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Samuel Bourille

Samuel Bourille began playing jazz at the age of fifteen, forming a jazz quartet at his secondary school. Alongside his studies, he joined the Abracadaband project, a workshop founded in 1990 by guitarist Denis Gouzil and co-led with guitarist Tony Leite. Conceived as a laboratory for research and sharing around ensemble music and improvisation. It was in this environment that Bourille developed his sensitivity to free improvisation and collective listening. Upon leaving school, he obtained a Diploma in Music Theory from the Conservatoire National de Région de Bordeaux while simultaneously pursuing studies in musicology.

Early Professional Career (2000s)

His professional career began with the Compagnie Christian Vieussens, where he worked alongside oboist Christian Pabeauf. Shortly afterwards, he joined the Compagnie Lubat de Gasconha, a transartistic collective founded in Uzeste by the iconoclastic and visionary musician Bernard Lubat. There he crossed paths with major figures of French jazz — Michel Portal, Louis Sclavis, François Corneloup, Christophe Monnot — as well as the legendary Archie Shepp. He absorbed a model of self-managed collective creation that would shape his entire trajectory, and forged the artistic friendships with Arnaud Rouanet and Yoann Scheidt that would become the central axis of his career.

At the turn of the 2000s, Bourille joined the Graphiose Band, a Bordeaux-based group dedicated to performing the music of Frank Zappa. Out of this shared passion came the idea for a festival: he co-organized the Festival Zappa de Bordeaux with the other band members, with two editions held in 2002 and 2003.

Compagnie 3DB and Trio d'en bas (2003–2015)

Compagnie 3DB was founded in 2003 by Arnaud Rouanet, Samuel Bourille, and Yoann Scheidt. Its flagship project from the outset was the Trio d'en bas, where Bourille played piano, keyboards, soprano saxophone, flute, percussion, and sang. All three are multi-instrumentalists who carried forward the irreverent spirit of the Compagnie Lubat. With humor and poetry, tenderness and electricity, the interaction between musicians and audience made every concert a new adventure — a jazz without borders, driven by three musicians steeped in influences from every direction.

The name "d'en bas" (from below) carries deliberate political and social connotations. In response to the aggression of contemporary media rhetoric, the group coined a slogan that captures their ambition: "high-brow music for low-brow France" — the utopia of an art that is both accessible to all and uncompromising in its form.

Discography

1. Le Trio d'en bas enlève le haut (2012, self-produced)

The Trio's debut album is a genuine musical manifesto. Bourille plays piano, synthesizer, soprano saxophone, flute, and sings, alongside Arnaud Rouanet and Yoann Scheidt, with Denis Badault serving as artistic advisor. Critics praised a music that subverts itself before subverting its listeners — a work of constant invention carried by infectious enthusiasm.

2. Aïnara (2014, self-produced) — Trio d'en bas & Kej

The meeting with Breton trio Kej gave rise to a six-piece ensemble. Recorded in February 2014 at Studio 33 Tours in Frontenac (Gironde) and mastered at Globe Audio in Bordeaux, the album features two compositions by Bourille alongside pieces by Arnaud Rouanet and Philippe Gloaguen. Nine instruments converse across a jazz landscape colored by traditional music and improvisation, blending the intimacy of chamber music with the melancholy of Eastern European folk. Aïnara means "swallow" in Basque.

3. Takalo (2015, self-produced) — Trio d'en bas & Rajery

The meeting with Rajery — an internationally acclaimed master of the valiha, a tubular bamboo zither and the national instrument of Madagascar — resulted in a creation presented at the Festival de Thau and the Détours du Monde Festival in Chanac. This third record confirms the Trio's taste for the most audacious aesthetic crossings.

Awards, National and International Presence

In France, the Trio d'en bas was awarded the Prix Jazz Migration 2010 by AFIJMA (Association of Innovative Jazz and Contemporary Music Festivals). They performed on France's leading jazz stages: Festival Europa Jazz in Le Mans, Jazzdor in Strasbourg, Reims Jazz Festival, Jazz à Porquerolles, Grenoble Jazz Festival, Jazz à Junas, Jazz in Marciac, Banlieues Bleues in Paris, Atlantique Jazz Festival in Brest, Festival Jazzèbre in Perpignan, Rendez-vous de l'Erdre in Nantes, and many more.

Internationally, the Trio toured across five continents: Roma Jazz Festival (Italy), Hong Kong Jazz Festival (Hong Kong), Jarasum International Jazz Festival (South Korea), Jazz Club Evans in Seoul, Sappho Jazz Club and Kuandu Art Festival in Taipei (Taiwan), Ethno Jazz Festival in Chisinau (Moldova), Jazz Carnival in Odessa (Ukraine), Gaume Jazz Festival (Belgium), Festival de Jazz de Castejon de Sos (Spain), Jazz Festivals in Caracas, Naguanagua, and Barquisimeto (Venezuela), Sala Lavarden in Rosario (Argentina), Parc Gorki and Club Zavtra in Moscow (Russia), Decompression Festival and Canvas Gallery in San Francisco (USA), Festival de Jazz ChileEuropa in Santiago (Chili)...

Encounters and Performances

Bourille and the Trio d'en bas took part in semi-improvised literary performances with writer and performer Jocelyn Bonnerave, whose work weaves together literary creation, musical research, and performance art.

He also participated in artistic performances as part of the "Hors Lits" series in Toulouse, alongside choreographer Mié Coquempot, whose body of work centers on the relationship between music and dance, with particular attention to live musical creation.

In April 2014, an unexpected collaboration with the cult New York duo Elysian Fields — Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow — produced a secret concert, excerpts of which were subsequently recorded and released.

Multidisciplinary Creations

[Profet] (2009) — with Compagnie Trio d'en bas

A deeply political creation combining contemporary literature and musical improvisation, based on texts by Christophe Tarkos (L'Argent), Roland Fichet (Micropièces), and Michel Piquemal (Le Prophète du libéralisme). Bourille performed as musician alongside Arnaud Rouanet and Yoann Scheidt, and actress Johanna Rousset. Outside eye: Christine Dormoy. The show toured in 2009–10 and 2010–11 across multiple venues in the south of France.

L'Orage et le cerf-volant (2010) — with Compagnie Hors Pistes

An adaptation of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for young audiences, bringing together contemporary circus, contemporary music, and dance. The musical creation and performance were entirely delivered by Samuel Bourille, Tony Leite, Arnaud Rouanet, and Yoann Scheidt. The show was directed by Vincent Gomez, founder of Compagnie Hors Pistes.

Nom de code : Temps libre (2011) — with Compagnie Hors Pistes

A second collaboration, born of a collective writing process around improvisation and freedom, to which Bourille contributed as co-creator and onstage musician. The show was created in 2011 at the Festival Montpellier Danse, one of Europe's foremost contemporary dance festivals.

Cheminement with LagunArte (2015–2016)

Bourille contributed to the Cheminement project of Compagnie LagunArte (founded by singer and percussionist Kristof Hiriart, based in La Bastide-Clairence in the Basque Country): a series of five sound-based artistic trails traversing the Basque region over five years. Together with Yoann Scheidt, he conceived, composed, and wrote the second installment, Aturri / Adour (inaugurated on March 20, 2016), developed through conversations with local residents about their relationship to the Adour River. The project received support from the Région Aquitaine and the European Union.

Personal Works: An Autobiographical Diptych

The two final creations of Samuel Bourille's career trace a more intimate path — those of an artist who, having reached the end of a cycle, chooses to speak for himself. Together they form a memorial and personal diptych.

Que voulez-vous, nous nous sommes aimés (2013)

A piece conceived by Samuel Bourille and subtitled "a gestural and musical poem," created on March 12, 2013 at the Scène nationale de Narbonne. It draws from the most direct family memory: the story of his grandmother, a Spanish exile during the Retirada of 1939 — the mass exodus of Spanish Republicans into France following the victory of Franco's fascist forces. From this intimate testimony, Bourille built a multidisciplinary work in which the music — entirely composed by him — enters into dialogue with the dance of Julien Andujar and the sound design of Michaël Selam, the three performers on stage. Choreographer Mié Coquempot served as outside eye.

Drawing Rimbaud (2015–2016)

After the dissolution of Compagnie 3DB in 2015, Bourille created Drawing Rimbaud, a hybrid show that is equally personal: it grew from a book of Rimbaud's poetry discovered as a teenager, left on a table, carried to a bedroom — and never put down again. As a musician, Bourille gathered friends around the desire to share a simple message: read Rimbaud. The show weaves together original songs, excerpts from A Season in Hell and Illuminations, and video sequences built around the drawings of graphic novelist Xavier Coste, to draw an intimate and contemporary portrait of the poet. The musical score embraces a plurality of approaches — improvisation, song, piano, electro-acoustic work, percussion — with the voice conceived as a carrier of words and a bridge to the audience. On stage, Yoann Scheidt accompanies on percussion, Julien Andujar contributes to the video creations, and the show is directed by Jean-Philippe Ibos.

Drawing Rimbaud closed the International Poetry Biennial "Les Ailleurs" in Charleville-Mézières, Rimbaud's birthplace, before embarking on a tour of the French Alliances in Colombia. This show — the most personal and fully realized work of his career — marked the end of Samuel Bourille's professional life as a musician.

Legacy

Over the course of fifteen years, Samuel Bourille crossed nearly every territory of the performing arts: avant-garde jazz, contemporary circus, multidisciplinary performance, and the intersection of music, dance, and poetry. A pianist, composer, artistic director, festival co-organizer, and tireless collaborator, he embodies a rare figure — that of an artist-citizen for whom music is never an end in itself, but always the vehicle for a human encounter, a story worth telling, and a world to be traversed together.

Awards

Jazz Migration Award from the Association of Innovative Jazz and Contemporary Music Festivals (France)

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Samuel Bourille Trio d'en bas

"It takes audacity to bring together the 'elders' — Portal, Humair, Minvielle — and reach all the way down to the young recruits — Bourille, Rouanet — passing through Sclavis, Corneloup, Monniot — and set them all improvising, nothing but improvising." — Charles de Saint-André, Citizen Jazz, February 2002

"They are indeed three, but they sound like at least four. Their sonic maelstrom, shot through with ribald social satire, holds its course through the sharpest turns thanks to total instrumental commitment — and an amused distance from their own influences: jazz, Zappa, post-rock, free, the waltzes of Strauss..." — Stéphane Galland, Mécènes du Sud, March 2009

"Like a Salvador Dalí painting that may at first confound the eye, then reveal its meaning to those who linger — the Trio d'en Bas has a musical approach so particular, yet one to which the audience quickly surrendered." — Midi Libre, April 2013

"The Trio d'en bas invents a music without borders, yet firmly rooted in tradition — from Parker to free jazz — while creating new and exhilarating worlds. Bourille, Rouanet and Scheidt throw at you notes, images, worlds that are not only unusual but truly unheard of. Coming 'from below', they lift us 'on high'." — Michel Arcens, Citizen Jazz, January 2012

"There is music that follows order, and music that never stops fleeing it. The Trio d'en bas belongs to the second category. Listening to this record delights, carries, sweeps, amuses and enchants. Nothing is ever futile, because nothing is artifice. Everything is true, spontaneous, joyful and alive. Constant invention and a shared enthusiasm." — Michel Arcens, Citizen Jazz, December 2012 (on Le Trio d'en bas enlève le haut)

"Whilst the trio exhibited an undoubtedly strong grounding in the jazz tradition, it veered towards free/avant exploration at times, without sacrificing melody or rhythm. Alternating between light and heavy touch, Bourille built an elegiac and hypnotic groove. Rouanet and Bourille engaged in a delicate exchange, with the clarinet evoking a Turkish melancholy — an appetizer for the trio's unorthodox, inventive approach to music." — All About Jazz (concert review)

"The concert in the Lacave caves was magnificent. The piano of Samuel Bourille entered, muted as felt, weaving into this magnificence of notes and sounds. These sonic layers that carry and transport — are they not a possible definition of trance?" — Gilles Gaujarengues, Citizen Jazz, 2013 (Grottes de Lacave, Souillac en Jazz)

"They define themselves as 'farmers of music and artisans of sound', working with irony on the concept of making high-brow music for low-brow France. An original and playful musical proposal integrating influences from theatre, dance and circus." — El Mostrador, Santiago de Chile, November 2013

"The French jazz group Trio d'en Bas delighted more than 600 people with a fusion of rock, electronic music and reggae. Ninety minutes of performance during which the musicians from Bordeaux demonstrated their talent, interacting with the audience, finally rewarded with applause that filled the main hall of the venue." — SoyChile.cl, Osorno, Chile, November 2013

"Nine instruments converse and dance across a jazz tinged with traditional music and improvisation, blending chamber music intimacy with the melancholy of Slavic folk tunes. A fine rapport, a shared joy, an unmistakable imagination — a genuinely collective adventure." — Séverine Gioghi, Citizen Jazz, March 2015 (on Aïnara)

"The three — Samuel Bourille, Arnaud Rouanet and Yoann Scheidt — playing, drumming, exploding, setting sax, piano, drums and a motley host of instruments vibrating, were joined by actress Johanna Rousset. Perched on a stool or lending a headrest to one of her partners, she makes language ring and words crack. The trio answers her, with bursts of notes and untimely bouquets." — La Dépêche, May 2011 (on [Profet])

"The show is a meeting between circus and the music of the Trio d'en Bas — Arnaud Rouanet, Samuel Bourille and Yoann Scheidt — whose free jazz can sometimes take you by surprise. The combination of circus and music produces a show that is quite astonishing in its creativity." — Midi Libre, July 2011 (on Nom de code : Temps libre, Montpellier)

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