Ivan Jullien was a French trumpeter, arranger, conductor and bandleader, born on October 27, 1934 in Vincennes, just east of Paris. He began working as a professional trumpeter in the mid-1950s, and he led several big bands, among them the Paris Jazz All Stars, while becoming best known, according to franceinfo, as an arranger for singers and film. He passed away on January 3, 2015 at Étampes, south of Paris, at the age of 80, of respiratory failure linked to pneumonia.

His early years were spent in the dance and big-band orchestras of the Paris scene: franceinfo's obituary names the orchestras of Benny Bennett, Jacques Hélian and Alix Combelle, the big band of Claude Bolling and the Grand Orchestre de l'Olympia. In 1964 he was an added member of Joey and the Showmen, the group that backed Johnny Hallyday at the Olympia. At the same time he became an arranger. AllMusic says he found early work arranging for the Barclay label in the 1960s, and on Discogs his name appears as orchestra leader or arranger on records for Henri Salvador (the 1966 single "Juanita Banana" is credited to "Orchestre Yvan Jullien"), Claude Nougaro (he arranged "Le K du Q" in 1977) and Baden Powell (the 1972 Barclay LP credits his arrangements of "Largo", "Lapinha" and "Aria"). franceinfo's obituary adds Charles Aznavour, Johnny Hallyday, Sacha Distel, Nicoletta and the Count Basie Orchestra to the singers and bands he worked for, Michel Legrand among the composers, and the 1966 film Un homme et une femme among the films.

The jazz side of his career runs alongside that work. In February 1966 he led the Paris Jazz All Stars into the Studios Davout in Paris to record Paris Point Zéro, issued on Riviera. The band was a who's who of the French scene of the day: the trumpeters Bernard Vitet, Fred Gérard, Maurice Thomas and Roger Guérin beside Jullien, the saxophonists Michel Portal, Bob Garcia and Jacques Noureddine, the organist and pianist Eddy Louiss, the drummers André Arpino and Charles Bellonzi, and the percussionist Bernard Lubat. Jullien takes the trumpet solos on "Mister Gertberg" and "Dainaya". Between March 1968 and February 1969 he recorded the tracks of Riviera Sound N°1 as Big Jullien and His All Star, a set of short, punchy pieces that includes Charles Mingus's "Timesquare" and has Eddy Louiss on organ, Maurice Vander and Michel Colombier on piano and Pierre Cullaz on guitar. In 1968 he played trumpet and wrote the arrangements on Louiss's self-titled Barclay album.

The early 1970s were his most productive years as a leader. A French-language version of Jesus Christ Superstar, adapted by Pierre Delanoë and released on Barclay with Jullien arranging and conducting the Ivan Jullien Big Band, is dated 1970 on Discogs. On April 19 and June 14, 1971 the big band recorded Secret Service at the Studios Barclay-Hoche, a Riviera LP with Jean-Louis Chautemps and Bob Garcia among the saxophonists, Michel Graillier on piano and André Ceccarelli on drums, with Jullien soloing on every track. The same year, with Louiss on organ, he made Porgy and Bess, his reworking of Gershwin's score for a large band that adds French horns and tuba; AllMusic calls it a fusion-infused take on Gershwin and it was reissued in the Verve "Jazz in Paris" series in 2000. On October 14, 1973 he conducted a long piece of his own, "Stanislas Percussive Gavotte", at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations festival in front of a band that included the saxophonist John Surman, the percussionist Louis Moholo, Daniel Humair, André Ceccarelli and Bernard Lubat on drums, and Louiss on electric organ; the tape was issued on vinyl in 2019 as Live at Nancy Jazz Pulsations.

In 1976 he wrote and arranged most of Synthesis, an electric jazz-rock record released by Arc in France (and in 1977 by Malaco in the United States and Movieplay in Portugal), on which he plays trumpet beside the violinist Didier Lockwood, the saxophonist and synthesizer player Franéois Jeanneau, the bassist Tony Bonfils and Ceccarelli. In 1983 he released the LP L'Orchestre on Bingow Records, and he made film-music records with Hubert Rostaing, Tir groupé / Ronde de nuit (Milan, 1983) and La Baston (Epic, 1985). In 1981 he arranged and conducted four pieces on Michel Portal's film-music album L'Ombre rouge.

From 1982 he also taught. French Wikipedia says that Alain Guerrini, founder of the Centre d'informations musicales (CIM), asked him to take over the jazz class that Jef Gilson had been teaching, and that he went on to teach orchestration and arranging for more than twenty years; franceinfo adds that this was largely at the CIM. With Jean-Loup Cataldo he wrote the five-volume Traité de l'arrangement (Media Musique), whose first volume appeared in 2005 with a preface by Didier Lockwood, and he had earlier published Technique de l'arrangement (Distingo, 1992).

His career was recognised late and often. The Académie du Jazz gave him its Prix Django-Reinhardt in 1971, he received a Victoire de la musique for his body of work in 2003 and the Sacem's Grand Prix du jazz in 2009, and he was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2009 he formed a new large ensemble, the Grand Orchestre d'Ivan Jullien. Universal's Complete Riviera Recordings (2012, two CDs in the Jazz in Paris series) collected Paris Point Zéro, Riviera Sound N°1 and Secret Service. His last big-band session, recorded at the Studio Davout on April 17, 2016 and January 4 and 5, 2017 with the singer David Linx, the trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo, Didier Lockwood and André Ceccarelli among the soloists and guests, appeared in 2018 as Studio Davout on the Continuo Jazz label.

Jullien worked at the same time as a jazz trumpeter and bandleader and as one of France's most sought-after studio arrangers. AllMusic lists his styles as modern big band, electric jazz, fusion and hard bop, and its related-artists list for him names Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand and Henry Mancini. His big-band records draw on the American tradition: a Mingus tune on Riviera Sound N°1, a second Mingus piece on Secret Service, an opening medley on that album that credits Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, George Gershwin and Louis Armstrong as writers, and the Gershwin score of Porgy and Bess expanded for organ, horns and tuba. Electric guitar, organ and electric bass give the band a contemporary sound, and Synthesis pushes the same writing into jazz-rock and fusion. On the big-band albums he is the featured trumpet soloist. His arranging for chanson and film, which filled much of his working life and made his name known to a wide public, sits largely outside jazz and is only touched on here.