b. 1956, Paris, France. A self-taught musician, Barthélémy took up the guitar in 1970 but remained undecided on a career for some years, shifting between music and mathematics. Late in 1978, his mind was made up when he was hired by Michel Portal. Barthélémy had lived a suburban childhood and was deeply affected by the musical sounds of his formative years, notably jazz rock, folk punk and atonal funk, with an ongoing leaning towards the avant garde in many musical styles. After Portal he played in various bands, often as founder and driving force, stylistically in the jazz rock fusion genre popular in the 70s. These bands included d’Œdipe, the Ensemble Moderne in Frankfurt, the Orchestre National Des Pays De Loire, Ars Nova, and the Orchestre De Lille. In 1987, he drew on a rich pool of European jazz talent to form the Orchestre National De Jazz (ONJ), recording with this band from 1989-91. He worked in a variety of artistic settings, including accompanying Malian singer Nahawa Dumbia, performing incidental music for Shakespeare (with Gilles Bouillon), in the plastic arts (with Peter Sinclair and Kiki Picasso), and ballet. Over a period of two decades he often worked with a regular trio, the others being Jean-Luc Ponthieux (bass) and Manuel Denizet (drums). Among other musical companions over these years are Daunik Lazro (saxophone), Claude Tchamitchian (bass), and Christophe Marguet (drums). In the early 00s, Barthélémy worked on a new album with father and son Jacques Mahieux (drums) and Nicolas Mahieux (bass), Didier Ithursarry (accordion), and Frank Tortiller (vibraphone). On Sereine he was also joined by guests Elise Caron (voice), Médéric Collignon (cornet/voice), Philippe Lemoine (saxophones), Jean-Louis Pommier (trombone), and Bojan Z. (keyboards). In November 2002, Barthélémy, who also plays oud and bouzouki, formed his second ONJ composing many new works for the occasion. As a guitarist, Barthélémy is a very fleet player, he has been publicized as the world’s fastest guitarist, and displays a penchant for musical and stylistic quotations, touching on artists from pop, rock and jazz as diverse as Django Reinhardt, Steely Dan, Keith Richards, and John Coltrane, and classicists such as Pierre Boulez, François Couperin, and Anton Webern.