Michel Portal

The father of France's modern jazz scene, clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer Michel Portal is a national French icon. He was unable to fit himself into a single style, group, or genre as he worked inside and outside the jazz and classical canons while championing 20th century composers. Between 1969 and 2015 he composed over 50 film scores including The Return of Martin Guerre (1982). His 1969 debut, Our Meanings and Our Feelings, is considered a classic. In 1970, he collaborated with John Surman on Alors! In 1973, the Michel Portal Unit released the classic À Chateauvallon - No, No But It May Be. During the '80s and '90s, Portal delivered important outings such as Turbulence (1987) and Dockings (1998). In 2001, Portal recorded Minneapolis with assistance from Vernon Reid and Prince's band. 2007's Birdwatcher hit the jazz charts, and 2009's Baïlador featured American sidemen. In 2017, Portal collaborated with string ensemble Quatuor Ebene on Eternal Stories. In 2021 he released MP85 with Chevillon and others. His final recording session was Mountain Call with Miroslav Vitous and Jack DeJohnette, released in March 2026. Michel Portal was born into a musical family in Bayonne, France in November 1935. He began playing clarinet at age eight, before that (and after) he played bandoneon. He studied the instrument at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1958 along with conducting. There he won a competition for best clarinetist in 1959. He was a specialist in the works of Schumann, Mozart, and Brahms. Portal began his recording career as a studio sideman and made his recorded debut with bassist Pierre Michelot on 1963's Round About a Bass. In 1964 he played on Serge Gainsbourg's Percussions. During the mid-'60s, Portal worked with Jean-Luc Ponty, Barbara, Jef Gilson, and Claude Bolling. He was part of pianist François Tusques' sextet on the revolutionary Free Jazz, as were trumpeter Bernard Vitet and drummer Charles Saudrais. These four men and saxophonist Barney Wilen ushered the new music into France. In 1966 he worked with conductor André Hodeir on Anna Livia Plurabelle, a jazz cantata with libretto by James Joyce. In 1969, Portal released his legendary debut album Our Memories and Our Feelings, backed by bassist J.F. Jenny- Clark, drummers/percussionists Jacques Thollot and Aldo Romano, and German pianist Joachim Kühn. Later that year he and Jenny-Clark were part of Luciano Berio's Musique Vivante on the composer's Laborintus 2 and Karlheinz Stockhausen's electro-acoustic masterpiece Aus Den Sieben Tagen. Further, he founded New Phonic Art with Vinko Globokar in 1969; they released three widely acclaimed albums between 1971 and 1974. In 1970, Portal led a group with English saxophonist John Surman, bassist Barre Phillips, drummer Stu Martin, and percussionist Jean-Pierre Drouet on the oft-reissued classic Alors! The following year saw Portal's career flower. With Musique Vivante he played on Pierre Boulez's seminal work Domaines; he also appeared on Sunny Murray by the American drummer, and Alan Silva and the Celestrial Communication Orchestra's Seasons. 1971 also saw the release of New Phonic Art's debut, Begegnung in Baden-Baden. Portal continued working with Stockhausen and played a soloist's role on 1973's Aus Den Sieben Tagen / From the Seven Days / Venu Des Sept Jours. That same year the recently founded Michel Portal Unit released its widely acclaimed debut, À Chateauvallon - No, No But It May Be. 1974 saw the release of Vinko Globokar and Ensemble New Phonic Art's Drama Und Correspondences. Five years later, after much activity working and recording with classical ensembles, he released Dejarme Solo! his first unaccompanied clarinet album. After 1981's Arrivederci Le Chouartse with Pierre Favre and Léon Francioli for Hat Hut, Portal focused on writing and recording his film music. His score for director Jean-Louis Camolli's L'ombre Rouge appeared in 1981. In 1983 he recorded The Return of Martin Guerre, for which he received his first of three Cesar Awards, and in 1984 he released Les Cavaliers De L'Orage for the Gerard Vergez film of the same title, winning another Cesar; in 1985 he scored another of his films, Bras De Fer. In 1987, Portal returned to jazz with Turbulence, an avant work that included drummer Daniel Humair, percussionist Mino Cinelu, and accordionist Richard Galliano in its studio ensemble. That same year he released Men's Land, accompanied only by bassist Jenny Clark. He closed the decade by appearing as a soloist on Mozart's Concerto Pour Clarinette with the Wiener Kammerorchester conducted by Phillipe Entremont, and releasing Chantakoa - And Around with ethnomusicologist Jean Schwartz. Portal split the '90s between recording and performing with classical orchestras and jazz. His 1990 live performance with David Liebman, Trilok Gurtu, and Mino Cinelu, netted the acclaimed Festival de Lille: Novembre 1990. Two years later he and pianist Martial Solal issued an eponymous duo album and played on Aldo Romano's Il Piacere. 1993's wildly experimental Any Way featured large groups of European and American musicians. In 1995 he scored and recorded the soundtrack for Francois Dupeyroni's film La Machine. That same year he won his third Cesar award and released a compilation of his film music in Musiques De Cinemas. He closed the decade and the century with three jazz titles: Blow Up with Galliano, Fast Mood with Solal, and the acclaimed Dockings with an international sextet. In 2001, Portal released the first of two of the most consequential albums in his career. The first, Minneapolis, was a bracing work of contemporary jazz-funk featuring guitarist Vernon Reid, pianist Tony Hymas, and a host of Prince/ Paisley Park side players including drummer Michael Bland and bassist Sonny Thompson. It was celebrated as a bracing work of contemporary jazz-funk. He followed it a year later with Minneapolis We Insist! recorded live in Paris with some of the same players as well as guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, Thompson, Bland, and Hymas. Both records charted in France and received universally positive reviews. 2004's Concerts featured live festival recordings between Portal and Galliano, and in 2005 he released his score and soundtrack to Jean-Pierre Denis' La Petite Chartreuse and appeared on Swiss jazz singer Susanne Abbuehl's Compass on ECM. He issued his score and soundtrack to Daniel Vigne's Jean De La Fontaine the following year. In 2009 he joined the Miroslav Vitous Group for the lauded ECM release Remembering Weather Report. A year later Portal released the highly acclaimed jazz outing Baïlador with drummer Jack DeJohnette, guitarist Lionel Loueke, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and pianist/producer Bojan Zulfikarpašić. The clarinetist spent the remainder of his career playing on important recordings by Jacky Terrasson, Vincent Peirani, Nels Cline, Ibrahim Maalouf, and others. Portal's last decade found him busy. He appeared on guitarist and singer/songwriter Thomas Dutronc's globally celebrated Frenchy in 2020. With conductor Paul Meyer and Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie he released Double, a classical outing offering works by Telemann, Mendelssohn, Stamitz, and C.E. Bach. In 2021 on the occasion of his 85th birthday, Label Bleu released MP85, Portal's final leader date with old friends Chevillon and Zulfikarpašić with drummer Lander Gyselinck and trombonist Nils Wogram. The clarinetist made his final studio appearance on 2026's Mountain Call with Vitous, DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding, and members of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Portal died at age 90 on February 12, 2026, just weeks before the album's release. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi