Trumpeter, composer and arranger, Airelle Besson has been noticed on the European jazz scene for her clear and powerful playing, virtuoso but never demonstrative, in the service of emotion and musicality. Trained in classical and jazz, she says she is influenced by both Bach and Keith Jarrett. Winner of the Django-Reinhardt prizes of the Académie du jazz and the Victoires du Jazz in the category "French instrumental revelation of the year", Airelle Besson is both a sought-after sidewoman and an assertive leader and composer. A precocious musician Born on March 23, 1978 in Paris, Airelle Besson became passionate about the trumpet at the age of four, and waited until she was seven to start playing it. As a teenager, accompanied by her father, she chose homeschooling to place the study of music at the center of her curriculum. In addition to the trumpet, she learned the violin, and followed a double training, classical and jazz. After passing through various conservatories, she entered the Paris-Sorbonne University in musicology, then joined the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris, from which she graduated with the first prize in jazz. The definitive turn towards this music is made during an internship at the Cluny Jazz Festival (Jazz Campus in Clunisois) with trumpeter Jean-François Canape. Between electronics and acoustics At the end of the conservatory, Airelle Besson joined forces with saxophonist Sylvain Rifflet to create and co-direct Rockingchair, a quintet with rock and electronic colors. The band released two albums, Rockingchair (2007) and 1:1 (2011). In 2014, Airelle Besson transformed her long-standing friendly collaboration with guitarist Nelson Veras into a poetic acoustic duet with the album Prélude (Naïve Records). The album was a great success, and the two musicians toured the international stages for several years. Between small and large orchestra In 2014, Airelle Besson created her own quartet with Isabel Sörling (voice), Benjamin Moussay (keyboards) and Fabrice Moreau (drums). Very well received by both the press and the public, their first album (Radio One, Naïve) is a feast of strength, balance and clarity. All the melodic power of Airelle Besson's compositions, as well as her talent for harmonizing voices, unfold with elegance. Their second album, TRY!, will be released on February 5, 2021. At the same time, Airelle Besson devoted herself more and more to composition and arrangement. In 2014, the English band Metronomy asked him to make the arrangements for the album "Love Letters". In 2020/21, she is in residence at the Cité musicale-Metz: she will create with the Orchestre National de Metz a new program between classical and jazz. And will be with the Big Band of the Union of Woippy the time of a creation. Throughout her career, Airelle Besson has also played in bands led by others; notably in Charlie Haden and Carla Bley's Liberation Music Orchestra in 2006. Finally, let us mention his duets with Vincent Ségal and Lionel Suarez, the trio with the Germans Sebastien Sternal and Jonas Burgwinkel, and the Quarteto Gardel of Lionel Suarez with Vincent Segal and Minino Garay. In all these formations as in her own groups, Airelle Besson is distinguished by her ability to say a lot in a few notes; In his playing, lightness and delicacy rise above a classic rigor. Driven by a concern for precision and accuracy (of speech), his style is one of the best that French jazz has to offer. Source: https://www.airellebesson.com/pages/bio/