MICHEL LAMBERT
Michel Lambert is the descendant of a virtual dynasty of classical musicians in Quebec. After studying at the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec, his fascination with drums and composition inspired him to pursue his education at Berklee College in Boston, where his professors included John La Porta, Herb Pomeroy, and Greg Hopkins. Later on, he travelled to Los Angeles in ‘83, Paris, New York and Amsterdam the following three years.
Since the early 1980s, 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, Pori Jazz, l’Europa Jazz Festival du Mans, Birmingham Jazz Festival, Internationales New Jazz Moers, North Sea Jazz, Bermingham, Jazzmandu Nepal, Tampere Jazz Happening, Jazz Sardigna, Civitavecchia in Festival, JVC Paris, Nancy Jazz Pulsations, Caltanissetta in Sicily, Jazz at Lincoln Center and many others. He has recorded and performed with such artists as Gary Burton, Dewey Redman, Barre Phillips, Paul Bley, Uri Caine, Bobo Stenson, Gary Peacock, Tomasz Stanko, Mat Maneri, Misha Mengelberg, Milcho Leviev, Bobby Few, Raoul Björkenheim, Jean Jacques Avenel, Sonny Greenwich, Don Thompson, Dave Young and Herbie Spanier.
He records and tours regularly with his wife, jazz vocalist and poet Jeannette Lambert and with Reg Schwager, the Auguste Quartet, François Carrier and others. Over the past few years he has been recording ensembles improvising and performing the music of visual scores, Ars Transmutatoria. These include recordings in France, England, Finland and Quebec and they are being released with original artwork on the Jazz from Rant label. He co-founded the label with Jeannette and Reg in the 1990s and together they have released over 50 recordings.
An accomplished composer, he wrote his "Journal des Episodes, 366 Episodes pour orchestre symphonique" in 1988 and it was performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 1992. As a visual artist, he was commissionned by the Canada Council to illustrate the cd box set, a compilation of Canadian music to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1996. He has also released two recordings of the episodes with a jazz trio. He has been the resident of the Studio du Québec in New York City and the Studio du Québec in Paris thanks to the support of the CALQ.
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”.
His life and music are the subject of a dossier in La Gazette Bleu.
He teaches part-time at McGill University. he lives in Montreal with his wife Jeannette and their two sons.
