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All Music Guide:
Erik Truffaz received an early introduction into the world of a professional musician, thanks to his saxophone-playing dad. When he was ten years old, the French trumpeter began performing in his father's dance band. As he grew older, Truffaz performed with other bands in the region until he was 16 and heard Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. The great jazz trumpeter's music inspired him to learn more, and he set off for Switzerland's Geneva Conservatoire, where he became a student.
Truffaz's repertoire expanded to works by Mozart and Verdi, and he performed as part of Orchestre de Suisse Romande. He also played in cover bands before establishing a group called Orange. The band concentrated on Truffaz's compositions. Among its members was Marc Erbetta, a drummer who continued to play with Truffaz as the trumpeter evolved.
Truffaz's jazz fusion artistry led France's Jury du Concours National de la Defense to bestow upon him the 1991 Prix Special, that country's coveted jazz award. Within three years, he became a leader with the release of Nina Valeria. In 1991, he made the first of his three appearances on the stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival. For two years beginning in 1994, he toured Europe, Russia, and Brazil, thanks to funds bestowed by the ProHelvetia Foundation. In 2000, Truffaz signed with Blue Note records and released The Mask, a straight ahead jazz session with Miles Davis similarities. By his second Revisite and third Mantis discs, however, Truffaz began to stretch the boundries of contemporary jazz by incorporating drum'n'bass and hip-hop rhythms, establishing himself as a cutting edge artist in his own right. In 2003, both Walk of the Giant Turtle and Bending New Corners were issued on Blue Note. Saloua from 2005 expanded his interest in hip-hop by adding some rap.
Wikipedia:
Erik Truffaz (born 1960 in Switzerland) is a Swiss-born French jazz trumpeter, infusing elements of hip hop, rock and roll and dance music into his compositions. He signed with the French EMI label in 1996. Truffaz gained international attention with his second album on Blue Note, The Dawn, produced together with Pat Muller, Marcello Giuliani and Mark Erbetta. Since then they have produced many Blue Note albums together such as Bending New Corners, which became a Silver Album in France. The 2007 release Arkhangelsk is a mixture of pop songs, French chanson, and jazz-groove. In 2007 he and Ed Harcourt appeared in a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon.
