édouard ferlet

Pianist, composer, arranger

Born 21 January 1971 in Paris

 

It was by starting to improvise, just for fun, on the family piano that Edouard Ferlet, at around the age of 7, suddenly discovered a taste for music, which he spontaneously experienced as the pure pleasure of sounds and how they fit together. As his interest in the instrument grew, his parents gave him private lessons in “jazz piano” and then music theory, and Edouard was only about twelve when he began playing in a small amateur jazz band led by a cousin, who taught him the basics of American-style chord symbols. From that moment, Edouard had only one idea in mind: to become a musician. He became passionate about the great masters of modern jazz piano – Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett – but also the music of Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal and all the great names of traditional jazz. He was 16 when he took part in a summer programme at the prestigious Berklee College of Music – a decisive experience that let him measure himself against the young musicians of his generation, open up to new playing techniques, grasp in particular the paramount importance of rhythm and groove and, in the end, strengthen his vocation. Back in France, he passed his baccalaureate, and two years later returned to Berklee, this time for three years. There he perfected his culture and knowledge, in jazz as well as classical music, opened up to every style, collaborated and met widely, learned transcription, arranging and harmony, discovered the musicians of the young generation in master classes (Branford Marsalis, Greg Osby, Kenny Werner), and studied with great teachers such as Herb Pomeroy, Hal Crook, Ed Tomassi, Ray Santisi and Ed Bedner – in short, he lived only from music and for music. After earning his degree in “Jazz Composition” in 1992 – along with the school’s prize for best jazz pianist, the “Berklee Jazz Performance Award” – Edouard Ferlet, rather than trying his luck in New York like many of his fellow students, decided to return to France.

 

Armed with his new skills, he quickly found work in film and television (TV, advertising) and gained solid experience in composition thanks to the diversity and variety of the commissions he received. During the same period, still strongly influenced by pianists such as McCoy Tyner, Kenny Kirkland and Richie Beirach, he gradually joined the small world of Parisian jazz, formed his own bands (several trios, then a quintet with Stéphane Belmondo and François Théberge) and played from time to time in the capital’s major clubs (Le Petit Opportun, La Villa, Le Sunset, Le Hot Brass). In 1996 he recorded and self-produced his first album as a leader, “Escale”, with Grebor Hilbe on drums, Gary Brunton on double bass, Simon Spang-Hanssen on saxophone and Claus Stotter on trumpet: 12 original compositions of modern, refined jazz, revealing his European sensibility for the first time. In 1999 he did it again and, leading a new quintet featuring Médéric Collignon and Christophe Monniot, two leading lights of the young French jazz scene at the time, released “Zazimut”, a second album that was more personal and adventurous in both form and energy.

 

That same year, he teamed up with double bassist Jean-Philippe Viret to co-found the Trio Viret, with drummer Antoine Banville. Recorded in 2001 for the Sketch label, their first album, “Considérations”, immediately caught the critics’ attention with its original blend of lyricism, swing and formal refinement, built on graceful arrangements reminiscent of impressionist chamber music. The group recorded three more albums in this line-up (“Etant donné” (Sketch, 2002), “L’indicible” (Sketch, 2006) and “Autrement dit”) before Fabrice Moreau replaced Banville on drums in 2008, bringing the trio new colours and new rhythmic perspectives. A new trilogy of recordings (“Le temps qu’il faut” (Mélisse, 2008), “Pour” (Mélisse, 2010) and “L’ineffable” (Mélisse, 2014)) reflects this evolution. Winner of the 2011 Victoires du Jazz in the “Best Band of the Year” category, the trio, 15 years after its creation, remains one of the pianist’s main vehicles for expression and experimentation.

 

Alongside his ever more intensive involvement in the Trio Viret, Edouard Ferlet released his first solo piano album, “Par tous les temps”, in 2004, again on Sketch. A thoughtful work, made up entirely of original themes, in which the pianist defines his aesthetic and idiomatic territories even more clearly, in lyrical music that is unmistakably modern jazz yet reveals, notably in its attention to sound, a subtle and skilfully reimagined influence of the Western classical tradition.

He also collaborated widely in very different styles, playing keyboards alongside singer Geoffrey Oryema in a resolutely world-music setting, taking part in Lambert Wilson’s musical show “Nuit Américaine”, arranged by Régis Huby (2005), and above all serving as musical director and arranger for diva Julia Migenes’s shows “Alter Ego” (2006), “Hollywood Diva” (2009) and “Migenes-Schubert” (2010), in moods ranging from cabaret and jazz to popular song and classical music.

 

In 2005, driven both by his entrepreneurial streak and a genuine concern for artistic independence, Ferlet joined forces with Benjamin Gratton to found Mélisse, his own company covering record production, music publishing and show creation – concerts, theatre plays (“L’inattendu” by Fabrice Melquiot), musical shows (“Le Mâle entendu”, in 2010 with Nancy Huston) and educational projects. Quickly recognised as a label of excellence for its editorial choices, the quality of its productions and the elegance of its graphic identity, Mélisse became the preferred home for his own projects. There he released “L’Écharpe d’Iris” in 2007 with Alain Grange on cello, Simon Spang-Hanssen on saxophone and Xavier Desandre-Navarre on percussion, then in 2009 “Filigrane”, with Fabrice Moreau on drums and two of the most creative young musicians on the European jazz scene, Airelle Besson on trumpet and Alexandra Grimal on saxophone. These two records, very different in mood and form, together offer a telling view of the breadth and variety of the aesthetic territories the pianist covers.

 

In 2012 Edouard Ferlet achieved great public and critical success with his second solo album, “Think Bach”, devoted entirely to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach – lovingly subverted, tinkered with, transfigured. A work both free and rigorous, combining scholarly reflection, formal virtuosity and the sheer pleasure of playing, in which the pianist, for the first time so clearly, lets everything his poetics owes to the classical world come through. Continuing this project, Ferlet is now pursuing his exploration of the links between baroque music and improvisation through a duo with harpsichordist Violaine Cochard. A second volume devoted to Bach’s music is also in preparation.