Biography
Romain is a French bass player, born in Rouen, Normandy, living in Paris.
He started by playing the drums by himself at the age of 2, and finally entered a local music school in Rouen at 6 to learn the basics. He studied drums/percussions with french percussionist Jean-Marc Quillet, who gave him many advice to improve his playing and the ear but never really taught him how to play the drums. He also made him discover jazz, and introduced him to some great musicians like Michel Portal, Ramon Lopez, Laurent Dehors…
At 11, Romain started to play with some local musicians in Normandy as french saxophonist Laurent Dehors or pianist Pierre Gaudin.
Romain started playing the bass also by self-teaching himself at the age of 14 after he heard Weather Report’s tunes Birdland and Nubian Sundance. Very impressed, he fell in love with this kind of music and especially in love with Jaco Pastorius, which he learned a lot from, just by listening to him and trying to do his best to sound good.
Romain is also a fine connoisseur of Joe Zawinul’s music, which he loves to play on keyboards.
From then, bass became his main instrument, and his influences are not only Jaco. Linley Marthe, Alphonso Johnson, Marcus Miller, Sting, Paul McCartney, Neil Jason, Stanley Clarke, and Paul Jackson influenced his style.
At this time, music became the most important thing in his life more than anything else and he decided to make it his profession. The music of Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Brecker Brothers, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Chick Corea, The Police, Michael Jackson and The Beatles has deeply influenced him too.
In 2011, he moved to Paris to enter the famous Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, and he attended courses from Riccardo Del Fra, Glenn Ferris, Hervé Sellin…
He left after one year to go on his own and started playing with some of the famous names of the Parisian Jazz Scene and started to go on tour with different artists as Céline Bonacina and Nguyên Lê…
He is, since 2013, the main bass player in Nguyên Lê’s bands “Songs Of Freedom”, “Celebrating Jimi Hendrix” and the most recent project is “Celebrating the Dark Side of the Moon”.
In the fall of 2016, he becomes Scott Henderson‘s new bass player, along with drummer Archibald Ligonnière. They just recorded a new album, expected to be released in the summer of 2018.
Through the years, Romain has performed or/and recorded with Nguyên Lê (F), Mario Canonge (F), Rocco Zifarelli (It), Francis Lassus (F), Paco Séry (F), Grégory Privat (F), Karim Ziad (Alg), Chander Sardjoe (NL), Gergo Borlai (Hun), Nicolas Viccaro (F), Alain Debiossat (F), Linley Marthe (Mauritius), Céline Bonacina (F), Stéphane Guillaume (F), Marc Ducret (F), Laurent Dehors (F), Philippe Sellam (F), Guillaume Orti (F), Stéphane Galland (B), Jerry Léonide (Mauritius), Yoann Schmidt(F), Archibald Ligonnière (F), Benjamin Petit (F), Christophe Cravéro (F), Damien Schmitt (F), François Faure (F), Daniel Zimmermann (F), Illya Amar (F), Himiko Paganotti (F), Romain Berguin (F), Fred Lopez (F), Fred Dupont (F), Francis Arnaud (F) Loic Pontieux (F), Stéphane Huchard (F), Francois Constantin (F), Hervé Samb (F), Sylvain Gontard (F), Francesco Bearzatti (It), Federico Malaman (It), Vincent Bidal (F), Stéphane Huchard (F), Nicolas Folmer (F), Julian Getreau (F), Joon Switon (F), Jo Champ (F), Jon Grancamp (F), Michael Lecoq (F), Gabriel Gosse (F), Alex Roudaut (F), Martin Lefebvre (F), Omar El Barkaoui (F), Stéphane Edouard (F), Prabhu Edouard (F), Julia Sarr (S), Ousman Danedjo (F), Pierre Gaudin (F), Patrice Guillaumat (F), Holy Oysters (F), Tom Ibarra (F), Tung Duong (Vietnam), Michel Fugain (F), Thierry Maillard (F), Dean Brown (US), Marvin « Smitty » Smith (US), Nina Attal (F), Norbert Krief (F), Didier Lockwood (F), Scott Henderson (US)…
He played in some of the greatest jazz festivals: Jazz à Vienne, Jazz in Marciac, Cully Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, La Défense Jazz Festival, Jazz sous les Pommiers and many others in Europe…
Touring places: France, Reunion Island, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Ukraine, South Korea, China, India, Slovakia, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Brazil, United States…
He proudly endorses MarkBass Amplification, Elixir Strings and MAMA pickups.
