LAURENT BONNOT – CHRISTOPHE MONNIOT – RICARDO IZQUIERDO – ERIC ÉCHAMPARD

LAURENT BONNOT is a French bassist and composer from Bourgogne. He learned the violin at the age of 6, then classical music and guitar. He’s graduate of the Dijon Conservatory and have a Master degree in Musicology. Based in Paris, he studied at the CIM school and then at the CMDL.

In 2022, Laurent Bonnot composed and recorded «Songs for Louisa» with saxophonists Christophe Monniot and Ricardo Izquierdo, and the drummer Eric Échampard : this is OuLiPo Quartet. Released with Juste Une Trace in 2023.

Christophe Monniot is an alto saxophonist and jazz baritone born in Caen. He holds a first prize unanimously in Jazz and improvised music from the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris. He won first prize for soloist at the National Defence Jazz Competition. He began by studying trumpet, before preferring saxophone, all at the conservatory of Caen, and obtained a master’s degree in musicology at the University of Rouen. He made a name for himself in the band of Laurent Dehors, Tous Dehors, then with the creation of the Campagnie des musiques à ouïr, a wild musico-country trio with his friends Rémi Sciuto and Denis Charolles. He has played with: Stéphan Oliva, Daniel Humair, Patrice Caratini, Le Sacre du tympan by Fred Pallem, Paolo Damiani’s National Jazz Orchestra. Christophe Monniot and keyboardist Emil Spanyi created Ozone.

Ricardo Izquierdo Reyes, born 1978 in Matanzas, Cuba, is a tenor saxophonist and soprano. At the age of 8 he began the music with the cello and a few years later turned to the alto saxophone. In 1994, he left his hometown for the capital and was admitted to the prestigious «Escuela National de Artes- E.N.A» in Havana where, for four years, he continued to deepen his knowledge and improve his qualities as an instrumentalist while performing with Diàkara. He perfected his skills during masterclasses with Steve Coleman, Antonio Hart and Herbie Hancock while studying in the E.N.A . In 2001, he moved to Paris. He has played with: Oscar Valdés Jr, Carlos Maza, Franck Lacy, Ernest Dawkins, Philippe Soirat, Rémi Vignolo, Hamid Drake, Michael Cheret, Julien Charlet, Vladimir Torres, Katy Roberts, Dominique Lemerle, Wayne Dockery, Jean Luc Her, François Malandrin, Vincent Bourgeyx, Mauro Gargano, Ichiro Onoe, Mathieu Jérome, Jason Palmer, Jeff Ballard, Orishas, Orlando Poleo, Bojan Z.

Éric Échampard, born on Dec. 24, 1970 in Bourg-en-Bresse, is a French jazz drummer and composer. He started playing drums at the age of 7. At the same time, from the age of 10, he took a classical training course, first at the Bourg-en-Bresse Conservatory, then at Lyon, then at Clermont-Ferrand. He studied contemporary music, notably Iannis Xenakis and Georges Aperghis. He won first prize in classical and contemporary percussion in 1995 at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Lyon. He took his first steps in jazz with Bernard Struber, then in the quintet and the great orchestra Système Friche by Jacques Di Donato. He participated in the creation of the trio of François Corneloup, with Claude Tchamitchian then in many avant-garde adventures by joining the trio of Marc Ducret, the Grand Lousadzak of Claude Tchamitchian, the MegaOctet of Andy Emler. He joined the Olivier Benoit National Jazz Orchestra and is a member of the Caravaggio group.

photographs by Sophie Remise