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| Jean-michel Pilc Trio Celebration of Live At Iridium CD Jean-Michel Pilc, Piano; Thomas Bramerie, Bass; Mark Mondesir, Drums. For one week only in the United States from September 14th -18th, 2005. They are celebrating the soon to be released Live in New York CD. Born in 1960 in Paris, self-taught, Jean-Michel Pilc has played with some of the best American and European jazz musicians: Roy Haynes, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Jean Toussaint, Rick Margitza, Martial Solal, Michel Portal, Daniel Humair, Marcus Miller, Kenny Garrett, Lenny White, Chris Potter, John Abercrombie, Lew Soloff and Richard Bona. He has also worked with Harry Belafonte, as his musical director and pianist. While living in Europe, Jean-Michel toured in forty countries and participated in more than a dozen recordings, as well as many film scores. Jean-Michel's desire to expand his musical experience brought him to New York City in 1995. There, he formed a trio with Francois Moutin (bass) and Ari Hoenig (drums). Soon, they were performing in most jazz venues in NYC, including: Blue Note, Birdland, Knitting Factory and Sweet Basil. They recorded a one week engagement at Sweet Basil and, in 2000, released 2 CDs Jean-Michel Pilc Trio - Together - Live at Sweet Basil, NYC - Vol. 1 & 2 (A-Records) which have received an exceptional critical acclaim in the US and in Europe. Then Pilc signed a multirecord deal with Dreyfus Jazz. Pilc's first album for Dreyfus, Welcome Home (featuring the same trio), was released beginning of 2002 and got rave reviews from the press, lots of airplay as well as high sales figures. The Jean-Michel Pilc Trio quickly acquired a brilliant reputation on the international scene. In 2002 alone, they did a 5 week tour for the release of Welcome Home, followed by a 4 week fall tour of 7 European countries (including the Rising Stars Tour in Germany, Austria & Switzerland). They have recently performed in numerous festivals & venues around the world (NYC, Philly, DC, Chicago, Boston, Montreal, North Sea, Tokyo, Juan, Marciac, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK, Italy, Ireland, etc...). A recent Chicago engagement inspired Neil Tesser to write: "Pilc's playing reveals a roaring fire that all but consumes the cosmopolitan sheen stereotypical of European music.... he creates an admirable trialogue with his band mates (bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Ari Hoenig), that represents another stage in the evolution of the interplay brought to piano jazz by Bill Evans." The Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich found that "Pilc took his place among the most accomplished and stylistically daring jazz pianists working today." And Eric Brace wrote in the Washington Post that: "His densely harmonic reinventions of standards you thought you knew clearly shows a musical genius at work." Pilc's next album for Dreyfus, Cardinal Points was released in 2003 and received extraordinary reviews: JazzTimes said it "should be studied in every music school in the galaxy..." choosing the CD as one of Top 50 Picks for Critics Picks 2003; and a four Star "Hot Box" review in Down Beat said it's "...ridiculously well-balanced, and trading in the kind of grace that still has the power to shake a room. Keith Jarrett found something similar... Pilc's nudging it a bit further down the line" Jean-Michel just released his first solo album, Follow Me (Dreyfus). In 2004, he has been intensively touring worldwide (US, Europe, North Africa, Jamaica...), performing solo and with his "New Trio", featuring Thomas Bramerie (bass) and Mark Mondesir (drums). In addition to his solo & trio engagements, he teaches in clinics and master classes. As a sideman, he has recently played and recorded with drummer Ari Hoenig (The Painter on Smalls Records), vocalists Elisabeth Kontomanou and J-D Walter, bassist/vocalist Richard Bona (Scenes from my life on Sony/Columbia), soprano saxist Sam Newsome (latest Palmetto release), and altist Rosario Giuliani (upcoming Dreyfus release). His new release is a CD recorded live at Iridium write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |