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Artist
Christian Escoudé
12+ albums
jazzguitarfrenchAlljazz guitar
about
Christian Escoudé (born on 23 September 1947; died 13 May 2024) was a French Gypsy jazz guitarist remembered for his mixing of bebop and gypsy jazz influences featuring the use of vibrato, portamento, and fast runs. Escoudé grew up in Angoulême. Of Romani descent on his father's side, his father was a guitarist too and influenced by Django Reinhardt. Escoudé became a musician at 15 and starting in 1972 he worked in a trio with Aldo Romano. By the 1980s he had success in a quartet with John Lewis. He also played with Philip Catherine for a time. In his forties he received a contract with the French division of Verve Records. Escoudé forged himself a style of guitar from the canons of bop jazz, largely tinged with Gypsy influence. He demonstrated a great sense of melody, where it comes to “Gypsy” inflections, like the vibrato and the portamento, a lot of heat in the phrasing and a great tonal fullness or fertility. He distinguished himself by his personal using of arpeggios in the half-tone/tone system. At Jazz In, where he appeared in 1972 "after Hours", he met Eddy Louiss, Bernard Lubat, Aldo Romano. Later he joined Didier Levallet Swing String System, Michel Portal Unit. In 1976, the Academy of Jazz awarded him the Django Reinhardt price, while a new quartet (with Michel Graillier, Aldo Romano, and Alby Cullaz, and later with Jean-François- Jenny-Clark) was formed. At the same time he was heard (freelance) with Michel Portal as well as with Slide Hampton, Martial So
