Eric Legnini

Eric Legnini in Nice (2011)

Éric Legnini (born February 20, 1970 in Huy ) is a Belgian jazz pianist , composer and arranger .

Live and act

Legnini learned to play classical piano from the age of six; an album by Erroll Garner later brought him to jazz. In his youth he played with the saxophonist Jacques Pelzer . After two years in New York City, where he studied with the pianist Richie Beirach , he returned to Belgium. In 1990 he became a teacher of jazz piano at the Brussels Conservatory. In the same year a TV documentary was made about him.

Legnini now lives in Paris , where he played or plays with his own trio (2007 with bassist Mathias Allamane and drummer Franck Agulhon) and with the quartet of saxophonist Stefano Di Battista and the quintet of trumpeter Flavio Boltro . He also played with Éric Le Lann , André Ceccarelli , Aldo Romano , the Belmondo Brothers, Branford Marsalis , Aka Moon , Toots Thielemans , Joe Lovano , Philip Catherine and Ludivine Issambourg , but also with singers such as Claude Nougaro and Serge Reggiani . With his trio he recorded the soul-jazz albums Miss Soul (2005, Label Bleu ) and Big Boogaloo (2006, Label Bleu). In 2011 he presented the album The Vox with his band The Afro Jazz Beat , in which he combined harmonious fusion jazz with the functions of Afrobeat; it was named "Album of the Year" ( Les Victoires du Jazz ). In Japan he released the album Ballads in 2012 , followed by Six Strings Under (2019), u. a. with Rocky Gresset and Hugo Lippi .

In 1998 he was voted “best Belgian jazz pianist” in a list of Belgian radio stations. In 2005 he received the Django d'Or (Belgium) .

Web links

• Literature by and about Éric Legnini in the catalog of the German National Library
• Legnini at Jazz in Belgium

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jacques Mercier Belges en France 2006 p142 "C'est sous la double influence de Kirkland et de Hancock qu'Éric Legnini fait son retour en Belgique en 1990. Aussitôt nommé professeur de piano dans la section jazz du Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, il retrouve Jacques Pelzer avec qui il ... "
2. ^ Review of The Vox