About David

David Jean-Baptiste is principally a bass clarinettist and a composer. He finds his voice on all members of the clarinet family from the C Clainet to Contra-bass. In his favour, The Guardian Newspaper considered him as, "The new hope of the clarinet,” even though he’s widely renowned as a reediologist – an individual with a talent for reed instruments.

David is a North Londoner of Caribbean parentage, although he was born in the East End of London. His first major musical experiences were in the classical world, playing regular recitals at St. James Piccadilly and when he became the principal clarinettist of the London Youth Synfonietta. Then somehow he found his primary expression in the jazz world, where he made two cd's for Candid Records in London, "Feeling Tones" and "Neuriba", two for Laika Records in Bremen, "The Nature Suite", and a cd of film music "Sketches of Classicism"; but he still has his fingers in a few classical pies. Now David is in the decision making process of whether to start his own label “Flow-Time Records”, to release the long awaited "East To South" album...

Over the years he has worked with tenorist David Murray in a number of his projects, The Mingus Band in New York City, Van Morrison, Abdullah Ibrahim, Julian Joseph, Mervyn Afrika, James Carter, Ralph Peterson Junior, James Colligan, Byron Wallen, Shiek Tidiane Sek in Paris, Sarah Morrow, Morton Gronvad in Copenhagen, Ronald Tulle in Martinique, Tim Schikore...

David has led several successful projects including his eight piece Eric Dolphy Project recorded by BBC Radio 3, The UK Posse which toured with David Murray as a guest, The Righteous Reeds (clarinettist and four London Saxophonists), Jazz and Voices (the David Jean-Baptiste Quintet+5 gifted female singers and jazzoetry), more recently Fra-Fra Sound in Amsterdam, and he’s also the leader of the London-Paris Connection.

His musician friends in London who have known him for years call him the dark one, because he has a habit of showing up out of nowhere in the most suprising locations around the world. Perhaps also because he spends so much of his career exploring new and unknown territories; having lived extensively in New York City, Paris, Maritinique and Bremen. Now is the time to shed some light on the darkness... East To South, his latest project, demonstrates this same kind of restless attitude to his music; it’s a flamenco/jazz/classical project.

These days he spends most of his time running between London, various places in Holland, Bremen and Paris, where his cd, "The Nature Suite", has been a hit with TSF Paris Jazz Radio. One day, not too long ago, he was presented with a German system basset-horn at the Richard Muller shop, one they had made; he loved the sound so much they made one for him personally, and he mastered that system of clarinet as well as the boehm system he grew up with; which is a little controversial in the clarinet world, straddling both sides of the fence.

Taking into account other aspects of his career, as well as studying the clarinet at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music many many moons ago, he also has a Masters Degree in Composing for Film and TV from Kingston University, making him highly proficient in technology and the subtleties of recording... A recent highlight for David was doing a recital at the First World Bass Clarinet Convention at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Definitely, he would say that he’s fully committed to clarinet mastery in Jazz, Classical and wherever my passion is caught...