Sylvin Marc was born in 1949 at Masomeloka, Madagascar.

Sylvin played banjo-mandolin from the age of 8. His father loved the sound that was created by a guitar – he bought him his first guitar and taught Sylvin his first chords. In 1962, armed with his Hofner 3 Pick Up [a gift from his father], he attended the Lycee in Madagascar, where he joined his first group “The Blues Guitars”. The group didn’t have a bass guitar, so Sylvin set about building one – the trouble was he used piano strings!

Sylvin played at all the college gigs, and thanks to his teachers, especially Madame Soleillant, he started to listen to the music of Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. And when he first heard James Brown, he was blown away! Ships arriving at the port of Tamatave from Marseille, Hamburg, Liverpool and New York enabled Sylvin to keep up with the latest ‘vinyl’.

By 1971, Sylvin owned a Hofner-violin, and left home and headed for Paris, at a time when the city was home to some great studios and was attracting ambitious and talented musicians from all over the world. After a difficult start, including two nights sleeping in the Paris Metro with his family, and his first ever cold and snowy winter, Sylvin started working as a session musician. He performed with many artists, including Yvan Julien, Didier Lockwood, Eddy Louiss, Byard Lancaster, Khen Jamal, Ted Curson, Jean Pierre Mas, Nina Simone, Catherine Lara, Michel Jonasz, Julien Clerc, Veronique Sanson, Manu Dubango, Maxime Leforestier, Sacha Distel, Andre Ceccarelli.

After two years working with his brother Justin, in their own band, Sylvin went freelance.