Classical in the fingers, jazz in the head… Roland Dyens shared – in every corner of the world – concerts, composition and guitar teaching. This triple alliance was the very basis of the indisputable success of this constantly evolving musician. His recitals were events, real shocks for some or very inspiring experiences for others. Some, more strangers to the instrument, even spoke of «reconciliation» with the classical guitar!
Roland Dyens’ master classes brought together a growing number of audiences, attracted both by the content of his rich and innovative discourse and by the sincere closeness of the man he was with the guitarists of the younger generation. With them, it was not a question of formal confrontations but of happy encounters centered on quality and emotion.
Roland Dyens’ compositions and his fabulous arrangements, played all over the world today, are unanimous and bring new life to this guitar, whose limits he constantly pushed: Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk), Nuages (Django Reinhardt), A felicidade (Antonio Carlos Jobim), My Funny Valentine (Richard Rodgers), Indifférence (Tony Murena), Night and Night (Cole Porter), Bluesette (Toots Thielemans) … as many pearls as the GHA label prides itself on having on its catalogue.
Roland Dyens died in Paris on 29 October 2016. Since 4 November 2016, he has been resting at the Montparnasse cemetery, not far from Baudelaire, Maupassant, Beckett, Brancusi, Soutine, Gainsbourg, Sartre et Beauvoir…
Roland Dyens was a professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris.