Musician, researcher and teacher, Martin Guerpin embodies a singular approach of jazz, where music exchanges with history and cultural identities. Former student of the École Normale Supérieure of Ulm and the National Conservatory Superior of Music of Paris, he is currently a lecturer in musicology at the University of Paris-Saclay.
He is a specialist in the relationship between classical and popular music, having presented a thesis on the appropriation of jazz in French classical music at the beginning of the 20th century, a theme that continues to feed his works and publications. He is also an accomplished saxophonist, and has shared the jazz stage with the Vaïbz Quartet and Gil Evans Paris Workshop, with whom he won the prize “Meilleur concert français 2014” from Jazz Magazine, followed by a “Choc” Jazz Magazine/Jazzman for the album Spoonful (2017), with Laurent Cugny’s tentet. Still on the lookout for new explorations, he is involved with Azawan, a project-merging jazz project with Algerian chaabi musician Didine Kati, leading to the album “Azaman” (2020).
A Jazz Magazine critic, Martin Guerpin also leads the international project “Musique et Nation”, which questions the role of music in post-war periods and the Americanisation process in Europe before 1945. Between concerts, research, and education, he shapes a deep-rooted vision of the history of jazz as well as its future.