Born in Bayonne in 1935, Michel Portal is a recognized master of contemporary jazz and a truly “borderless” musician. The French composer and multi-instrumentalist (primarily saxophone and clarinet) has also gained wide public acclaim for his film scores, winning the César Award for Best Original Music three times—in 1983, 1985, and 1988. In the field of contemporary music, he has worked with figures such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. His many collaborations also include artists who have performed multiple times at I Suoni delle Dolomiti, such as Paolo Fresu and Richard Galliano.
In addition to wind instruments, in which he excels, Portal plays the bandoneon—a symbolic instrument of tango—with deep emotional intensity. His openness to exploring different musical languages led him, from as early as the 1960s, to engage with diverse elements of both European and world musical traditions, ranging from the classical repertoire (Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, Berg) to pure jazz improvisation, performing alongside artists like John Surman, Steve Lacy, Dave Liebman, and the entire French jazz scene.
He once said:
“When I was young, I used to go to flamenco parties where dancers would perform with perfect technique; but at the end of the evening, there was always someone, a little drunk, who, driven by the rhythm, would climb up on a table and begin to dance clumsily. For purists, these spontaneous bailadores were laughable. But I found them more moving than the dancers themselves, because they were authentic—they were trying to interpret the dance in their own way. It was an attempt to reach the heart of the rhythm, unafraid to mix different cultures.”
