Jazz Articles about Michel Portal

Michel Portal: Bailador

by Charles Walker
February 2, 2011

For all the lip service paid to the idea of jazz as a universal language, the modern performing landscape is still, by and large, segregated into separate continental categories, each with a host of attendant stereotypes. For every Randy Weston or David Murray, musicians who have made studious efforts at cross-border communication, there are dozens of territorial musicians, content to limit themselves to a very parochial sphere of influence. Well, quelle surprise! On Bailador, French multi-reedist Michel Portal, having spent ...

Michel Portal: Meanings, Feelings and Rivers

by Clifford Allen
July 1, 2005

Born in 1935 in Bayonne, France, reedman Michel Portal has the unique position of being one of the architects of modern European jazz and having a hand in some of the most significant shifts in modern classical music. Portal, along with pianist Francois Tusques, trumpeter Bernard Vitet, drummer Charles Saudrais and tenor man Barney Wilen, embraced and expanded upon the innovations of Ornette, Cecil, Coltrane and Shepp as part of the nascent French free jazz movement. In addition to leading ...

Michel Portal & Richard Galliano: Concerts

by Jim Santella
October 6, 2004

The duo of Michel Portal and Richard Galliano has brought us a decade of great mainstream jazz with a unique flavor. It's the accordion that makes their performances stand apart. By taking their audience on a tour of France, Argentina, and other exotic vacation spots, they continue to thrill. Portal moves fluidly with intense emotions, as Galliano supports with a lively foundation. All the while, they characterize folk dances from all over the world.

Recorded 1999 in Hamburg, ...

Michel Portal: Arriverderci Le Chouartse

by Andrey Henkin
February 4, 2003

Up until 1965 or so, the European jazz sound took most its cues from the States, its sizeable share of proficient and prolific jazz musicians lacking a unique identity. The infancy of “European Jazz" was perhaps inspired by the successes of natives like saxophonist John Tchicai and trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, along with Americans like Eric Dolphy playing throughout Europe with local musicians (including no less than drummer Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg). Groups of native-minded musicians cropped up throughout ...