Plural Guitar, Singular Artist
Sylvain Luc

Credit photo :
Philippe Levy-Stab 

With the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States (New York)

“His technical skills are astounding, yet rarely indulged in for the sake of sheer musical show-boating.”
Los Angeles Times

“What Keith Jarrett was able to accomplish with solo piano, Sylvain Luc achieves with so many risks and melodic discoveries.”
Michel Contat, Télérama

“Sylvain Luc is undoubtedly one of the most important musicians of his generation, and not only in France.”
Félix Marciano, Jazzman

 “We have long known that he is in the leading pack of contemporary guitarists. With “Ambre” (Dreyfus), an impressive, subtly experimental solo disk, Sylvain Luc joins the club of performers (Ducret, Bailey) who are inventing a future for the most popular instrument in the world.”
Le Nouvel Observateur

Django d’Or in 2008
“Victoire de la musique Jazz” for the 18th edition (Sylvain Luc Trio Sud) in 2003

The Performer

“Technique has never been my objective… Music is not a competition. Play music, live music. Music has to be shared. It shouldn’t keep people apart.” Sylvain Luc

Sylvain Luc was born in 1965 in Bayonne. At age four, he began playing guitar, then violin, and then studied cello for ten years at the Bayonne Conservatory. At age 23, he moved to Paris, where he worked as an arranger, composer and accompanist for popular musicians, such as Catherine Lara, Michel Jonasz, Al Jarreau and others, while still keeping a hand in jazz as a bassist in the Richard Galliano Trio and as a guitarist with Eric Le Lann.

In 1993, Luc became Godin guitars’ worldwide ambassador. Since then, he has continued recording in France and abroad.
His first album, “Piaia”, released in 1993, included “Petits Déjà,” a duet with his long-time friend Louis Winsberg.  Also featured are “Ameskeri” with Stéphane Belmondo, “Duet” with Biréli Lagrène, and “Summertime.”
Luc launched the famous Trio Sud band with André Ceccarelli and Jean-Marc Jafet. Following the release of their second album, “Sylvain Luc Trio Sud ”, they won the “Victoire de la Musique Jazz” award for best jazz group in 2003. They released a third album, “Young and Fine”, in 2008.
Following the release of his album “Joko” in 2006, Luc toured France and Europe from 2006 to 2007 with renowned musicians Michel Portal, Eric Longsworth, Olivier Ker Ourio, Jacky Terrasson and Pascal Rey.

In 2007, he was invited to represent France along with Didier Lockwood, Richard Galliano and Olivier Ker Ourio at the International Agency for Education of Jazz (IAEJ) conference in New York. Afterwards, he spent six weeks giving a series of solo concerts in the U.S., Canada and South America, in association with the International Guitar Night Festival.

In 2008, Luc won the “Django d’Or” music award for his achievements and played in the “String Quartet” band with Didier Lockwood, Victor Bailey and Billy Cobham.
In 2009, he toured with Richard Bona and Steve Gadd and with Didier Lockwood, Ira Coleman and the Chemirani brothers.  He also performed duets with Philip Catherine and Biréli Lagrène, as well as several solos.

CDs Distributed in the United States

Standards / Summertime / Duet / Young and Fine / Joko / Sud / Trio Sud / Solo Ambre

Program

Sylvain Luc, Guitar solo

Sylvain offers us a blank page dedicated to the expression of a skillful mixture of improvisations, spontaneous compositions and referenced themes. He exploits all of the oft-forgotten possibilities of the acoustic guitar with sensitivity and emotion and harnessed with great rigor.  His guitar suddenly becomes something terribly sensual and exotic.

Sylvain Luc is discrete, perhaps excessively so, and engages in a sort of no holds-barred interior voyage which translates into an excessive love of music due to its authenticity.
The instrumentalist is hidden behind the musician and the guitarist behind the story-teller.
Sylvain returns from a solitary trip to his inner depths with music that speaks and even sings to everyone.

Links

http://www.sylvainluc.fr/
http://www.justlookingproductions.com/artiste_detail.php?var=11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBpFth2VUcc

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