Alex Tassel

Initially studying piano, French jazz musician Alex Tassel switched to trumpet at the age of 18 and has made his career as a jazz trumpeter. He studied jazz composition and performance at the University of Rouen and enjoyed attending jazz clubs in Paris whilst still a student, before moving there in 1996. He founded the collective Nuits Blanches at the jazz club Petit Opportun, which is now closed. He met a wide range of jazz musicians from France including Emmanuel Bex, Christian Escoudé and Tony Rabeson at the club, as well as international artists Archie Shepp and David Murray. In 1998 a group of musicians from the collective, including Tassel, recorded the highly-acclaimed '49 Minutes d'Arrêt', which was voted by Jazz Magazine as one of the best records of the year. In 2000, Tassel founded the Paris Jazz Quintet with pianist Franck Avitabile, saxophonist Guillaume Naturel, bassist Gildas Scouarnec and drummer André Ceccarelli. They recorded the album 'Introducing: The Paris Jazz Quintet' for TCB Music in 2000 and 'Soulshine' for Columbia records in 2001 and spent some time touring through France and other European countries. Tassel went on to record tracks with a variety of musicians including Shaun Escoffery (2002) and DJ Cam (2002) and (2005). He recorded 'Nostomania' (2006), a duet of ballades with Christian Brun and 'Bouchabouches' (2006) with Stéphane Huchard. He also joined forces with saxophonist Guillaume Naturel to release four albums under the name Tassel & Naturel including 'Fillet of Soul' (2003) and 'Food for Thought' (2007). His solo albums have included 'Movements' (2008), 'Heads or Tails' (2010) and 'The First Elements: The Sea' (2012). In 2014, Tassel released the solo album 'Serenity' and in 2019, 'Past & Present/A Quiet Place'.

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