BIOGRAPHY
“Charismatic, sophisticated and charming performer leaving audiences spellbound in her wake” JAZZ FM
“Wow. Just wow.” LONDON JAZZ NEWS
“An astonishingly beautiful voice” BBC RADIO 4
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Gabrielle Ducomble is a Belgian-born vocalist and composer, renowned for her pure, beautiful voice, which combines elegance and powerful emotion. She has earned wide acclaim for her Parisian jazz and tango arrangements, presenting a fresh, contemporary take on iconic songs by the likes of Piaf, Piazzolla, Legrand and Brel, and becoming an ever popular performer in the UK and across Europe.
Ducomble’s latest innovative self-penned album, Across the Bridge, features twelve original compositions in English and her native French. Drawing on her love of jazz, chansons, tango, latin rhythm and new-age, the songs tell of uplifting stories and dreams on themes of nature, art, social justice and ideology.
Gabrielle has embarked on her fifth UK live tour last autumn to promote the new album with her band including guitar virtuoso Nicolas Meier.
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Gabrielle moved from her native Belgium to London following success reaching the final of the French Pop Idol in 2003 and studied jazz at the Guildhall in London. She is now performing with her own quintet and big band in addition to touring, television and radio appearances.
Gabrielle has performed at top London venues, from intimate jazz clubs to concert halls. She sang with the Aurora Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall as part of Southbank Centre Festival, at Ronnie Scott’s, The Royal Albert Hall, Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, Pheasantry, Crazy Coqs and many more.
Invited to perform for the EFG London Jazz Festival, she played to great acclaim in 2015, 2017 and 2019, also for the Jazz Divas series at St James Theatre twice alongside Jacqui Dankworth and Tina May. Another significant appearance was at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2017, singing to a full house, and ReVoice festival at the Apex further establishing herself as one of the rising stars on the jazz scene.
Interviewed on London Live TV and on BBC Radio 4‘s Loose Ends for the release of Notes from Paris album (Jazz FM’s Album of the Week) where presenter Emma Freud praised Gabrielle’s “astonishingly beautiful voice”.
She has recorded three albums and completed five UK tours, from Wakefield to St Ives gathering fans in Jazz Clubs, Theatres and Arts Centres. Further afield, she has played a series on concerts in Italy with accordionist Vincenzo Castrini, in Belgium at The Music Village with Mimi Verderame trio featuring Nicola Andrioli on piano, in Switzerland and San Francisco.
Many of her concerts are now happening in France where she relocated recently.
Gabrielle received rave reviews for her two special shows, The Michel Legrand Songbook (“Wow. Just wow” London Jazz News) at Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, and The Music of Claude Nougaro (‘Parfait’ Jazz in Europe) at the Crazy Coqs, two artists that have deeply affected and inspired her musical career.
More about Gabrielle…
Gabrielle was born in Belgium – her mother tongue is French – and started singing at a young age. Her talent was soon noticed, and she had success at local and national singing competitions. She first came to fame when she reached the final of the French Pop Idol in 2003. Along with the other finalists, she signed to BMG Sony France and the resulting album went double gold.
Gabrielle worked with the pop star Lara Fabian on her international tour ‘Un Regard Neuf’.
After hearing Dee Dee Bridgewater’s album Dear Ella, Gabrielle was inspired to explore deeper the Jazz realm.
She came to London and study jazz at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and, after graduating in 2009, soon made a name for herself as a technically brilliant singer in many styles, from bossa nova to swing to French chansons. Her speciality soon became Parisian-style jazz and tango, including well-known songs by the likes of Edith Piaf, Michel Legrand, Jacques Brel and Astor Piazzolla.
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In London she formed the Gabrielle Ducomble Band – Nicolas Meier on guitar, Richard Jones on violin, Ben Hazleton on double bass and Saleem Raman on drums.
She wrote many of the unique jazz arrangements of well-known French songs and jazz standards that appear on her albums J’ai Deux Amours (2011) and Notes from Paris (2014).
Notes from Paris album features modern jazz arrangements of songs such as ‘Je ne regrette rien’ , ‘I Will Wait for You’ and ‘Sous le Ciel de Paris’, with international musicians Nicolas Meier, Gilad Atzmon and Chris Garrick. Notes from Paris was acclaimed by critics, who called it “Polished, classy and refined … such a strong statement”. Jazz UK Magazine.
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