The project : “I want to be a singer or a psychoanalyst when I grow up”, she wrote in her diary as a child. As I listened to her Live au 7 Lézards, recorded on the 11th of September 2006, I said to myself that in the end Clotilde Rullaud has become both. The nine tracks, selected from the worlds of jazz and pop (from Cole Porter to Prince and from Duke Ellington to Stevie Wonder), and enveloped by Hugo Lippi’s enchanting guitar, are a hymn to happiness and to life; a private journey where beauty and melancholy rub shoulders without seeking to rival each other. “Hugo and I have shared a great complicity when we play together”, Clotilde explains. “I love developing my sound through playing with others, creating minimal arrangements that are nonetheless vivid, incredibly delicate and of the moment. It is this instantaneity that I adore.” Live au 7 Lézards was born from this understanding, from this “free imprecision”. Seemingly classical in appearance, the music soon glides away on the wings of liberty that only jazz can offer, such as the surprising cover of Prince’s famous song Kiss, which is itself preceded by more than 40 minutes of pure enchantment in the company of the greatest or the most unexpected (Dorough, Rodgers, Lorentz, Jobim, Porter, Ellington, Irving, Wonder, Lennon &Mc Cartney). Lippi’s guitar dances with Clotilde’s voice, which itself caresses and surprises the hypnotised audience. “I wanted to make a lively and intimate record, which was evocative and sincere”, admits Clotilde, who loves the “blue note”, the devil’s note that hovers on the border between suffering and joy. “I adore Gabriel Fauré and Nat King Cole, Victor Hugo and Dostoyevsky, Bill Evans and Ella Fitzgerald. I am a pure romantic!” As soon as one has reached the end of this interior journey, one has but one desire: to start all over again. But here lies the miracle of jazz, for the second journey will never be quite the same as the first. “To sing is to contribute to the world’s happiness”, murmurs Clotilde in her dulcet tones. Her child’s diary was quite prophetic – music is truly a therapy. By Thierry Keller The biographie : Clotilde Rullaud - singer, lyricist, composer and actress Born in 1978, Clotilde entered the Conservatoire at the age of five, where she studied music and played the flute for 13 years. Fascinated by the great jazz singers of the past (Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Shirley Horn, Jeanne Lee, Nat King Cole, George Benson and Chet Baker) she performed frequently as a singer, actress and flutist. At the tender age of 18, while studying at the ESCP business school, she wrote, directed and produced a musical set in the 1930s (Georgia), which was staged at the Bataclan in Paris. In 1999 she undertook a course of study in Vocal Jazz and Flute Jazz at the I.A.C.P school (Lionel Belmondo, Sarah Lazarus, Vivianne Ginapée) and in vocal technic with the maestro tenor singer : Peterson Cowan. Clotilde developed a passion for other musical cultures, including gospel (with the Rital Song choir), blues, and gypsy music (classes in gypsy dance with Petzia Iourtchenko). Clotilde Rullaud has kept herself busy, performing as the narrator in a show for young people: Sur la route des Tziganes (Festival d’Avignon, Le Cap in Aulnay-sous-bois, XXème théâtre in Paris, Festival de Marne, Parc Floral in Vincennes, Cité de la Musique in Paris, etc.); she is also the singer/narrator of Monsieur Jazz, appearing alongside Sophie Alour, Jean-Baptiste Laya and Jean-Daniel Botta. In 2003 she formed her own jazz duo as a singer and composer, working with the guitarists Jean-Baptiste Laya, Hugo Lippi, Jean-Philippe Bordier and Dano Haider, and more recently the pianist Olivier Hutman (Franc Pinot, Sept Lézards, Café Universel, Festival Les Couleurs du Jazz, etc). Clotilde Rullaud is also a flutist in the Léonore quintet with Olivier Zano, Jean-Daniel Botta, Alexandre Saada and Laurent Séries, and has undertaken a range of recording work as a flutist, solo/chorus singer and voiceover artist. On the 11th of September 2006 she recorded her first self-produced album Live au 7 Lézards, the fruit of a year and a half’s collaboration with the guitarist Hugo Lippi. The Press : "“Well aware of this, he listened to Clotilde, whom he had not heard of before. But as soon as he heard her voice, he knew that she was quite something, with beautiful tessitura, perfect rhythmic placing, inflexion and remarkable expressivity; all of this in the perilous environment of a live duo with guitar, a situation that is much less risky though, when the guitarist is the excellent Hugo Lippi. There are a few weaknesses owing to it being a live recording, but those are easily forgiven. And she is self-produced as well! I could not believe it! I am sure that you will love Clotilde Rullaud. She deserves to go far..." JAZZMAG – MAY 2008 “Another ZAP column revelation is Clotilde Rullaud. She has a gripping voice, with a certain wonderful gravity, putting us in mind of Nina Simone.” JAZZMAN – MAY 2008