Michel El Malem

Born in Paris, Michel El Malem started playing guitar at the age of 15, mainly studying with Thierry Garcia, Pierre Jean Gaucher and Pierre Cullaz. Until the age of thirty, it was his only instrument. Then he started playing saxophone and piano. He studied saxophone with Sylvain Beuf and Remi Biet, arrangement and orchestration with Marc Bercovitz. He writes compositions for his group, for shows , and composes song arrangements. In 2011, he won the Prix de l'Académie du jazz (Best French Record Award 2012) for his album Reflets with Marc Copland . he participated 3 times at the international jazz day organized by the Herbie Hancock Institute and Unesco in Paris 2012, 2015 and St Petersburg (Russia) 2018 with many international Jazz musicians like Herbie Hancock, Brandford Marsalis, James Genus, and many others in 2021 he released a new album "Dedications" on the label Inner Circle Music Greg Osby 's label with Marc Copland and leading French musicians He has played with Herbie Hancock, Marc Copland, Terri Lyne Carrington, Michael Rodriguez, Ben Williams, NGuyen Le, Michael Felberbaum, Luc Isenmann,Baptiste Trotignon, and many others.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist