Henri Texier

Henri Texier (born January 27, 1945) is a French jazz double bassist born in Paris. He is perhaps best known for his 1960s work with Don Cherry and for his 1980s band the Transatlantik Quartet, which featured Joe Lovano, Steve Swallow and Aldo Romano. At the age of sixteen, fascinated by the double bass, Texier became a self-taught bassist, crediting Wilbur Ware most as an influence. He formed his first group with Georges Locatelli, Alain Tabar-Nouval, Jean-Max Albert and Klaus Hagel, inspired by the music of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman. In spite of an almost absence of recorded documents this group represents one of the very first expressions of free jazz in France ( 1965 ).

In 1967 he joined a group led by Jef Gilson where he met Bernard Vitet, Jean-Louis Chautemps, François Jeanneau, Stéphane Vilar, Jean-Luc Ponty... At the same period, he was introduced in the Parisian clubs by Daniel Humair, and worked with American musicians like Johnny Griffin, Phil Woods Bill Coleman, Chet Baker, Kenny Drew, Donald Byrd, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Dexter Gordon, Booker Ervin, Art Taylor.

Throughout the 1970s Texier remained active in Europe on the jazz scene, performing with musicians such as Gordon Beck, John Abercrombie and Didier Lockwood, among others. In 1982 he formed a quartet with Louis Sclavis. With the trio Romano-Sclavis-Texier, he collaborated in three albums having for theme Africa as seen by the photographer Guy Le Querrec: Carnet de routes, Suite africaine and African Flashback. His curiosity for the French Britain music brought him to work with Armorican jazzmen. In 1998, he participated in the album Condaghès ( Silex/Auvidis )

He published all his records as leader with the French label: Label Bleu.