Roger Guérin

Roger Guérin, considered by many as the greatest French jazz trumpet player of the twentieth century, passed away on February 6, 2010, near his house in the Saintes Maries de la Mer (South East of France).  He had recently performed a concert in January 2010!

Guérin has over one hundred and fifty album credits to his name. To mention a few, he recorded with Rex Stewart and the Claude Bolling Orchestra. As the fourth trumpet and jazz soloist in the most famous section of the time: Robert Fassin, Georges Jouvin and Yves Lalouette, he appeared at the Gaumont theatre (January-March 1950) and recorded classical, jazz, and popular music. This trumpet section (with Roger) was in the Maurice Mouflard Orchestra on late 1950 when Charlie Parker did a radiobroadcast with it (“Lady Bird” on Spotlight LP 118).  Guérin also worked with Bernard Peiffer, recorded the album Les Baroques, and Anna Livia Plurabelle by André Hodeir, He performed in the soundtrack to the film Paris Blues with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. In 1949, he appeared in the film Nous irons à Paris for the popular bandleader Ray Ventura.

Guérin performed as lead trumpet with the Tony Proteau Orchestra and at the Moulin Rouge, as a sideman with Jimmy McPartland, with Don Byas at L’Arlequin, with the quintet of Django Reinhardt at the St. Germain Club. He played with Clifford Brown and Art Farmer at the St. Germain Club. He also played with Chet Baker, Woody Shaw, Snooky Young, Blossom Dearie, Cat Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Martial Solal, Michel Legrand, André Hodeir, and many other prominent musicians.  He worked extensively as a trumpeter, occasionally as a singer, and even as a conductor at the Casino de Paris for a Zizi Jeanmaire Review.  A consummate musician and scholar, he wrote articles such as Le Style d’Armstrong in Les Cahiers du Jazz (no1, 1959) and Dizzy Gillespie toujours actuel? in Jazz Hot (no144, 1968). Above all other influences, Roger Guérin was a disciple of Dizzy Gillespie.

Although he began as a violinst, Guérin began to play the trumpet in a Beynes Municipal Band (1937-46) when he was eleven or twelve.  Early in his lifetime, he played with the Ambassadeurs as a trumpeter and violinist and worked with the Aimé Barelli Orchestra.  His trumpet teachers included Narbonne, Jean Greffin, Sabarich at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he won a first prize on trumpet and cornet.  He served in the 151st Army Infantry Regiment Band based in Metz.  While there, he heard a recording of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker that inspired him to be one of the first French bebop players.  Guérin’s musicianship and performances continue to influence the countless people who have heard him live or hear his recordings.
A full article on Guérin will be in the October 2010 ITG Journal.

Source : Michel Laplace