"Nicolas Souchal: trumpet, bugle, composition. Born in 1979.

Nicolas Souchal is a French trumpet player, active in contemporary jazz and improvised music. He is recognized for his sense of construction in improvisation, his expressive sonority, and his playing including the extended techniques of the instrument. His approach is borrowed from musicians such as Don Cherry, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Axel Dörner, and Daunik Lazro.

In 1997 in Clermont-Ferrand, he was a founding member of the Collectif Musique en Friche, a bubbling crucible of experiments, close to the ARFI (Association for the Research of an Imaginary Folklore). He developed two wind duets, one with Franck Pilandon, the other with Christiane Bopp, and more recently the quartet Les arbres moved during the night, improvised instrumental music and sound diffusion.

Since 2000, composer and arranger with the Balkan Brass Band, as well as the nebabylonian jazz quartet Humbaba, he appropriates and recomposes the traditional music of Eastern Europe.

Since 2010, he has been heard in various formations on the Parisian scene: Pavillon Rouge (Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Matthias Mahler, Jean-Marc Foussat), ARBF & Hmadcha in Essaouira (meeting between big band free jazz and Sufi musicians Yoram Rosilio), Quintet Cuir (improvised epidermic music, with Jean-Brice Godet, John Cuny, Yoram Rosilio, Jérôme Fouquet)"

Michael Nick is a French violinist, known for the groups Claude Tchamitchian Grand Lousadzak, Klezmer Nova, Le Grand Fou Band, Quatuor Aerolithes, Quatuor Qwat Neum Sixx, Tangoneon, and Yochk'o Seffer Neffesh Music

"The French saxophonist Daunik Lazro combines a tart, piercing tone with a quick mind and a flexible philosophy of music-making. His professional start was in bassist Saheb Sarbib's orchestra, a relationship he maintained through most of the '70s, which included three recordings. His first steps playing his own music involved a radical resizing of the cast on-stage, going from orchestra playing to solo saxophone concerts and duets. In the '80s, he busily played with many on the European improvised music scene, including bassist Jean Jacques Avenel, cellist Tristan Honsinger, violinist Carlos Zingaro, drummer Christian Rollet, and saxophonist Evan Parker, among others. In the mid-'80s, Lazro expanded his partnerships to include dance and theater projects, including work with the Company of the Chance.

He formed a particularly fine trio in 1987 with fellow saxophonist Michel Doneda and the brilliant ppercussionistLê Quan Ninh, playing at many of the major European festivals and also touring in Canada. Duets with the American free improviser Joe McPhee are a 1991 discographical highlight, during a period when Lazro also began playing viola. In 1993, he started his own orchestra as well as a quartet called Outlaws in Jazz with Jac Berrocal, Didier Levallet, and Dennis Charles. In 1995, he toured Europe in a triple-threat combination with both McPhee and Parker, and the former artist also joined him in a quartet the following year with the superb British contrabassist Paul Rogers. In the late '90s, he continued involvement with a series of orchestra projects, often as a guest soloist."

"Jean-Luc Cappozzo was born in Belfort, France, in 1954. He started playing the trumpet in the local orchestra of his native town where he performed both jazz and classical music. Following a meeting with the diatonic accordionist Serge Desaunay, he started to perform traditional music as well.

His meeting with Dizzy Gillespie in 1984, who invited him to participate in his concert, was a turning point in Jean-Luc Cappozzo's career.

In 1988 he obtained the State Diploma of Professor of Jazz and subsequently taught trumpet improvisation at the Music School of Lyon (CNSM).

He has taken part in various groups of musicians of the ARFI.

He has been a member of he Louis Sclavis Quintet "L'Affrontement des Prétendants" and of Claude Tchamitchian's "Grand Lousadzak". In addition he has played in Sophia Domancich's Quintet "Pentacle", the Denis Fournier Quartet and with Joelle Léandre's Quintet "Fragments et suite lyrique". He has formed a quartet with Jean Aussanaire , Rémi Charmasson and Bernard Santacruz and created a musical work "Du Vent chez Johannes" with the Johannes String Quartet.

In 2005 he joined the European Mythical Orchestra: the Globe Unity Orchestra. He has played with the Apollo Trio and composed duo s with the cellists Joelle Léandre or Eric Brochard, the singer Géraldine Keller, the drummer Paul Lovens, the tuba player Michel Godard, the pianist Umberto Petrin and the trumpet players Axel Dorner or Herb Robertson. Actually, he is playing with: - "The Bridge" with Joëlle Léandre (cb), Bernard Santacruz (cb), Mickaël Zerang (dms) and Douglas Ewart (sax - flûte) - - " Can You Hear Me" of Joëlle Léandre (cb) - " 2 ème étage " with Christine Wodrascka (p) and Gerry Hemingway (dms) - Duo with Famoudou Don Moye (dms) - Duo with Cécile Cappozzo (p) - Quartet à l'Ouest with Jean Aussanaire (sax), Eric Brochard (cb) and Alfred Spirli (dms) - Duo with Géraldine Keller (voice) - Duo with Eric Brochard (cb) - Trio with Didier Lasserre (dms) and Paul Rogers (cb) For his strength, his creativity, his magnificent sonority, the clarity of his phrasing, Jean-Luc Cappozzo is today an indispensable trumpet player on the European musical scene and is in increasing demand. Jean-Luc Cappozzo, powerful and mellifluous trumpet player, is "a discreet man who would blush to be labeled one of the most relevant soloists and the most complete on the French jazz scene. He may blush".(S. Siclier, Le Monde 1/08/2002)"