Michel Petrucciani

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Michel Petrucciani (born December 28, 1962 in Orange , Département Vaucluse , † January 6, 1999 in New York ) was a French jazz pianist with Italian roots.

Life

Michel Petrucciani was the youngest son of the Neapolitan jazz guitarist Antoine ( Tony ) Petrucciani and his French wife Anne. Petrucciani had vitreous bone disease and was short . In the course of his life he suffered hundreds of broken bones. Despite his short stature, his fingers were large and powerful. His father recognized his musical talent and encouraged him from pre-school years with hours of daily piano practice. With his father he recorded the 2001 album Conversations . Michel's brothers are also jazz musicians. Philippe became a guitarist and Louis played bass.

Because of his congenital illness, Michel Petrucciani could not go to school like other children. That is why he was sent tapes with lessons in French, mathematics and English to study independently. Instead of listening to and studying the cassettes he received, Michel Petrucciani deleted the lessons and dubbed music on them.

Petrucciani gave his first professional concert at the age of thirteen at a jazz festival in the Drôme region . He played with Kenny Clarke and the trumpeter Clark Terry . In 1979 he moved to Paris , where he released his debut album Flash the following year . There he also played in a trio with his brother and bassist Louis and the saxophonist Lee Konitz .

In 1982 he moved to California and played in the group of Charles Lloyd , with whom he performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival , among others , and subsequently worked closely together. In the same year he received the Prix ​​Django Reinhardt . In 1983 it attracted attention at the Kool Jazz Festival . In the early 1980s, recordings were made with Lee Konitz , Jean-François Jenny-Clark and Aldo Romano . In March 1984 he appeared in a trio with Palle Danielsson and Eliot Zigmund in New York's Village Vanguard . A year later, the Blue Note album Pianism was created and in 1986 the trio album Power Of Three with Petrucciani on piano, Wayne Shorter on saxophone and Jim Hall on guitar.

In Germany he became better known through his regular appearances on the Willemsens Woche show with Roger Willemsen from October 1994 to June 1998. Petrucciani became friends with Willemsen "very well", in 1996 Willemsen accompanied him in New York City and dedicated his film debut to him as a Petrucciani portrait.

He also played with John Abercrombie , Joe Lovano , Jack DeJohnette and Eddy Louiss , among others .

Michel Petrucciani's grave in the Père Lachaise cemetery

In 1994 he performed a solo program with jazz standards ("Medley of my Favorite Songs") at the Parisian Théâtre des Champs-Élysées ; In 1996 the album Both Worlds was created with Bob Brookmeyer , Stefano Di Battista and Flavio Boltro . One of his last works is the Dreyfus album Solo Live , recorded in Frankfurt am Main , with interpretations of Strayhorn's “ Take the A-Train ”, “ Besame Mucho ” and Ellington's “ Caravan ”.

Petrucciani was married with a son (Alexandre) who inherited his disease and an adopted son. In 1999 Michel Petrucciani died of pneumonia . He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris next to the grave of Frédéric Chopin . He buried his plan to open a jazz school in the south of France in 2001 and pass on his knowledge there, which was supposedly more important to him than advancing his career.

Honors (selection)

Discography

Important CD recordings

Recordings under your own name

  • Flash (1980)
  • Michel Petrucciani Trio (Owl, 1981)
  • Date with Time (1981)
  • Michel Petrucciani (1981)
  • Oracle's Destiny (Owl, 1982)
  • Toot Suite (1982), Owl (with Lee Konitz)
  • 100 Hearts (Concord, 1983)
  • Live at the Village Vanguard (Concord, 1984)
  • Note'n Notes (1984)
  • Cold Blues (Owl, 1985)
  • Pianism (Blue Note, 1985)
  • Power of Three (Blue Note, 1986)
  • Michel plays Petrucciani (Blue Note, 1987)
  • Music (Blue Note, 1989)
  • Playground (1991)
  • Live (1991)
  • Promenade with Duke (Blue Note, 1993)
  • Marvelous (Dreyfus, 1994)
  • Eddy Louiss / Michel Petrucciani live (Dreyfus, 1994)
  • Au Theater Des Champs-Elysees (Dreyfus, 1995)
  • Darn that Dream (1996)
  • Flamingo (with Stéphane Grappelli ) (1996)
  • Both Worlds (Dreyfus, 1998, with Stefano Di Battista )
  • Solo Live in Germany (Dreyfus, 1998)
  • Estate (1999)
  • Live in Tokyo (1999)
  • Bob Malach & Michel Petrucciani (2000)
  • Concerts Inédits / Live (2000)
  • Conversation (2001)
  • Days of Wines and Roses - The Owl Years 1981–1985 (2001)

Documentaries

literature

Web links

Commons : Michel Petrucciani  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Steve Voce: Obituary: Michel Petrucciani . In: The Independent , January 8, 1999.
  2. ↑ Michel Petrucciani - Life against Time . Documentary by Michael Radford, 2011, 102 min. Produced by Gunnar Dedio (Looksfilm) in coproduction with Arte France Cinema and Roger Willemsen (Noa Noa GmbH).
  3. ↑ My big little friend - The pianist Michel Petrucciani . In: NDR Info , February 12, 2016; Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  4. ↑ W [erner] S [tiefele]: Michel Petrucciani. Little Big Man . In: MusikWoche . The news magazine for the music industry. No. 4 , January 25, 1999, Szene Jazz, p. 31 .
  5. ↑ a b Michel Petrucciani, pianist at Planète Jazz (French)
  6. ↑ Gold / platinum database . In: Bundesverband Musikindustrie , Petrucciani enter into the search mask.
personal data
SURNAME Petrucciani, Michel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Orange , France
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1999
Place of death New York , USA