FABRICE ZAMMARCHI is a French clarinetist and saxophonist born September 29, 1949. At 12 he began to learn clarinet in a marching band and started on soprano sax three years later. At the same time the listening to a Sidney Bechet's record gave him the revelation of jazz. From that moment his conversion to this music was definitive and Bechet became one of his heroes. Open to every kind of music, he improved classical clarinet and won first prize at the Paris Conservatoire. He played for a while with a quintet of contemporary music.

As a free lance musician, Fabrice Zammarchi appears with many traditional jazz groups as well in big bands on alto saxophone for French TV shows. He has played with French jazz clarinetists Claude Luter and Maxim Saury and American players Bob Wilber, Kenny Davern, Jim Galloway and Michael White among others.

Fabrice Zammarchi also leads his own quartet revisiting the Bechet's repertory in a swing idiom. The group appeared at the 1997 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to great enthusiasm from the audience and jazz critics.

Fabrice Zammarchi is also known in Europe as the finest specialist of Sidney Bechet's work. In 1989, the French publisher Daniel Filipacchi released his book "Sidney Bechet -- Passport to Paradise", a biographic album including a complete discography. He is the producer for Musisoft/Masters of Jazz of a complete Bechet's records reissue (12 CD's available). He published many articles in France and the United States, gave lectures in New Orleans, was consultant on documentaries for French TV network and the BBC. In 1996 he organized the "April in Paris Conference" with La Sorbonne (Paris) and the W.E.B Du Bois Institute (Harvard University). In 1997 he was co-artistic director, with Dr. Michael White, of the Sidney Bechet Centennial in New Orleans.

Zammarchi is currently completing preparation of a new book: "BeBop Clarinet ", bio-discography of star clarinetist Buddy DeFranco.