LAURENT BONNOT

From his native village of Moulins- Engilbert in the Bourgogne- Franche- Compté region to the Parisian capital, the bassist, the son of an accordionist has a deep understanding of musical practices and knowledge. Steeped in traditional music, he learnt the violin at the age of 6. Once introduced to classical music, his horizons are broadened and he diversifies his practice and chooses his second instrument: the guitar.

After graduating with a masters degree from the Conservatoire de Dijon, this young man continues to crave musical knowledge. He studied Latin at L’Isaac and The Big Band arrangement techniques at University. Determined, he moved to Paris to follow the jazz courses at the CIM and then to study at the Didier Lockwood Music Centre.

He started playing the bass guitar at the age of 25, which then became his instrument of choice. This quest for learning and know-how gives him a solid foundation that allows him to play through his music encounters using very different styles, whilst maintaining a very personal technique and sound aesthetic. After 6 years of touring and some 350 performances in the mostly pop-rock world, he decided to devote himself to his own music.

He released his first album “The Time of Monsters” in 2015 at the time when the great names of Jazz (Dave Liebman, Emmanuel Bex) and well-known musicians of the French scene (Raphaële Atlan, Romain Pilon, David Venitucci, Anthony Jambon) rub shoulders. The first album, noted for its’ seal of originality, reveals all the harmonic and melodic richness of the compositions. Laurent displays a unique language combining chord play, atypical right-hand techniques and transforms the role of the conventional bars to that usually expressed by a solo instrument.

In his second album “Hermit’s Dream” in 2016, freedom is the order of the day and the bass speaks on an equal footing with Serge Lazarevitch’s guitar, Laurent Dehors’ clarinet and the voice or bugle of Médéric Collignon. These two albums have very good reviews in the specialized print and digital press (Djam, JazzNews, la Chronique Littéraire, Soufflebleu, Notes de Jazz, Culturejazz…).

His third album “Black Lion” in 2018 is recorded in sexet with Manu Codjia, Pierre de Bethmann, Sylvain Beuf, Pierrick Pédron and Franck Agulhon. Alongside the ‘tenors’ of French Jazz, this album highlights all the subtlety of Laurent Bonnots writing and reinforces the unique side of his aesthetic.

In December 2019, Laurent Bonnot recorded “Songs for Oscar” for Juste Une Trace, a quartet with the great American pianist Marc Copland, the Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez and the Bulgarian trombonist Gueorgui Kornazov. This new album affirms the unique and identifiable sound of Laurent Bonnot incorporating his harmonic and compositional researches.

In 2021, Laurent Bonnot present «Hong» : a delicate, subtle and very original album released by Juste Une Trace. The “traditional” jazz Big Band is revisited. The flute and the oboe replace the trumpets, the clarinet, the soprano saxophone and the bass clarinet replace the saxophones and the horns take the place of the trombones.

In 2022, Laurent Bonnot recorded «Songs for Louisa», an incredible contemporary jazz album with Christophe Monniot (sax), Ricardo Izquierdo (sax) and Eric Échampard (drums) : OuLiPo Quartet. The project could be defined as a transposition in music of the literary movement OuLiPo (Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec…). There is here an asserted will to push back the limits of jazz improvisation. The complex metrics change every measure, and the incessant modulations, lead the listener to no longer find his way around any predefined stylistic knowledge without getting lost. The melody then frees itself from the division imposed by the arrangement. Release in 2023 by Juste Une Trace.