Biography
Christophe Dal Sasso (* 8 August 1968 in Hyères) is a French jazz composer, arranger and big band leader.
Dal Sasso began playing in the local harmony orchestra at the age of eight; he first learned trumpet. From 1985 to 1989 he played jazz in Tony Petrucciani's band and was a member of various local bands. In 1990 he moved to Paris where he studied arranging with Ivan Jullien. Alongside this, he was a trumpet player with Mambomania. In 2001 he switched from the trumpet to the flute.
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With his own big band, he regularly played in the Parisian club "Sunset". His big band includes the brothers Stéphane Belmondo and Lionel Belmondo, Sophie Alour, the pianist Laurent Fickelson, the drummer Philippe Soirat, the saxophonist and flutist Guillaume Naturel, Gilles Naturel, the horn player Francois Christin, the alto saxophonist Dominique Mandin, the trumpeter Laurent Agnes and the trombonist Jerry Edward.
He arranged for the Belmondo brothers, for example, on their album with Yusef Lateef "Influence".
On the Nocturne label he recorded the albums "Ouverture" (2004), with his big band, and "Exploration" (2006). The latter was recorded by a nonet with David Liebman, Pierre de Bethmann, David El Malek, Thomas Savy and Franck Agulhon; mainly with his own compositions, partly influenced (like "Ouverture") by 20th century classical music (here twelve-tone music, Lili Boulanger) and George Russell. His orchestration of Coltrane's A Love Supreme for big band was premiered at the Jazz à Marciac festival in 2009 and released on CD in 2014.
In 2005 he received the Django d'Or (France) for composition.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.