Benjamin Clément

GUITAR

Benjamin Clement was born in Brussels in 1975. He began learning to play the guitar as a teenager under the influence of his father, himself a guitar player.

His first interests were rock, blues and jazz. Later, he discovered the Django Reinhardt style of jazz, and while playing with musicians inspired by this style he met Tcha Limberger. Aside from the jazz, they both shared a big interest for East European and Balkan music that Benjamin had discovered while playing in Brussels with Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian musicians.

He  started to play Greek music and discovered the Rebetiko with singer bouzouki and guitar player Andreas Doussis. More recently he met Greek accordion player Dimos Vougioukas who at the time had recently settled in Brussels with whom he formed the Trio Tatavla alongside Tcha Limberger. 

He has played guitar duets and trios with Dominique Piérard from 1996 to 2006 and with the Christophe Astolfi quartet featuring Alexandre Tripodi from 2001 to 2003. Recently he is playing with the Koweit Reinhardt quartet, and with Renaud Crols and Renaud Dardenne in various musician combinations.

He is the first call guitarist with Roby Lakatos, accordionist Aurel  Budisteanu, cimbalom player Costel Ursulet and played in the band Zongora feat amazing Bulgarian clarinet player Mladen Mladenov and drummer Niki Alexandrov. With violin master Marcel Rîmba Benjamin  has become a master accompanist in the music of Transylvania.

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