Laurent Cugny, Université Paris-Sorbonne
Laurent Cugny, pianist, arranger and conductor, self-taught musician. He founded the Lumière big band in 1979 and began recording with this orchestra from 1981. In 1987 he plays and records with Gil Evans, and from 1994 to 1997 he conducts the National Jazz Orchestra. He also works as an arranger, notably for Abbey Lincoln, Lucky Peterson, Juliette Gréco, David Linx, Ricardo Tepperman. In 2006, he created at the Festival Jazz à Vienne, the jazz-opera La Tectonique des nuages which was re-presented the following year at the Théatre de la Ville in Paris, and recorded in 2009 by the label Signature (Radio France). That same year, he reformed the Enormous Band of twenty-three musicians that performed at the Vienne and Marciac Festivals, and at the Cité de la Musique. In 2001, he defended his doctoral thesis L'analyse de l'œuvre de jazz: spécificités théoriques et méthodologiques at the University Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV),and in 2004 he began coordinating research on jazz history and jazz theory. A professor at Paris-Sorbonne University since 2006, Cugny is the author of the books Las Vegas Tango: Une vie de Gil Evans (P.O.L., 1989, translated into Japanese in 1996), Électrique: Miles davis 1968-1975 (André Dimanche, 1993, reprint Tractatus &Co, 2009), Analyser le jazz (Outre Mesure, 2009). He coordinates and is the author of a collection on the history of jazz in France, sponsored by the National Research Agency and Sacem.
