English
Français Raphaële Atlan was born in Paris in 1983, in a family of eclectic musical tastes, literature and arts amateurs. She was attracted to arts and particularly to music at a very early age following the example of her mother who was a Bach enthusiast. She grew up in Ville d’Avray, a small town in the suburbs of Paris, began with dance lessons aged four, moved on to classical piano from eight to fourteen, then singing lessons at 15. At 17, while earning her Art degree at La Sorbonne University, Raphaële started singing professionally with several bands in Paris.
In 2003, Raphaële decided on a musical career, and applied to the American School of Modern Music in Paris for a two-year program. At the same time she met pianist Serge Forté, with whom she studied jazz piano. During this period she had the opportunity to meet singer Sheila Jordan, with whom she took lessons and masterclasses. In 2007, Forté invited Raphaële to take part in his album, La Bohème.
In 2007, looking for new learning methods and experiences, Raphaële chose to study with French pianist Pierre de Bethmann and to take vocal improvisation lessons with American singer Michele Hendricks. She also started to be present on the French scene as a singer and pianist, setting up a duet with double bass player Zacharie Abraham.
In 2008, after being selected for the prestigious Montreux Jazz Voice Competition, Raphaële entered the professional department of Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood, one of the best-known jazz schools in Europe, to focus on the piano, studying with pianist and organist Benoit Sourisse. She got her degree in June 2010. In this both challenging and relaxed environment, her playing and writing blossomed, and during this period of time, she composed some of the themes that were then recorded in her first album.
At the same time, the duet that she formed with Zacharie became a quartet. Welcoming drummer Nicolas Charlier and saxophonist Lucas Saint-Cricq, both met in CMDL, the music soon evolved and lead the band to play in several venues accross France, and to take part in national musical contests such as « Jazz à Oloron », « Crest Jazz Vocal » competition and « Trophées du Sunside » in Paris.
This successful collaboration also lead to a very fisrt recording in May 2011, produced under Benoit Sourisse’s and André Charlier’s label, Gemini Records. Influenced by today’s jazz music (Avishaï Cohen, Esperanza Spalding, Robert Glasper…), Raphaële mixed modern jazz, Brazilian and soul music in several original compositions, and rare cover songs. This planted the seeds of her first album, « Inner Stories », which was released on October 24th 2011, to very encouraging critical acclaim.
Raphaële quickly claimed her title as one of the most original and promising artists of her generation and a rapidly appreciating asset in vocal jazz, thanks to the success of Inner Stories, her first French tour in 2012 and several awards and participations to national and international jazz contests this very year : 1st prize at Jazz à Vannes’s competition and Jazz à Lagny’s competition in 2012.
Having already familiarized herself with the greatest clubs and festivals across France with her quartet, Raphaële felt the need to travel and find inspiration throughout some other great musical places: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) for two traditional music workshops in 2013 and 2014, and New York City where she stayed for several weeks in 2013, playing in clubs and meeting amazing musicians. After having experienced such new influences and emotions, she went back to the studios to record Give It Time in 2014, introducing the guitar of Romain Pilon and the percussions to her music.
Essentially made of personal compositions that reveal a unique and creative kind of jazz, a universe full of energy, sweetness and poetry, this second opus made her music appear more than ever as a reflection of herself : generous, multifaceted, enthusiastic, and deeply turned towards the world. Give It Time (Gemini Records, 2015) was released on March the 10th of 2015.