Franck Tortiller

Franck Tortiller (* 1963) is a French jazz vibraphonist, marimba player, composer and big band leader.

Tortiller studied at the Conservatory of Dijon and then in Paris at the "Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de dance de Paris", where he studied percussion and music theory. In 1989 he won the first prize at the Concours de la Défense as a soloist. His first album in a collaborative trio with the drummer Pascal Vignon and the bassist Yves Rousseau Les Jours De Fête: Hommage à Jacques Tati was released in 1996 (CC Production). Other trio recordings are "Early Dawn" (2005) with drummer David Duteil and bass player Yves Torchinsky and "Impertinance" with Michel Godard (Tuba) and Patrice Héral (percussion). Together with the latter, he currently forms a cooperative trio (2013). Since 2009, he has directed a quartet with Matthieu Michel, Patrice Héral and bassist Antoine Reininger. He also performs solo and in a duo with Héral.

Between 1993 and 2000 he was a member of the Vienna Art Orchestra (recordings "American Rhapsody" with Dee Dee Bridgewater and Shirley Horn, "Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus"). He was also a member of the Quartet of Simon Spang-Hanssen, the sextet of Jean-Marc Padovani (Out of Tribute to Eric Dolphy) and Michel Godard (Cousins Germains, Archangelica, Ivresses) and Christian Muthspiel.

From 2005 to 2008 he was director of the Orchester National de Jazz (albums "Electrique", the Led Zeppelin tribute "Close to Heaven"). For his "Sentimental ¾" program, which was first presented with this orchestra, he received the Django d'Or (France) as the best live music in 2007.

As a composer he wrote commissioned compositions among other things for the Orchester de Massy and Radio France, as well as for his own grandformation.

Tortiller is the founder of the "Jazz à Couches" festival.