Laurent de Wilde
Encyclopedia
Laurent de Wilde is a French jazz
pianist
, composer and writer.
Raised in France from 1964, he joined the Ecole Normale Superieure
in 1981, philosophy section. In 1983, during a music scholarship, he lived in New York at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University
. At the expiration of his scholarship six months later, he decided to settle permanently in New York. With the encouragement and advice of his elders, he performed in town and joined the trumpeter Eddie Henderson's regular band.
In 1987, he recorded the first of a series of four albums for Ida Records Off The Boat with Eddie Henderson, Ralph Moore, empowered by Ira Coleman
on bass and Billy Hart
on drums. In 1989, Odd And Blue was released with Coleman and Jack DeJohnette (drums) followed in 1990 by Colors of Manhattan, with Coleman, Henderson and Lewis Nash. De Wilde then returned to Paris to settle but came back to New York in 1992 to record a trio album, Open Changes, with Coleman and Billy Drummond (drums). The success of this record in 1993 earned him the Django Reinhardt
prize, awarded to the best musician of the year. He then shares his time between Paris and his career as a leader or sideman with Barney Wilen, Aldo Romano and Andre Ceccarelli.
In 1995, de Wilde signed with Sony Jazz and recorded The Back Burner. In 1996, he published the book Monk (L'Arpenteur / Gallimard) on which he had worked for a long time, a biography of one of the most famous pianists and controversial figures in jazz history. The book was an immediate success, and joined in October 1997 the permanent Folio catalog. He was also awarded the Charles Delaunay prize in 1996 as "best book about jazz" and the Pelleas Award. Monk has been translated and published in New York, London, Tokyo, Barcelona and Milan.
In 1997, de Wilde released his album in trio-quartet for Sony. Spoon-a-Rhythm earned him an award at the Victoires de la Musique in 1998 as "jazz artist of the year". His trio toured intensively in Europe, the United States and Japan for over two years. De Wilde decided then to focus on the electronic revolution that radically redefines contemporary jazz. He joined the group of Ernest Ranglin, true founding father of Jamaican reggae
and met with different music actors such as Samia, Cosmik Connection or Roudoudou.
The result was an album that claimed for a mutation in jazz: Time For Change was released for Warner Jazz in 2000. The band (Flavio Boltro, Gael Horellou, Minino Garay, Jules Bikoko and Stephane Huchard) gave more than a hundred concerts in France and abroad. Enriched by this experience, Wilde went to studio again. In 2002 he recorded and released in spring 2003 Stories for Warner. His new group with DJ Ben on turntables and Julien Charlet on drums toured throughout 2003-2004. During the same period, de Wilde wrote music for children programs on France 3 TV and has composed scores for several feature films for television on TF1 and France 2.
In fall 2004 de Wilde composed and recorded with his new band, Organics. The album was released by Nocturne. This group featured Gael Horellou on sax and computer, Philippe Bussonnet on bass and Yoann Serra on drums, That same year, de Wilde pursued his collaborations with André Ceccarelli (Dreyfus), Eddie Henderson (Marge) and Rick Margitza (Nocturne).
In February 2006, de Wilde decided to turn back to the acoustic trio, and invited Laurent Robin (drums) and Darryl Hall (bass) to take a break from those electronics years. The result is an album rich in rhythms, The Present (Nocturne). The same year, de Wilde met a slam artist whose album had just been out and was looking for a jazz pianist to take the band on the road. Impressed by the quality of the project, de Wilde agreed and it was the beginning of the magnificent ascension of Abd Al Malik who would soon be recognized as the new figure of slam. The band toured for two and a half years and has performed in more than 160 major halls around the world.
Between tours, de Wilde took the time to compare the two worlds he lived in for twenty years, and recorded the encounter of an acoustic piano and a computer. As a duet with the participation of Otisto 23, de Wilde produces sounds from his piano (with or without the keyboard) that Otisto records in real time before looping and processing them, building the musical form as it unfolds. The album, released in September 2007 (Nocturne), called PC Pieces, takes the form of a small book in which de Wilde describes the long road leading to this object. Inside the CD, a dual disc offers the music on one side and video on the other: videos synchronized to the music and a filmed concert. In 2010, the project extended into a second volume, entitled FLY! enriched by the experience of touring and playing with this group for two years. The relationship between the computer and the piano is purified, the music is more instinctive, more emotional and more rhythmic. Added to the group is videographer Nico Ticot (XLR Project), a true magician of colours and volumes, matches the music with dreamlike precision.
Meanwhile, de Wilde has produced and toured with the Diane Tell Boris Vian Project (“Dr. Boris and Mr. Jazz”, Celluloid, 2009) and has produced four volumes of tales from Africa with Souleymane Mbodj editions for Milan. He has also published short stories ("Jazz Me Blue", 2009, "Au Duc des Lombards", 2010) and participated in the making of a broadcasted program for Arte around Thelonious Monk
and the book he has written about him.
De Wilde is currently working with French actor Jacques Gamblin
on a show mixing literature read by Jacques and music written and led by de Wilde. The project is scheduled to be touring France in 2012.
He is also working on composing material for his new acoustic trio project that will feature Ira Coleman on bass and Clarence Penn on drums. The recording will take place in New York on January 2012 and the album release is scheduled for the following spring. In the meantime, de Wilde as co-writer and program host has pursued his collaboration with Arte delivering a new documentary on Mingus
that soon will be aired on television.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, composer and writer.
Raised in France from 1964, he joined the Ecole Normale Superieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
in 1981, philosophy section. In 1983, during a music scholarship, he lived in New York at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
. At the expiration of his scholarship six months later, he decided to settle permanently in New York. With the encouragement and advice of his elders, he performed in town and joined the trumpeter Eddie Henderson's regular band.
In 1987, he recorded the first of a series of four albums for Ida Records Off The Boat with Eddie Henderson, Ralph Moore, empowered by Ira Coleman
Ira Coleman (musician)
Ira Coleman is an American jazz bassist.He appears on four albums by Paris-based pianist Laurent de Wilde and has worked with artists such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Milt Jackson, Ulf Wakenius, John Esposito, Joanne Brackeen, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams....
on bass and Billy Hart
Billy Hart
William "Billy" Hart is a jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most important jazz musicians in history.-Biography:Early on Hart performed in Washington, D.C...
on drums. In 1989, Odd And Blue was released with Coleman and Jack DeJohnette (drums) followed in 1990 by Colors of Manhattan, with Coleman, Henderson and Lewis Nash. De Wilde then returned to Paris to settle but came back to New York in 1992 to record a trio album, Open Changes, with Coleman and Billy Drummond (drums). The success of this record in 1993 earned him the Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
prize, awarded to the best musician of the year. He then shares his time between Paris and his career as a leader or sideman with Barney Wilen, Aldo Romano and Andre Ceccarelli.
In 1995, de Wilde signed with Sony Jazz and recorded The Back Burner. In 1996, he published the book Monk (L'Arpenteur / Gallimard) on which he had worked for a long time, a biography of one of the most famous pianists and controversial figures in jazz history. The book was an immediate success, and joined in October 1997 the permanent Folio catalog. He was also awarded the Charles Delaunay prize in 1996 as "best book about jazz" and the Pelleas Award. Monk has been translated and published in New York, London, Tokyo, Barcelona and Milan.
In 1997, de Wilde released his album in trio-quartet for Sony. Spoon-a-Rhythm earned him an award at the Victoires de la Musique in 1998 as "jazz artist of the year". His trio toured intensively in Europe, the United States and Japan for over two years. De Wilde decided then to focus on the electronic revolution that radically redefines contemporary jazz. He joined the group of Ernest Ranglin, true founding father of Jamaican reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and met with different music actors such as Samia, Cosmik Connection or Roudoudou.
The result was an album that claimed for a mutation in jazz: Time For Change was released for Warner Jazz in 2000. The band (Flavio Boltro, Gael Horellou, Minino Garay, Jules Bikoko and Stephane Huchard) gave more than a hundred concerts in France and abroad. Enriched by this experience, Wilde went to studio again. In 2002 he recorded and released in spring 2003 Stories for Warner. His new group with DJ Ben on turntables and Julien Charlet on drums toured throughout 2003-2004. During the same period, de Wilde wrote music for children programs on France 3 TV and has composed scores for several feature films for television on TF1 and France 2.
In fall 2004 de Wilde composed and recorded with his new band, Organics. The album was released by Nocturne. This group featured Gael Horellou on sax and computer, Philippe Bussonnet on bass and Yoann Serra on drums, That same year, de Wilde pursued his collaborations with André Ceccarelli (Dreyfus), Eddie Henderson (Marge) and Rick Margitza (Nocturne).
In February 2006, de Wilde decided to turn back to the acoustic trio, and invited Laurent Robin (drums) and Darryl Hall (bass) to take a break from those electronics years. The result is an album rich in rhythms, The Present (Nocturne). The same year, de Wilde met a slam artist whose album had just been out and was looking for a jazz pianist to take the band on the road. Impressed by the quality of the project, de Wilde agreed and it was the beginning of the magnificent ascension of Abd Al Malik who would soon be recognized as the new figure of slam. The band toured for two and a half years and has performed in more than 160 major halls around the world.
Between tours, de Wilde took the time to compare the two worlds he lived in for twenty years, and recorded the encounter of an acoustic piano and a computer. As a duet with the participation of Otisto 23, de Wilde produces sounds from his piano (with or without the keyboard) that Otisto records in real time before looping and processing them, building the musical form as it unfolds. The album, released in September 2007 (Nocturne), called PC Pieces, takes the form of a small book in which de Wilde describes the long road leading to this object. Inside the CD, a dual disc offers the music on one side and video on the other: videos synchronized to the music and a filmed concert. In 2010, the project extended into a second volume, entitled FLY! enriched by the experience of touring and playing with this group for two years. The relationship between the computer and the piano is purified, the music is more instinctive, more emotional and more rhythmic. Added to the group is videographer Nico Ticot (XLR Project), a true magician of colours and volumes, matches the music with dreamlike precision.
Meanwhile, de Wilde has produced and toured with the Diane Tell Boris Vian Project (“Dr. Boris and Mr. Jazz”, Celluloid, 2009) and has produced four volumes of tales from Africa with Souleymane Mbodj editions for Milan. He has also published short stories ("Jazz Me Blue", 2009, "Au Duc des Lombards", 2010) and participated in the making of a broadcasted program for Arte around Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
and the book he has written about him.
De Wilde is currently working with French actor Jacques Gamblin
Jacques Gamblin
Jacques Gamblin is a French actor.He was born in Granville, Manche. He studied at the Centre dramatique de Caen before he tried to film in Paris.-Filmography:*Périgord Noir...
on a show mixing literature read by Jacques and music written and led by de Wilde. The project is scheduled to be touring France in 2012.
He is also working on composing material for his new acoustic trio project that will feature Ira Coleman on bass and Clarence Penn on drums. The recording will take place in New York on January 2012 and the album release is scheduled for the following spring. In the meantime, de Wilde as co-writer and program host has pursued his collaboration with Arte delivering a new documentary on Mingus
Mingus
The name Mingus may refer to: * Charles Mingus , jazz composer and double bass player** Mingus Big Band, a modern repertory group specializing in Mingus' music** Mingus Dynasty , the original repertory group formed after Mingus' death...
that soon will be aired on television.
Discography
- 1987: Off the Boat
- 1989: Odd and Blue
- 1990: Colors of Manhattan
- 1992: Open Changes
- 1995: The Back Burner
- 1997: Spoon-a-Rhythm
- 2000: Time 4 Change
- 2003: Stories
- 2004: Organics
- 2006: The Present
- 2007: PC Pieces
- 2010: Fly