Profile of Jean-Michel Jarre on Famous Like Me

Jean-Michel André Jarre (born August 24, 1948 in Lyon, France) is a French composer and producer. He is the son of Maurice Jarre, a composer of film music, and France Pejot.

Jarre is regarded as one of the pioneers in the electronic music genre, as well as an innovator, for staging spectacular outdoor concerts of his music, which feature laser displays and fireworks, mixing music with architecture and environment.

Musical career

Jarre began studying piano at the age of five, but he abandoned his classical training. During his youth he formed a band called Mystere IV. In late 1960s he started experimenting with tape loops, radios and other electronic devices, until, in 1968, he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer, the "father" of musique concrète, where he was introduced to synthesizers.

In the mid 1970s, Jarre secured a recording contract with Polydor. His first album for them, Oxygene, was released in 1976. Contrasted with his contemporaries, such as the rather clinical, hard, futuristic sound of Kraftwerk, or the more 'cosmic' and murky Tangerine Dream, Oxygene had a lush, spacey and strongly melodic sound, and was a big commercial success worldwide. The track Oxygene Part IV was released as a single and became one of the best-known pieces of electronic music ever. Key components of Jarre's sound included his use of the Electroharmonix Small Stone phaser on synthetic string pads, and liberal use of echo on various sound effects generated by the VCS3 synthesizer.

In 1978, his second album Equinoxe was released. Jarre developed his sound, employing more dynamic and rhythmic elements, particularly a greater use of sequencing on basslines. Much of this was achieved using custom equipment developed by his collaborator Michel Geiss. The release followed by a concert in Paris on the Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1979. This concert attracted one million people, which was Jarre's first entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest crowd at an outdoor concert.

In October 1981, Jarre was the first Western pop-artist who was granted permission to give concerts in the People's Republic of China.

In 1983 he created the album Musique pour supermarchés (Music for supermarkets), which had a print run of only a single copy. The album was made expressly to voice Jarre's distaste and disregard for the music business. Jarre destroyed all the master records from his studio work, allowed a radio station (Radio Luxembourg) to broadcast the album once and auctioned it, raising £10,000 for French artists. People recorded the album using their tape recorders while it was broadcast on the radio, so we can listen to that album, at a very poor quality though (the radio station was an AM station). Songs from this album were later reworked into future albums.

In 1986 NASA and the city of Houston asked him to do a concert to celebrate NASA's 25th anniversary and the city of Houston 150th anniversary. During that concert, astronaut Ronald McNair was to play the saxophone part of Jarre's piece Rendez-Vous VI while in orbit on board the Space Shuttle Challenger. It was to have been the first piece of music recorded in space, for the album Rendez-Vous. After the Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986 which killed McNair, the piece was recorded with a different saxophonist, retitled Ron's piece and the album dedicated to the seven Challenger astronauts. The Houston concert entered the Guinness Book of Records for the audience of over 1.5 million.

In 1988 Jarre, along with guests such as Hank Marvin, the legendary guitarist from The Shadows, performed in front of the industrial backdrop of London's East End Docklands, in a concert entitled Destination Docklands.

On July 14, 1990 Jean Michel broke his own record in Guinness Book of Records again with a concert in La Defense, Paris where 2.5 million people watched Jarre light up the Parisian business district.

On September 6, 1997 Jarre played in Moscow to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the city. The Moscow State University was used as the backdrop for a spectacular display of image projections, skytrackers and fireworks, with an audience of 3.5 million, Jarre's fourth record for the biggest concert audience ever.

In 1999 he created a spectacular music and light show in the Egyptian desert, near Giza. The show, called The 12 Dreams of the Sun, celebrated the new millennium and 5000 years of civilization in Egypt. It also offered a preview of his new album, Metamorphoses.

In 2001 Jarre performed a concert in collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke and Tetsuya Komuro in the Okinawa beaches, to celebrate the "real" beginning of the new millennium. The concert was called Rendez-vous in Space and the group called itself The ViZitors. Later that year, he played at the Acropolis in Greece.

In 2002 he performed the AERO concert at Grammel Vrå Enge wind farm, just outside Aalborg in Denmark, to a rather wet audience of approximately 50,000.

On October 10, 2004 he gave a big concert in the Forbidden City and the Tiananmen Square in China, to commemorate the "Year of France in China". The audience comprised about 15,000 spectators, most of them special guests. This concert was broadcast in HDTV with 5.1 sound by some satellite channels. 5.1 sound was also used on the stage.

On August 26, 2005 he performed a long concert "Space of Freedom" in Gdańsk, Poland, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity. There were circa 120,000 people at the concert. Lech Wałęsa was present on stage.

On September 10th 2005 Jarre performs at the LinX Live Show for the Official Opening of the Eurocam Media Centre, containing Belgian HDTV Company Euro1080's NEW HDTV Studios, in Lint, Belgium.

Personal life

Jarre was married to British actress and photographer Charlotte Rampling from October 8, 1976 until circa 1998. In 2002 he became engaged to French actress Isabelle Adjani, but later she ended this relationship. Jarre married French actress Anne Parillaud on May 12, 2005.

Jarre has three children: Emilie (from his first marriage to Flore Guillard, whom he married on January 20, 1975), Barnaby Southcombe (Charlotte Rampling's son from a previous marriage) and David (Charlotte and Jean-Michel's son).

Awards and recognitions

• 1976 - Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros for "Oxygene".
• 1976 - "Grand Prix du Disque" for "Oxygene".
• 1976 - "Personality of The Year" by People magazine (USA).
• 1979 - Guinness Book of Records entry for the biggest concert ever.
• 1981 - Honorary member of the Beijing Conservatory of Music.
• 1985 - Instrumental music album of the year for "Zoolook" in the USA.
• 1985 - "Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros".
• 1985 - "Victories de la Musique" in France.
• 1987 - "Victories de la Musique" for "Rendez-vous Houston".
• 1987 - New Guinness Book of Records entry for the biggest concert ever.
• 1987 - "European musician Person of the Year" by People magazine.
• 1990 - New Guinness Book of Records entry for the biggest concert ever ("Paris La Defense: A City in Concert").
• 1993 - UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
• 1994 - "Victories de La Musique" for the "Europe in Concert" tour.
• 1994 - Awarded Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur from the French Government.
• 1997 - New Guinness Book of Records entry for the biggest concert ever with 3.5 million watching at Moscow's 850th anniversary.
• 1998 - IFPI's Platinum Europe Award.
• 2005 - HCA Ambassador for the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Bicentenary Festival.

By 2005 he has sold an estimated 72 million albums and singles over his career.

An asteroid, 4422 Jarre, has been named in honor of him and his father.

Discography

• La Cage/Erosmachine (1971, 7" single only)
• Deserted Palace (1972)
• Les Granges Brulées (1973)
• Oxygene (1976 in France, 1977 worldwide)
• Equinoxe (1978)
• Magnetic Fields (Les Chants Magnétiques) (1981)
• The Concerts in China (Les Concerts En Chine) (1982)
• Musik aus Zeit und Raum (1983)
• The Essential Jean Michel Jarre (1983)
• Music for Supermarkets (Musique Pour Supermarché) (1983, only one copy made)
• Zoolook (1984)
• The Essential 1976-1986 (1985, music same as on The Essential Jean Michel Jarre)
• Rendez-Vous (1986)
• In Concert Houston-Lyon (1987, 1997 replaced by Cities In Concert Houston-Lyon)
• Revolutions (1988)
• Live (1989, 1997 renamed Destination Docklands)
• The Laser Years (Les Années Laser) (1989, 9 CD box exclusively including Cities In Concert Houston-Lyon)
• Waiting for Cousteau (En Attendant Cousteau) (1990)
• Images – The Best of Jean Michel Jarre (1991)
• L'Intégrale (1992, 10 CD box)
• Chronologie (1993)
• Hong Kong (1994)
• Jarremix (1995)
• Oxygene 7-13 (1997)
• The Complete Oxygene (1998, 2 CD box containing Oxygene and Oxygene 7-13 with bonus track)
• Odyssey Through O₂ (1998)
• Oxygen in Moscow (DVD, released for the USA and Brazil only).
• Metamorphoses (2000)
• Sessions 2000 (2002)
• Geometry of Love (2003)
• The Essential (2004)
• AERO (2004) (CD + DVD, music album recorded in 5.1 sound)
• Live in Beijing (2004) (DVD about the Live in Beijing concert, released in France: 7 December 2004)
• Jarre in China - (DVD, 2005, re-release of the above with the full concert and more extras)

Concerts

• 1979 - Place de la Concorde (Paris, France).
• 1981 - The Concerts in China (Beijing/Shanghai, China).
• 1986 - Rendez-vous Houston (Houston, USA).
• 1986 - Rendez-vous Lyon (Lyon, France).
• 1988 - Destination Docklands (London, UK).
• 1990 - Paris la Defense (Paris, France).
• 1992 - Swatch the World (Zermatt, Switzerland).
• 1992 - Legends of the Lost City (South Africa).
• 1993 - Europe in Concert (several places across Europe).
• 1994 - Hong Kong (Hong Kong).
• 1995 - Concert Pour la Tolerance (Paris, France).
• 1997 - The Oxygene Tour (several places across Europe).
• 1997 - Oxygen in Moscow (Moscow, Russia).
• 1998 - Nuit Electronique (Paris, France).
• 1998 - Jarre@apple Expo.
• 1999 - The Twelve Dreams of the Sun (Giza, Egypt).
• 2000 - Metamorphoses Showcase.
• 2001 - Rendez-vous in Space (Okinawa, Japan).
• 2001 - Hymn to the Akropolis (Athens, Greece).
• 2002 - Le Printemps de Bourges (Bourges, France).
• 2002 - Aero (Aalborg, Denmark).
• 2004 - Live at Beijing (Beijing, China).
• 2005 - Salle Des Etoiles (Monte-Carlo, Monaco).
• 2005 - Space of Freedom (Gdansk, Poland).

Other performances

• 1971 - AOR (Paris, France)
• 1989 - Destination Trocadero (Paris, France)
• 1995 - Festa Italiana (Turin, Italy)
• 1995 - UNESCO 50th Anniversary (Paris, France)
• 1997 - Wetten Das (Vienna, Australia)
• 1998 - Fifa World Player 97 (Disneyland Paris, France)
• 1998 - France Festival (Tokyo, Japan)
• 1998 - FNAC Paris (Paris, France)
• 2005 - Once upon a time (Copenhagen, Denmark).
• 2005 - LinX (Lint, Belgium)

Instruments

Throughout his concerts Jarre uses several instruments that remained famous. Some of these are:

• The theremin, the first electronic instrument.
• The digisequencer and Matrisequencer, electronic sequencers designed and built by Michel Geiss.
• The laser harp.
• The LAG Circulaire and other custom keyboards (usually of semi-circular shape) made by LAG.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Jean-Michel Jarre