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Lambert

jazz drummer, composer and visual artist

About Me

Michel Lambert is the descendant of a virtual dynasty of classical musicians in Quebec. After studying at the Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec, his fascination with drums and composition inspired him to pursue his education at Berklee College in Boston, where his professors included John LaPorta, Herb Pomeroy, and Greg Hopkins. Later on, he traveled to Los Angeles in 1983, Paris, New York and Amsterdam the following three years.

Since 1982, different projects have taken him to Europe, across Canada, the U.S. and Asia, at different festivals like the Berliner Jazztreff, Jazzfest Wien, Jak Jazz in Jakarta, InterMusic Festival Bali, Pori Jazz, Europa Jazz Festival du Mans, Birmingham Jazz Festival, Marlborough Jazz, Internationales New Jazz Moers, Jazz Gdynia, PolandNorth Sea Jazz, Bermingham, Jazzmandu Nepal, Tampere Jazz Happening, Jazz Sardigna, Civitavecchia in Festival, JVC Paris, Nancy Jazz Pulsations, Eclats Email, Limoges Caltanissetta in Sicily, Long Arms, Moscow, Rochester, Jazz at Lincoln Center and many others.

He has recorded in several countries and performed with such artists as Gary Burton, Dewey Redman, Barre Phillips, Paul Bley, Uri Caine, Bobo Stenson, Gary Peacock, Tomasz Stanko, Mat Maneri, Mark Feldman, Misha Mengelberg, Milcho Leviev, Bobby Few, Jason Moran, Alexey Lapin, Raoul Bjorkenheim, Jean Jacques Avenel, Steve Potts, Sonny Greenwich, Don Thompson, Dave Young, Wraw Downes or Herbie Spanier. He performs regularly with his wife, vocalist and poet Jeannette Lambert, Reg Schwager, Francois Carrier, Maikotron Unit, Many Worlds with Greg Burk, Henri Cook and Ron Seguin or his own project Out Twice, Musiques Dessinées and OC, Orchestra Change. His 2006 recording Le Passant featured a written score for a 12 piece orchestra confronted with the improvisers, Dominic Duval, Ellery Eskelin and Malcolm Goldstein.

Critics have described some of his projects as, Adventurous yet contained, always uncompromisingly searching”, “ ...a vital and important record...”, ...This is art at a very high level, “...a challenging hour of unusual fare created by a masterly drummer” or Rare to hear music of this depth and substance, period.

An accomplished composer, he wrote in 1988, his “Journal des Episodes, 366 Episodes pour orchestre symphonique” performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 1992. As a visual artist, he was commissioned in 1996 from the Canada Council to illustrate the cd box set, a compilation of Canadian music to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. In 1998, with a grant from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres, he was resident of the Studio du Québec in New York City, then in 2007 at the Studio du Québec in Paris. In 2004 he completed the 5 Double Duets, a series of drums and art duets with Daniel Humair, Han Bennink, Rakalam Bob Moses, Sven Ake Johansson and John Heward. Also in 2004 and 2007, with the support of Canadian Foreign Affairs, he brought his music Out Twice across several European countries. He has released two recordings of his composition Journal des Episodes, trio reductions of the originaal orchestral score.