Jean-Pierre Sarzier

Jean-Pierre Sarzier is first and foremost an improviser, with roots in traditional music and a love of jazz. The bass clarinet is his instrument of choice; he also plays the whole family of clarinets, from contralto to metal soprano, and enjoys exploring original instruments such as bamboo clarinets.
Influenced by the saxophone of Mickael Brecker, the Irish bagpipes of Davy Spillane and the lute of Rabih Abou-Rhalil, he has developed a protean style of playing based on original techniques – slap, continuous breathing – in which the clarinet is alternately electric bass, derbouka, flute or bagpipes.

With the groups Dédale and Obsession, which he co-founded alongside Stéphane Milleret, Isabelle and Norbert Pignol, he has developed a fresh approach to traditional music, playing with Marc Perrone, Didier Lockwood, Georges Moustaki, Arthur H, Juan-Jose Mosalini and Stracho Temelkovski.

He regularly performs as a duo with singer Veronika Warkentin ‘Kara Nube’, playing traditional songs from the Mediterranean and the rest of the world. He offers a concert and a folk ball in trio with the singer Catherine Faure and Jacques Tribuiani on the electroacoustic cistre, based on traditional music from central France and their compositions, and “le petit bal Ratamouche” alongside Catherine Faure and Anne-Lise Foy. Finally, he shares the stage in a duo with percussionist Carlo Rizzo. He also plays in a duo with Tiennet Simonnin, and offers a folk ball in trio with Norbert Pignol and Camille Olivier.

Jean-Pierre composed and directed the contemporary part of the Arc Nord Mediterranée ensemble, which brought together four traditional Occitan, Mayorcan, Calabrian and Catalan music groups in 2017 and 2018. He is an associate artist at the Mai que Mai occitan festival in the Orb valley (34).

He also works regularly on contemporary choreographic creations – Cie LANABEL, Annabelle Bonnéry and François Deneulin, Cie D.I.T. Robert Seyfried and Suzanne Linke, Cie De Koning et la Reine – and theatre – Cie les 7 familles/Michel Ferber, Apethi/Philippe Pujol. He has also taken part in several shows with puppeteer Fleur Lemercier, focusing on shadow theatre and music.

On the teaching front, he is one of the founders of the Mydriase courses, where he leads clarinet and improvisation workshops in the Grenoble area.

During the summer of 2024, he will be leading a clarinet workshop at Ca’ Lucente, a magnificent house in the Urbino countryside in Italy, meeting point for professional and amateur musicians.