, Hugo Rasmussen, Lars HUG, Bent Jædig, Paul Banks, Swan Lee, Mew, Fredrik Lundin, T.S Hawk, C.V. Jørgensen, John Tchicai, Savage Rose, Jesper Zeuthen and Jakob Anderskov among many others.

Kasper performed and recorded as a sideman with international artist like : Marc Ducret, Steve Swallow, Tim Berne, Michael Blake, Django Bates, Tyshawn Sorey, Gianluigi Trovesi, Yusef Lateef and Adam Rudolph."

"Dominique Pifarély modernized jazz violin, combining extraordinary technical skills with an inclusive idea of music-making. He has been soon very in-demand as a straight jazz player, but was soon in some of the more adventurous groups in Europe, too, including Mike Westbrook's band (On Dukes' Birthday, hatART) and the Vienna Art Orchestra.

In 1979, he began touring with bassist Didier Levallet and guitarist Gérard Marais as a trio. In the 1980s he began leading his own bands, as can be heard on 2 records, Insula Dulcamara (1988) et Oblique (1992).

In 1985, Pifarély started to work with reedist Louis Sclavis and in 1992, they formed the Sclavis/Pifarély Acoustic Quartet, featuring guitarist Marc Ducret and bassist Bruno Chevillon, and recorded for ECM. In the late 1990s, he started a duo work with pianist François Couturier, and they recorded a prominent album (Poros, ECM, 1997).

In the 2000's, Dominique Pifarély leads different personal projects. Impromptu is a development of the collaboration with François Couturier, adding counter tenor Dominique Visse and a work on contemporary poetry. He initiated numerous text/music experiences with french writer François Bon and actors Violaine Schwartz and Pierre Baux. The Dédales Ensemble is a acoustic nine piece band. He founded in 2007 a trio with keyboard player Julien Padovani and drummer Eric Groleau, and the Dédales Ensemble ("Time Geography", Poros éditions, 2013), played in duo with Michele Rabbia or Vincent Courtois,

In his mature style, the classical violin tradition and the swing lessons combine with a contemporary European sonic exploration ; his technical mastery and quick imagination allow him to move seamlessly between these worlds.

Dominique Pifarély created in 2014 a new quartet with Antonin Rayon on piano, Bruno Chevillon on double bass and François Merville on drums ("Tracé provisoire", ECM, 2016), and gives solo recitals. Then he is part, since 2015, of the collaborative trio Sclavis/Pifarély/Courtois ("Asian fields variations", ECM, 2017).

He regularly performs in whole Europe, and has been touring in USA, Canada, Japan, India, Middle East, Latin America or Africa."

"Tim Berne (born 1954) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Described by critic Thom Jurek as commanding "considerable power as a composer and ... frighteningly deft ability as a soloist", Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s. His mainstream success has been limited Ð Berne recorded two albums for Columbia Records Ð but he has released a significant body of work over the decades spanning dozens of critically acclaimed recordings.

Though Berne was a music fan, he had no interest in playing a musical instrument until he was in college, when he purchased an alto saxophone. He was more interested in rhythm and blues music Ð Stax records releases and Aretha Franklin, especially Ð until he heard Julius Hemphill's 1972 recording Dogon A.D.

Hemphill was known for his integration of soul music and funk with free jazz. Berne moved to New York City in 1974. There Berne took lessons from Hemphill, and later recorded with him.

In 1979, Berne founded Empire Records to release his own recordings. He recorded Fulton Street Maul and Sanctified Dreams for Columbia Records, which generated some discussion and controversy, due in part to the fact that Berne's music had little in common with the neo-tradionalist hard bop performers prominent in the mid-1980s. Some regarded Berne's music as uncommercial. In the late 1990s Berne founded Screwgun Records, which has released his own recordings, as well as others' music.

Beyond his recordings as a bandleader, Berne has recorded and/or performed with guitarist Bill Frisell, avant-garde composer/sax player John Zorn, violinist Mat Maneri, guitarist David Torn, cellist Hank Roberts, trumpet player Herb Robertson, the ARTE Quartett and as a member of the cooperative trio Miniature.

Recent years have found Berne performing in several different groups with drummers Tom Rainey and Gerald Cleaver, keyboardist Craig Taborn, bassists Michael Formanek and Drew Gress, guitarists Marc Ducret and David Torn, and reeds player Chris Speed.

He is one-third of the group BBC (Berne/Black/Cline) along with drummer Jim Black and Nels Cline of Wilco. The group released a critically acclaimed album called The Veil in 2011.

Berne's complex, multi-section compositions are often quite lengthy; twenty- to thirty-minute pieces are not unusual. One critic wrote that Berne's long songs "don't grow tiresome. The musicians are brilliantly creative and experienced enough not to get lost in all the room provided by these large time frames." "

"Falling into the small fanfare, Matthias Mahler begins a copper course alongside his trumpet father. Trumpet and tuba first, his last word will be the trombone. He studied the instrument with his first teachers, Charles Hassler and Patrick Hanss then at CNR Stasbourg and CNSM Paris. After various experiments in chamber music and symphonic orchestra, he takes the path of cross and privileges spaces of freedom and improvisation. Meetings with Francois Corneloup, Marc Ducret, Eric Exhampart and Francois Raulin comfort in this direction.

He is currently active in the following formations: the Little Big Campania of Musiques à Ouïr directed by Denis Charolles, X'tet and Ciné X 'tet directed by Bruno Regnier, The Life of Issiba with André Minvielle, Ozma, Taranta Babu, the False Brothers .."

"Fidel Fourneyron - Trombone

Born in southwestern France, Fidel Fourneyron moved to Paris in 2006 to complete his training in the class of jazz and improvised music at the Conservatoire. There, he met people and collectives that proved decisive for his aesthetic choices and future collaborations - including the COAX and UMLAUT collectives, les Vibrants Défricheurs and le Tricollectif, all of whom he still works with regularly.

Drawn to improvisation (as part of the National Orchestra for Creation, Experimentation and Musical Improvisation) as much as to contemporary music (he worked with the Ensemble Hodos), Fidel is also fond of great swing orchestras and is a soloist in the Umlaut Big Band, which specializes in 1920-30s dance music.

Spotted by the biggest names in contemporary jazz - among whom Marc Ducret who asked him to be part of his Real Thing #3 sextet - Fidel joined Olivier Benoit's Orchestre National de Jazz in 2014.

Together with Roy Nathanson (Lounge Lizards), he was a guest musician for French quintet Papanosh's thunderous tribute to Charles Mingus, called "Oh Yeah Ho!"

His recognizable touch can also be found in Radiation 10, Jukebox, Eve Risser's White Desert Orchestra, Marc Ducret's Tower Bridge and Tricollectif's Tribute to Lucienne Boyer.

Fidel is often invited to perform as a soloist (European Youth Jazz Orchestra, MGH Orkestar) and asked for masterclasses (Conservatories of Poitiers, Tarbes, Blois, Angoulême, or for Dijon's Tribu Festival, etc.). Since September 2014, he has been conducting the Fanfare du Carreau du Temple - an amateur orchestra composed of some 40 musicians and for which he wrote an original repertoire.

"Un Poco Loco," the trio he is part of, revisits 1950s standards with both elegance and humor. The band released their eponymous debut album in November 2014, on the Umlaut Records label; it was included in the program for Jazz Migration's 2015-2016 tour.

Fidel also performs as a solo musician. His work is recorded on High Fidelity, a record coming out in the fall of 2015."

"After obtaining a degree in musical studies and Classical trombone in the Conservatory of Nantes (France), Alexis Persigan was admitted to the Conservatory of Tours, where he studied composition and to " Jazz à Tours ", the Jazz studies department of the Con-servatory. He completed both degrees in 2010.

Alexis plays in a variety of styles with such formations as Air Brigitte (an electric Jazz quartet), Tower-Bridge (Marc Ducret), Fastorgan (an improvisational music trio), Oblik (improvisational Jazz, on the album Order/Disorder, 2014), Les Pompiers (incendiary Jazz), Je-richo Sinfonia (the orchestra formation of the musicians collective Tricollectif) and the Balkanic Orkestar.

Alexis is currently a member of the Capsul collective and plays reg-ularly with many musicians."

Frédéric Gastard is a French saxophonist and composer based in Paris. He is known for the groups Journal Intime, La Campagnie Des Musiques A Ouir, Les Dentelles À Mamie, and Melosolex.

"Antonin Rayon (* 1976) is a French jazz musician (piano, Hammond organ, Clavinet).

Rayon had piano lessons from the age of six, first with Victoria Melki in Paris, then to study at the Ecole de Jazz et de Musiques Actuelles in Lausanne and at the Conservatory in Nîmes . He worked from the early 2000s, mainly as a keyboardist and organist u. a. with Marc Ducret, Alexandra Grimal, Sylvaine Hélary (Spring Roll). In 2013, he played in the quartet with Richard Bonnet, Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey in New York City, the album Warrior (margin). As a pianist he played with Marc Ducret (Tower Bridge, 2014) and Dominique Pifarély (Tracé provisoire, ECM 2016). In the field of jazz he was involved between 2003 and 2015 in nine recording sessions, most recently with Dominique Pifarély (Trace Provisoire)."

"Sylvain Lemêtre, percussion

The itinerary of the eclectic percussionist Sylvain Lemêtre takes shape around his openness and his insatiable curiosity towards explorations and musical encounters. His favorite field is the confines of contemporary creation, jazz, improvisation and traditional music.

He trained at the conservatory at a young age, winning a first prize in percussion and chamber music at G.Sylvestre in Rueil-Malmaison and a first prize in traditional percussion at C.Nicolas in Argenteuil. In addition, he has always worked and played Zarb with F.Bedel, trained in soundpainting with V.Le Quang and practiced piano with C.Stephan. Nourished by the teachings of his masters, he likes to describe himself as "a self-taught conservatoire", defending a non-academic musical path, favoring listening, autonomy, analytical and critical sense, both towards the learned written music. and traditional and improvised oral music.

The question of theatricality in music and the presence of musicians on stage is very important to him when he approaches musical theater. Thus, today he is passionately involved in training courses with extremely varied aesthetics:

"The subtraction of flowers" by Jean-François Vrod, "The Cairn Ensemble" directed by Jérôme Combier, "Surnatural Orchestra", "Léger Sourire" musical theater duet, "Spring Roll" and "Printemps" by Sylvaine Hélary, " Saltarello "by Garth Knox," Farewell my beautiful "by Matthieu Donarier. "Boreal Sound" his solo around texts by Olivier Mellano, "The steam over rice" Alexandra Grimal.

He played in Antonin Leymarie's "Magnetic Ensemble", "Real thing # 3" and "Tower-Bridge" by Marc Ducret, "The Riddle of the Tympanum" by Fred Pallem for several years and now has a beautiful discography.

More recently, he began writing music and honored commissions, notably the state commission: "Borg and Théa" for the Béla quartet, the subtraction of flowers and the mastery of the Opéra de Lyon, but also "Entre cabbage and wolf "and" The angel of the weird "for Noémi Boutin and S.Hélary, or" The energy of the ceiling "for Surnatural Orchestra Albert Marcoeur and the Béla quartet.

In addition, throughout his career during the creation of live shows and concerts, he collaborated with the artists: T.Bonvalet, K.Davis, E.Caron, J.Pontier, D.Chouillet, C.Palotaï, P .Minton, Nosfell, Matthieu A, JP.Drouet, F.Sarhan, T.Blondeau, G.Pesson, R.Cendo, F.Marillier, N.Frize, A.Messager, R.Thierry, B.Coupey, C. Pavet, F.Cotinaud, P.Cueco, V.Bouchot. MH. Fournier, G.Siracusa, Y.Maresz, L.Naon, L.Fagin, A.Serre-Milan, E.Biston, A.Martinez. "

"Thomas "Tom" Rainey (born 1957, Santa Barbara, California) is an American drummer.

After attending Berklee College of Music he moved to New York in 1979. He has played with American jazz saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, and also with Nels Cline, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, Tom Varner, Drew Gress, Kenny Werner, Mark Helias, and Simon Nabatov. A prolific session musician, he has appeared on close to eighty recordings over a career spanning over 25 years.

He released his own first album, Pool School (Clean Feed), in 2010."

"I started playing drums at the Rythmic Childrens School in Vesterbro in Copenhagen at the age of three. This became a life-long immersion into drums, music and composition.

My mother and father are both music lovers and in my childhood home there were always instruments and people to play them. I was admitted to the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, at the age of eighteen. After 3 years I discontinued my formal education to travel in India and Brasil and continue to study on my own.

I'm an active member of ILK (Independent Lable of København). ILK is a danish collective of musicians who releases music with absolute artistic freedom."

"Guitarist Marc Ducret was born in Paris in 1957. A self-taught musician, he began working in various groups (dance and folk included), and in the studio, before reaching the age of 20. In 1986, he became a member of the first French National Jazz Orchestra. Also in the late '80s, Ducret led his own trio and toured Europe, Africa, and Asia. In 1991, he began working with Tim Berne and went on to play with Berne in Caos Totale, Bloodcount, and Big Satan. Ducret has several solo recordings to his credit, released on Berne's Screwgun label and the Winter & Winter label. In the late '90s, Ducret formed a tentet, Seven Songs, to explore music of the '60s."-Joslyn Layne