Jean-Marc Jafet is a French bassist and composer, born on May 8, 1956 in Nice. He plays electric bass above all and double bass on many sessions, and his name runs through French jazz and fusion credits from a 1982 session with Christian Escoudé to a record of his own released in 2018. English Wikipedia calls him one of the top bassists in France, and the Discogs profile of him describes him as one of the most recorded and in-demand bass players in the country. He is best known as the bassist of Trio Sud, the group he formed in 2000 with the guitarist Sylvain Luc and the drummer André Ceccarelli, and as the longtime bassist of Ceccarelli's trios.

He grew up in a musical family. English Wikipedia says his father was a guitarist and his mother a singer, and Le Jazzophone's 2015 portrait names the father as Maurice Jafet, a gypsy jazz guitarist who taught him; Maurice Jafet is credited on guitar on "Nice Babik" on his son's album Mes Anges (2004). Jafet began as a drummer in the 1960s and moved to bass in 1978 to play with the Brazilian duo Les Étoiles, according to English Wikipedia. Le Jazzophone adds that the change happened in Cannes and that Jaco Pastorius became one of his idols. The Brazilian connection runs through his early records: Les Étoiles and the singer Marcia Maria both appear in the credits of his first album, and he plays bass and percussion on Marcia Maria's Colo de Rio (Caravage, 1985).

The earliest credit found is Christian Escoudé Group Featuring Toots Thielemans (JMS 022), recorded at Ramses Studio in Paris in April 1982 and issued in 1983. Jafet is credited on bass and percussion, with Escoudé on guitars, Tony Rabeson on drums, Olivier Hutman on keyboards and Toots Thielemans on harmonica, and he is credited as the composer of "Dolores", the title he gave to his own first album three years later. French Wikipedia says he played in Escoudé's group in the 1980s. In 1985 he was on bass on Richard Galliano's Spleen (CY Records, recorded at Studio Davout in June 1985), where he also wrote "M. F.".

His own first album, Dolores (Cerise JJG 003, 1985), is a nine-track LP of his compositions on which he plays bass and sings. The Discogs credits list Galliano on accordion, Escoudé on guitar, Didier Lockwood on violin, the trombonist Denis Leloup, Ceccarelli among six drummers, the singers Marcia Maria and La Velle, and Les Étoiles on vocals.

Late in the decade he was part of two larger French ensembles. On Offering Part 1 - Part 2 (Jaro, 1986), by the group of the drummer Christian Vander, he is credited on bass on "Earth". He also played bass in the Orchestre national de jazz under Antoine Hervé, on O.N.J. 87 (Label Bleu LBLC 6511, issued in 1988), with Ceccarelli on drums, Nguyên Lé on guitar and Glenn Ferris on trombone; French Wikipedia lists the Orchestre national de jazz among his 1980s engagements.

With Ceccarelli and the keyboardist Thierry Eliez he then formed the trio that recorded Hat Snatcher (Phonogram 512 295-2, 1992) and 3 Around the 4 (Verve 522 437-2, recorded on March 7 to 9, 1994), an album of Beatles songs. Jafet is credited on electric bass on Hat Snatcher, which won the Victoires du jazz for instrumental jazz album of the year in 1993; French Wikipedia adds a Djangodor for French jazz formation. He is also the bassist on Ceccarelli's Dansez sur moi (Phonogram, 1990), a trio record with Eliez on vocals, piano and synthesizer.

His second album under his own name, Agora (JMS 18639-2, 1994), was recorded at Studio Sun in Paris between July 1993 and September 1994. All twelve pieces are his compositions, and each title carries a dedication, among them Miles Davis, Milton Nascimento, his parents, Babik Reinhardt, Luc ("Jafnatol") and Pastorius ("Spiritus"). The notes list Luc on guitar, Jean-Yves Candela on piano and synthesizers, François Laizeau on drums, Leloup on trombone, Stéphane Belmondo on trumpet on two tracks and Ceccarelli on drums on two. Live au Parc Floral (RDC Records 40050.2, 1996) is a quartet record with Luc, Eliez, Laizeau and Leloup, and eight of its nine tracks are Agora titles. In between he played on Babik Reinhardt's Vibration (RDC Records 40045-2, 1995), on five of its eight tracks. Reinhardt returned the favor on Jafet's Douceur Lunaire (RDC Records 40068.2, 2000), as guest guitarist on three tracks, alongside Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo and the harmonica player Olivier Ker Ourio; Jafet plays bass guitar and contrabass there and orchestrated seven of the ten pieces.

Trio Sud made three albums. Sud (Dreyfus Jazz FDM 36612-2, 2000) credits Jafet on double bass and as composer of "Bella Vista", "Jade et Melody", "Mojo" and "Roots 6406". Trio Sud (FDM 36632-2, 2002) was recorded at Studio Ferber in Paris on October 14 to 16, 2001, and he wrote "Don't Tell Me" for it; the trio won the Victoires du jazz in 2003, in the category of French instrumental artist or group of the year. Young and Fine (FDM 46050 369172) was recorded in October 2007 and released in 2008.

In the 2000s he also led his own groups on record. Mes Anges (Cristal Records CR CD04-18, 2004) has him on contrabass and as composer of nine of its twelve pieces, with Luc, Escoudé, David Reinhardt and his father Maurice as guitarists, Ker Ourio on harmonica, and pieces by Cedar Walton, Wes Montgomery and Horace Silver. Live Moments, billed to the Jean-Marc Jafet Quartet (Cristal Records CRCD0625), was recorded by Radio France at the Duc des Lombards in Paris on December 16, 2005, for Claude Carrière's programme Jazz Club, with Eliez on piano, Leloup on trombone and Yoann Serra on drums; the singer Michel Jonasz wrote the liner notes. Jafet had also played bass on Jonasz's "La Femme du parfumeur" (2005).

His sideman work in those years included Emanuele Cisi's Urban Adventures (Elabeth, 2004), on which he shares the double bass chair with Simone Monnanni; the Thierry Maillard Trio's Entre Deux Mondes (Cristal Records, 2005), for which he is also credited as a producer; Escoudé's Ma Ya. Ya (Nocturne, 2005); the guitarist Eddy Waeldo's Favelas (La Lichère, 2005); and, in 2014, the guitarist Richard Manetti's Groove Story (Label Bleu). His most recent leader album listed on Discogs is Le Meilleur Moment du Monde (VLF Productions VLF JM-J1, 2018), recorded at Studio 26 in Antibes with Franck Amsallem on piano, Linus Olsson on guitar, Stéphane Guillaume on saxophone and flute, Alain Asplanato on drums and the singers Christian Fernandez and Marjorie Martinez; Jafet plays electric bass and sings. In 2015 Le Jazzophone described him as leading groups called Nice Quartet, Riviera Quintet, Live Moments and Agora, and as still working with Galliano's Tangaria project.

Jafet is first an electric bassist who moves to double bass on acoustic dates such as Sud, Mes Anges and Urban Adventures, and his writing leans on Brazilian rhythm and fusion harmony more than on straight-ahead swing. His early records are tied to the Brazilian singers and percussionists around Les Étoiles and Marcia Maria; French Wikipedia lists his genres as jazz, fusion and Latin music, and Discogs files Dolores and Agora under jazz and fusion. Le Jazzophone names Jaco Pastorius as one of his idols, and Agora closes with "Spiritus", dedicated to Pastorius; the album's other dedications include Miles Davis and Milton Nascimento, and on records he has played pieces by Horace Silver, Cedar Walton and Wes Montgomery. His father's gypsy jazz guitar is part of the background, and he has recorded with players from that tradition, among them Babik Reinhardt and David Reinhardt. He plays Markbass amplification, according to the manufacturer's artist page. No interview in which he describes his own approach was found, so this section is limited to what the records and portraits show.