Didier Malherbe
Encyclopedia
Didier Antonin MalherbeDidier Antonin Malherbe (born January 22, 1943 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) is a saxophonist and flautist. He was one of the founders of the Canterbury sound
Canterbury Scene
The Canterbury scene is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s...

 band Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...

.

In Paris in May 1968 he met Australian singer, guitarist, poet and ex-Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...

 member Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen , sometimes credited as Divided Alien, an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong .-Biography:In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered...

, with whom he was to start Gong, an international community band incubated in Deya, Majorca, that toured France and Europe before appearing on the British scene starting at the first Glastonbury festival
Glastonbury Fayre
Glastonbury Fayre is a 1972 documentary film directed by Nicolas Roeg and Peter Neal of the 1971 Glastonbury Festival which was held on 20–24 June 1971.-About the film:...

 in June 1971.

Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...

 signed them in 1973, and their album Camembert Électrique appeared in the charts. Gong toured extensively around the UK and Europe while producing the albums of their "Radio Gnome trilogy": Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg and You. Malherbe was often billed as "Bloomdido Bad de Grass". In 1975, when Allen left Gong, Didier continued with the band in line-ups with Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s...

, Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett is a Fijian-born musician, Grammy Award winning producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia....

, Pierre Moerlen
Pierre Moerlen
Pierre Moerlen was a French drummer and percussionist, best known for his work with Gong and Mike Oldfield.-Biography:...

, 1975's Shamal, 1976's Gazeuse!
Gazeuse!
Gazeuse! is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in 1976. In the U.S., it was called Expresso.‎The album is jazz fusion and has little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen's Gong, even though the bands share a common history...

with Alan Holdsworth and Mino Cinelu
Mino Cinelu
Mino Cinelu is a French musician. He plays multiple instruments. He is a composer, programmer and producer; and is most often associated primarily for his work as a jazz percussionist.-Biography:Cinelu was born in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine...

.

Malherbe's turn to leave Gong came in 1978. Back in France, he put together his five-piece Bloom band; in 1980 he released an album on EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 which was rather jazz-rock in style. The most significant change of 'shape' came in 1994 with the start of his association with multi-instrumentalist Loy Ehrlich, and percussionist Steve Shehan performing his own brand of wind-led, acoustic ethnic-jazz. Under the name Hadouk Trio the band has toured and played with many artists in Europe, while Malherbe himself has continued to perform individually and with other artists (particullary Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms...

 and guitarist Pierre Bensusan
Pierre Bensusan
Pierre Bensusan is a French-Algerian guitarist. As a sephardic Jew, his family came from Spain, Spanish Morocco and French Algeria. The genre of his acoustic guitar music is often characterized as Celtic, Folk, World music, New Age, or Chamber jazz. He has also published three books of music and...

) in Japan and the U.S. In 2006 Hadouk released an album with pioneer American trumpeter Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.-Life and career:...

, Utopie.

External links

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