Joëlle Léandre (FR)
From Aix-en-Provence
Popularity
Joëlle Léandre has one upcoming show in the Netherlands: on January 9, 2027 at ZOJazz Stage, Amsterdam.
About
Joëlle Léandre is a French double bassist who has spent decades moving between the contemporary classical world and the wilder corners of free improvisation. Both John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi wrote pieces specifically for her, and she has played with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble InterContemporain and worked with Merce Cunningham. She also sings, composes, and has a habit of treating the bass as a full voice rather than a background instrument. On the improvising side, her list of partners is huge: Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, George E. Lewis, Steve Lacy, Fred Frith, John Zorn and many more. She joined the European Women Improvising Group in 1983 and co founded the feminist trio Les Diaboliques with Irène Schweizer and Maggie Nicols. Her discography runs to well over a hundred releases, from solo bass records to the Quartet Noir with Marilyn Crispell, Urs Leimgruber and Fritz Hauser.
