Daniel Yvinec is the first Artistic Director appointed to head the Orchestre National de Jazz for a renewable three-year mandate, and follows the other musical directors who, through nine different projects undertaken since the birth of the Orchestra in 1986, have chronicled the history of this unique "institution" created on the initiative of the French Ministry of Culture. The nomination of an artist with such a freewheeling and remarkable career to create and defend a project as audacious as it is demanding is a sign of the ONJ's ambition to evolve, secure in its orchestral heritage, to reaffirm its status as a creative laboratory by enriching its missions and taking them to a wider audience. Daniel Yvinec is ready to take up the challenge of discovering new ways of working characterised by their openness to other players, musical and artistic forms, putting into effect original playing strategies and hitherto unknown orchestral configurations. It is as an inventor of fertile crossovers and as a unifying force that he will work to bring his creations to life, calling upon the assistance and inventiveness of numerous partners and writers, not to mention prestigious invited guests. Daniel Yvinec's intention is to give the ONJ a transversal dimension and take it along a new path, and to do so he will accord equal importance to workshops and pedagogy, so that the orchestra, strong in its ambition, will reach out to new audiences.

Bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Daniel Yvinec – who transforms himself into Yvinek when he devotes his energies to electronica – is remarkable for his atypical and cosmopolitan career path. Insatiably curious about all forms of music past and present, while at the same time firmly rooted in jazz tradition, it's a path that's naturally crossed those of the many different artists he has worked with live and in the studio, including Maceo Parker, Tania Maria, Salif Keita, Mark Turner, John Cale, Suzanne Vega, David Sylvian, Hector Zazou, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Andy Bey, Michael Leonhart, Donald Fagen, Dead Can Dance, Magic Malik, David Fiuczynski, Wayne Krantz… Standing back from the limelight, he's also, with boldness and finesse, produced albums for Brisa Roché, Nelson Veras, Stéphane Guillaume, Greg Zlap and Lilicub.
Yvinec conceives his own projects with independence of mind, either alone or in the company of talented acolytes. His first album, the electro-jazz manifesto Recycling the Future, was released in 2002 and brought him international acclaim. He also works frequently with pianist Guillaume de Chassy, with whom he's just recorded a fourth collaborative venture, calling upon the services of Paul Motian and Mark Murphy. This follows on from its three predecessors, Ghost of a Song and Chansons sous les bombes with André Minvielle, and the dreamlike Wonderful World, which reveals the universality of the great American standards. Yvinec has continued to explore these themes in other projects, notably Old Wine New Bottle – a singular instrumental formula he also presented live in 2007, in which acoustic and electronic instruments share the stage with Baschet crystals and toy instruments – and the élégant album The Lost Crooners, on which he is joined by Nelson Veras, Stéphane Galland, Médéric Collignon and Benoît Delbecq.
In addition to his activities as a musician, this indefatigable music lover, whose home contains some 30,000 records, is a member of the Académie Charles Cros, and keeps his musical passion, judgement and culture ever awake through different media : radio, press, workshops and teaching. He's also the author of The Umbrella Man (Livre de Poche) and is currently at work on Le Jazz expliqué aux enfants ("Explaining Jazz to Children"), scheduled for publication in 2009. He takes up his new position as Artistic Director of the Orchestre National de Jazz determined to take this 10th edition of the ONJ along with him on a truly passionate adventure.

De Chassy & Yvinec, Paul Motian, Mark Murphy, Songs from the Last Century, 2009, BEE JAZZ
Daniel Yvinec, The Lost Crooners, 2007, BEE JAZZ
Yvinek, Jazz In Paris Remixed, 2006, Universal Jazz
Guillaume de Chassy & Daniel Yvinec, Wonderful World, 2005, BEE JAZZ
Guillaume de Chassy & Daniel Yvinec, Chansons sous les bombes, 2004, BEE JAZZ
Yvinek, New Morning, A Dream Mix by Yvinek, 2004,BMG
Guillaume de Chassy & Daniel Yvinec, Ghost of a Song, 2003, Juste une trace
Yvinek, Recycling the Future, 2002, BMG