Jean-Michel Pilc - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jean-Michel Pilc is a self-taught French-born jazz pianist currently residing in New York. His technical ability has drawn comparisons to Michel Petrucciani

Michel Petrucciani

Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...

, McCoy Tyner

McCoy Tyner

McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...

, and Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor

Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...

. Of particular note is Pilc's left-hand technique, which provides an almost ambidextrous approach to the keyboard. In addition to his own projects, he is a member of a group led by drummer Ari Hoenig

Ari Hoenig

Ari Hoenig , is a jazz drummer, composer and educator known for his unusual and intense approach to drumming emphasizing complex rhythms. He currently leads a group that makes regular appearances in New York jazz clubs including the 55 Bar and the Blue Note, in addition to performing worldwide...

Biography and musical career

Jean-Michel Pilc has played with Roy Haynes

Roy Haynes

Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...

, Michael Brecker

Michael Brecker

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, Dave Liebman

Dave Liebman

Dave Liebman is an American saxophonist and flautist. In June 2010, he received a NEA Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.-Biography:...

, Jean Toussaint

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Jean Toussaint is a jazz tenor saxophonist. He was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.Toussaint learned to play calypso as a child, and attended the Berklee College of Music in the late 1970s. In 1979 he played with Wallace Roney, and from 1982 to 1986 he was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz...

, Rick Margitza

Rick Margitza

Rick Margitza is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Margitza began playing violin at age four; his grandfather was a cellist and his father played violin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Following this he played piano and oboe, and settled on tenor sax while in Fordson high school...

, Martial Solal

Martial Solal

Martial Solal is a French jazz pianist and composer, who is probably most widely known for the music he wrote for Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film À bout de souffle .-Biography:...

, Michel Portal

Michel Portal

Michel Portal is a composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist.Portal studied clarinet at the Conservatoire de Paris...

, Daniel Humair

Daniel Humair

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, Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller

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, Kenny Garrett

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, Lenny White

Lenny White

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, Chris Potter

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, John Abercrombie

John Abercrombie (guitarist)

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, Lew Soloff

Lew Soloff

Lew Soloff is a jazz trumpeter, composer and actor. He studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He is likely best known for his work with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1968 to 1973...

and Richard Bona

Richard Bona

Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...

. He has also worked with Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

, 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 one film score.

Jean-Michel moved to New York City in 1995. There, he formed a trio with François Moutin (bass) and Ari Hoenig

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 the 2-CD Jean-Michel Pilc Trio - Together - Live at Sweet Basil, NYC - Vol. 1 & 2 (A-Records) which received critical acclaim in the US and in Europe. Then Pilc signed a multi-record deal with Dreyfus Jazz. Pilc's first album for Dreyfus, Welcome Home (featuring the same trio), was released at the beginning of 2002.

The Jean-Michel Pilc Trio did a 5-week tour for the release of Welcome Home in 2002, followed by a 4-week fall tour of seven European countries (including the Rising Stars Tour in Germany, Austria and Switzerland). They have recently performed in numerous festivals and venues around the world.

Pilc's next album for Dreyfus, Cardinal Points, was released in 2003. JazzTimes

JazzTimes

JazzTimes is a magazine that dates back to Radio Free Jazz, a publication founded in 1970 by Ira Sabin when he was operating a record store in Washington, DC. It was originally a newsletter designed to update shoppers on the latest jazz releases and provide jazz radio programmers with a means of...

chose the CD as one of its Top 50 Picks for Critics Picks 2003, and the album received a four-star "Hot Box" review in Down Beat

Down Beat

Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...

.

Cardinal Points features Jean-Michel's extended work "Trio Sonata", funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Jean-Michel also got several grants from Meet the Composer, as well as the Django Reinhardt Prize from the French Jazz Academy (in 2000).

In 2004, Pilc released his first solo album, Follow Me (Dreyfus). That year he also toured worldwide, performing solo and with his "New Trio", featuring Thomas Bramerie (bass) and Mark Mondesir (drums). In addition to his solo and trio engagements, he teaches in clinics and master classes.

Jean-Michel and his New Trio were recorded live at Iridium Jazz Club

Iridium Jazz Club

The Iridium Jazz Club is a jazz club located on Broadway in New York City. The club hosts weekly performances by John Colianni, and also featured weekly performances by Les Paul for nearly fifteen years.- History :...

, NYC, in October 2004. The resulting live album was released on Dreyfus in October 2005. He also released "New Dreams" with this trio in 2007, also on the Dreyfus label.

As a sideman, he has recently played and recorded with drummer Ari Hoenig (The Painter on Smalls Records), vocalists Elisabeth Kontomanou (The Midnight Sun on Nocturne) and J-D Walter, bassist/vocalist Richard Bona

Richard Bona

Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...

(Scenes from my Life on Sony/Columbia), soprano saxist Sam Newsome

Sam Newsome

Sam Newsome is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. His music combines an eclectic mix of straight-ahead jazz, world music and extended techniques...

(latest Palmetto release), and altist Rosario Giuliani (More Than Ever on Dreyfus).

Jean-Michel Pilc was interviewed by Linus Wyrsch on "The Jazz Hole" for breakthruradio.com in late April 2010: Jean-Michel Pilc Interview by breakthruradio.com. He released his newest album, titledEssential, on the Motéma Music

Motéma Music

Motéma Music is an American record label focused on jazz and world music, as well as other creative projects by virtuosic musicians who also compose. It was founded by Jana Herzen in 2003, and is now based in Harlem, New York City...

label in May, 2011.

In 2011, Pilc's trio renamed themselves Pilc Moutin Hoenig and signed with Motéma.

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