Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Michel Portal was born on November 27, 1935 in Bayonne, France into a musical family and home filled with several instruments growing up. His interest in jazz began after hearing it on the radio after World War II. He studied clarinet at the Conservatoire de Paris and conducting with Pierre Dervaux.

Gaining experience in light music with the bandleaders Henri Rossotti and with Perez Prado in Spain in 1958, Michel performed with drummer Benny Bennett, Raymond Fonsèque, Aimé Barelli and for many years, the singer Claude Nougaro. 

Portal co-founded the free improvisation group New Phonic Art. During 1969, he played on a recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus den sieben Tagen.

He began scoring music for films in the 1980s. He won the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film three times. Playing both jazz and classical music and is considered to be “one of the architects of modern European jazz.

Composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist Michel Portal continues to perform and record. 

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