Jean-Michel Defaye (born 18 September 1932) is a French pianist, composer, arranger and conductor known for his collaboration with French poet and singer-songwriter Léo Ferré.
He was born in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne near Paris, on 18 September 1932. Aged ten he entered the Paris Conservatoire and completed his musical training in theory, piano and composition, taking in Nadia Boulanger's accompaniment class. In 1952 he won the Premier Second Grand Prix de Rome and the following year he won second prize in composition for the Belgian Queen Elisabeth competition.
As a composer he wrote mostly for brass and especially trombone.
As an arranger, he worked during ten years with Léo Ferré. He is mostly known by general public in France today for this body of work. At piano in the Olympia Big Band.