OLIVIER MANOURY was born in Tulle (France) He moved to Paris with his parents as a child. He played bagpipes at folk music gatherings After grammar school he studied painting and sculpture at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and literature at the university of the Sorbonne where he got a masters degree in 1976.

 

OLIVIER MANOURY then became an instrument maker building violins, violas, baroque and folk instruments. He started playing bandoneon and became a bandoneon tuner and restorer. He now concentrates exclusively on playing, turning professional in 1979 In the 80'sHe was a regular guest of the mythical coub Trottoirs de Buenos Aires.

 

Since then he has played in many traditional tango bands, accompanied many singers (Ernesto Rondó) and created his own bands:

 - TANGONEON.. TEMPO DI TANGO.. duo with uruguayan pianist Enrique Pascual..

 - duo with Jazz bassist Yves Torchinsky..

 - Quartet with Michael Guttman, violin Edda erlendsdottir (piano) and isabelle d'Auzac (double bass) (festival in the Hamptons, long island, New York - Palais de Beaux Arts Bruxelles - Pietrasanta festival ,Italy)..

 - The stockholm based Olivier Manoury septet with Anders Inge(violin) (Konsert Huset, Kulturhuset, Fashing..)..

 - Candombe band with the Uruguayan percussion player Jorge Trasante,..

 - recordings with the Argentinian cartoonist Serguei, the African singer Bonga and the American jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater.

 - In duo with opera singer Jorge Chamine in (concert at the Paris Opera Bastille. Theatre des Champe Elysées, Bouffes du Nord in Paris, Gulbelkian Hall in Lisabon, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

 

He performed a whole serie of concerts in the Theatre National du Chatelet, including big band concert and solo recital...

 

As a soloist or as a band leader he played in many countries in Europe, Latin america, Japan and Israel and US, including The Opera houses in Paris, Lyon, Reykjavik, Hannover. in Paris he performed in Opera Bastille, Theatre des Champs Elysées, Theatre National de Chaillot, La Cigale, New Morning, La Maroquinerie, Sylvia Montfort, Baiser Salé, Studio de l'Ermitage, Bataclan etc. Teatro municipal de Sao Paolo in Brazil, Grand Rex de Buenos aires in Argentina.

 

He occasionally appears as a guest in jazz and other improvised music concerts and recordings (Arrigo Cappelletti Quartet in Milano, Tetsu Saitoh and Kazuo Imai in Tokyo).

 

He recorded CDs with all the mentionned groups for the label SILEX/AUVIDIS and with Dee Dee Bridgewater and African singer Bonga for Polygram.

 

OLIVIER MANOURY is also a composer and writes music for movies (Sale comme un ange by Catherine Breillat), for TV (Novacek channel France 2). for dramma (Eva Peron by Copi and Chantecler by Edmond Rostand at the Theatre National de Chaillot), for circus shows (with joggler Nikolaus) and for ballet (He wrote and performed the music of Che Quijote y Bandoneon by Maurice Béjart in a world tour in year 2000).

 

He is also formed KATINGA, a Jazz/candombe project with Xavier Girotto on sax, Marcelo Russillo on drums Carlos "el Tero" Buschini on bass (with whom he regularly performs in duo )

 

 Olivier Manoury Quartet premiered in february 2007 in jazz club Le Trion and performed in Baiser Salé, Studio de l'Ermitage, Café de la Danse, la Fête de l'Humanité, Rerykjavik Jazz Festival, Nuits de Nacre in Tulle, and in the famous parisian club New Morning.

 

He now plays also in FreeTango, aduo with Argentinian pianist Sergio Gruz. They played extensively in Latin America (Colombia, Ecuador, Bolvie, El Salvador, Panama, Argentina, Uruguay) with a great public and press succes

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In 2023 he lauched  Olivier Manoury Quintet together with Mauro Gargano on double bass,  Yoann Loustalot on trumpet and flugelhorn, Stefano Lucchini on drums, and Pablo Murgier on piano. (see video)