(from a François Cotinaud's poem, intitled "text'up". Animation by the author)

François Cotinaud was born in Morocco in 1956. In his childhood, he was bathed in music, dance, poetry and painting. Being particularly keen on jazz music, he explored the worlds of be-bop and free jazz music. He also went in a lot for improvisation in France. François Cotinaud studied piano (1964-1971), drums (1967-1972), and later, he studied saxophone (mostly tenor and soprano) and clarinet. He studied improvisation with Alan Silva, Jo Maka, Jimmy Lyons, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy, Lee Konitz, Paul Motian, Joe Lovano, Kenny Wheeler, Steve Coleman, Joëlle Léandre or Garrett List. He taught in I.A.C.P.(Institut Art Culture Perception), in Paris, from 1977 to 1986. This school was built by Alan Silva, around the concept of 'Musical perception', and gathered a lot of musicians such as Itaru Oki, Denis Colin, Didier Petit, Bruno Girard, Pascal Bréchet, or crossed the way of Bill Dixon, Alex Von Schlippenbach, Bernard Vitet, Charles Tyler, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor and so on. F.Cotinaud taught there musical improvisation and perception, saxophone contemporary approaches, and became General Director of this music school from february 82 to march 85. He is involved in pedagogy through many workshops and master classes, teaching improvisation and soundpainting to students and music teachers. Composer, musician, soundpainter At that time, he founded Texture ensemble (1977-1987), with Denis Colin (bass clarinet). He did many concerts with Texture, wtih Alan Silva's Celestrial Orchestra, and also with Serge Adam, Pascal Bréchet, Marc Buronfosse, Kent Carter, Christian Darré, Manuel Denizet, Gildas Etevenard, Emek Evci, Glenn Ferris, Bobby Few, Claudine François, Chris Hayward, Denis Van Hecke, Carole Hémard, Chris Henderson, Steve Lacy, Daunik Lazro, François Mechali, Jouk Minor, Roland Molinier, François Nicolas, M'ra Oma Brotherwood, Jean-Luc Ponthieux, Sun Ra, Enrico Rava, Philippe Seignez, Charles Tyler, Mike Zwerin. In 1985, he created a quartet with the incredible drummer Ramon Lopez, Heriberto Paredes and Thierry Colson, and later with Gilles Coronado on guitar. His CD " Loco solo " (1998) inspired by Luciano Berio shows his taste for contemporary music mingled with improvised and subversive musical language. He played with the percussionist Pierre Charpy, with electro-acoustic systems, around some texts of Arthur Rimbaud ("Rimbaud et M.A.O."). " Yo m'enamori " displays his fascination for Eastern music and also his Mediterranean sensitivity through the prism of a contemporary second reading freed from the tradition, together with pianist Sylvie Cohen. In 1999, he jointed the Alka collectif, for which he wrote 'Son Fabrique et Voix', a musical version of the poetic world of french writers Velter, Pagnier, and Bartelt. Doing so, he get back to poetry and words's games, creating a new version of "François Cotinaud fait son Raymond Queneau" in 2001, then "Parade sauvage" (around Rimbaud) in 2004, founding the Text'Up ensemble (with singer Pascale Labbé, François Choiselat (tb), Jérôme Lefebvre (g) et Sylvain Lemêtre (perc). En 2007, he founds a new duet around poetry, intitled Poetica Vivace ! (with celloist Deborah Walker) and is involved in Haliple group of François Choiselat, and in SPOUMJ directed by François Jeanneau (Soundpainting Orchestra, Union of the Jazz Musicians). En 2010, he creats the KLANGFARBEN orchestra with François Choiselat and 12 artists (musicians, actor, dancer), based on soundpainting and improvisation. He plays also in Left trio with Joelle Leandre and François Merville, and Air Lunch (Valentine Quintin, Philippe Lemoine).

Dans le spectacle "Mue du Monde" (ph. Rappeneau)

François Cotinaud in "Rimbaud et M.A.O."

Rimbaud et son double (DOUBLE CD + DVD)	CD1 "RIMBAUD ET M.A.O." François Cotinaud (saxophone (tenor, soprano), clarinet, voice, composer) Pierre Charpy (percussions, electroacoustics) CD2 "PARADE SAUVAGE" Ensemble Text'up Pascale Labbé (voice) François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones, clarinet, compositions, voice) François Choiselat (trombone) Jérôme Lefebvre (guitar) Sylvain Lemêtre (percussions) + DVD (reali. Mathilde Morières)
14. RIMBAUD ET SON DOUBLE (2cd+DVD) 2006 Ref : Musivi MJB 012-13-14 CD
	Ensemble Text'up Pascale Labbé (voice) François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones, clarinet, compositions, voice) François Choiselat (trombone) Jérôme Lefebvre (guitar) Sylvain Lemêtre (percussions) + Serge Adam (trumpet) guest soloist
13. TEXT-UP "François Cotinaud fait son Raymond Queneau"  2002 Ref : Musivi MJB 010 CD
	François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones) Sylvie Cohen (piano)
12. Yo M'enamori (cd) 1999 14 mélodies judéo-espagnoles Ref  : Musivi MJB 008 CD Mélodie	CADENCE "The melodies stand by themselves and offer centuries of wisdom wrapped in bittersweet lyricism." Steven Loewy
	François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones, composition, voice)
11. Loco Solo (cd) 1998 Improvisations around Sequenza IX of Luciano Berio. Solo, texts by R.Queneau, C.Baudelaire, F.Cotinaud. Ref : Musivi MJB 006 CD
	Pablo Nemirovsky (bandonéon, flute, compositions) François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones) S. Gruz (p) R. Molinier (b) S. Maitra (perc)
10. Calcuttango (cd) 1994 Tierra del Fuego Ref  : Musivi MJB 005 CD/ Tangram 852 005 Orkhestra International
	Ramón López (drums) François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones)
9. Opéra (cd) 1993 Duo improvisé Ref  : Musivi MJB 004 CD
	François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones) Glenn Ferris (tb) Enrico Rava (tp) Heri Paredes (p) Thierry Colson (b) Ramón López (dm)
8. Pyramides (cd) 1992 Sextet Ref  : Musivi MJB 003 CD
	François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones) Heri Paredes (p) Thierry Colson (b) Ramón López (dm)
7. Princesse (cd) 1990 Quartet Ref  : Musivi MJB 002 CD
	Youen Le Berre (fl) Jacques Zanettacci (htb, fh) Nano Peylet (cl) Denis Colin (cl, bcl) François Creamer (bcl) Bertrand Auger (cbcl) Simon Spang-Hanssen (st, ss) François Cotinaud (soprano and tenor saxophones) Philippe Sellam (sa) Carl Schlosser (sb) Jean-Pierre Chaty (bs) Michel Barré, Bernard Della Nave, Howard Hyde, Michel Toreilles (tp) Philippe Lapeyre, Stefan Legée (tb) Denis Davazoglou (tbb) Florent Barrois, Jean-Michel Tavernier (cor) Gabriel Capet, Philippe Legris (tuba) Michel Risse, Louis Moutin (dm) Pierre Marcault (perc) Vincent Limouzin (vib) François Moutin (b) Vincent Le Masne (syn) Jean-Michel Bernard (p) Laurent Petitgirard (dir) Luc Le Masne (dir, compositions)
6. Le Cercle de Pierres (cd) 1986 Békummernis Ref  : Ménélas 002 CD
5. Polygames (33t) 1983 Texture label IACP	François Cotinaud (tenor saxophone) Denis Colin (bcl) Michel Coffi (dm) Bruno Girard (vl) Pierre Jacquet (b) Itaru Oki (tp, bugle)
	F.Cotinaud en 1982 (Photo Alain Dagbert/Viva)
	Pierre Faure, Carl Schlosser, Aldridge Hansberry (fl) Catherine Carrot (acl) Jean Querlier (htb) Denis Colin (bcl) Pascal Morrow, Bruno Girard (vl) Didier Petit (vcl) Jeff Beer, Serge Adam, Bernard Vitet, Itaru Oki (tp, bugle) Michael Zwerin, Doménico Criseo (tb) Georges Gaumont, François Cotinaud, Arthur Doyle (st) Philippe Sellam, Sébastien Franck (as) Henri Grinberg (ss) Antoine Mizrahi, François Leymarie, Rosine Feferman (b) Francis Gorgé (g) Adrien Bitan, Jacques Marugg (vib) Bernard Drouillet, Ron Pittner, Gilles Premel (dm) François Cotinaud (arrangements) Alan Silva (dir. compositions)
3 & 4. Desert Mirage (33t) 1982 Célestrial label IACP
	François Cotinaud (tenor saxophone) Denis Colin (bcl) Michel Coffi (dm) Bruno Girard (vl) Pierre Jacquet (b) Itaru Oki (tp, bugle)
2. Texture sextet (33t) 1981 Texture label IACP
	Pierre Faure (fl) Georges Menousek (as) Georges Gaumont (st) Jo Maka (ss, as) Luc Le Masne (bs) Denis Colin (bcl, octcl, arrangements) Jouk Minor (bs, cbcl) Jacques Dolias, Catherine Lienhardt, Bruno Girard (vl) Hélène bass (vcl) Robert Garrison, Pierre Sauvageot, Bernard Vitet, Itaru Oki (tp, bugle) Adolf Winkler, Michael Zwerin (tb) Pierre Jacquet (b) Armand Assouline, Michel Coffi, Muhammad Ali (dm) François Cotinaud (tenor saxophone, arrangements) Alan Silva (direction, compositions)
1. Portrait for a small woman (33t) 1978 Célestrial Communication Orchestra label Sun Records
Photo Laurent Chekoun	photo Philippe Rappeneau