Can you tell us who you are and how you started to work with Nathalie?
I was born into a family of musicians. I started playing the guitar at the age of 8 and quickly entered the profession by performing in dance orchestras. Simultaneously, I delved into jazz and improvised music within my family, alongside my brothers Michel on piano and Louis on double bass. Our father, Tony, taught us jazz standards. Later, I crossed paths with many musicians and formed groups to play my own music. Several CDs were released: “The first” in 1991, “One for Marie” in 2003, “Este Mundo” in 2012, and “Remember Petrucciani” in 2015. I played with various musicians, including Dominique Di Piazza, Didier Lockwood, Archie Shepp, André Ceccarelli, Lucky Peterson, Andy McKee, Michel Zennino, Manhu Roche, Flavio Boltro, Stephano Coco Cantini, and more.
My musical collaboration with Nathalie has been ongoing for about thirty years, documented in three albums: “One for Marie” (2003), “Este Mundo” (2012), and “Remember Petrucciani” (2015). To celebrate our musical and marital union, as we have been married since 1992, we wanted to create this new album as a duo. We are accustomed to performing as a duo, regularly working together at home. The idea of playing as a duo came naturally to us, and we were eager to pursue it!!
How would you describe the creative process behind your collaboration?
We drew inspiration from two iconic duos: “Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald” and “Tuck and Patti.” These duos represented different worlds—one deeply rooted in jazz and the other more in the pop genre.
In a phase of my musical life where I primarily focused on jazz standards, I discovered legendary bands like King Crimson, Crosby, Still, Nash and Young, Genesis, etc. We selected a few songs that inspired us and adapted them, giving them a slightly different harmonic color to fit our style. These songs had beautiful melodies and, at times, powerful lyrics, as in “Epitaph,” for instance.
Nathalie wanted to improvise on some songs in a different way, not through traditional jazz scatting but by using lyrics. This approach is evident in the composition “JB le Chat,” a blues for which she wrote the lyrics and then improvised on Boris Vian’s text “La Java des Pussy Cats.” She repeated this performance on the song “Moments,” quoting a poem by Marceline Desbordes Valmore, “Un moment,” over the harmonic structure of the jazz standard “I Hear a Rhapsody.”
Can you share a particularly memorable or inspiring moment you’ve experienced while working on this album with Nathalie?
While working on the theme I composed, “Let’s Have a Walk,” communication and exchange were instantaneous, as if by magic, creating an incredible osmosis.
What are your duo’s goals and aspirations for the future?
In the next project, we will maintain the foundation of the duo and invite different musicians based on the pieces. I also plan to immerse myself in musical composition, create new songs, and develop a complete project around my compositions, but nothing is set in stone; everything can change!!! Sharing and exchanging musical moments with the audience as often as possible is also a desire for the future!!
What would you like the people to remember about your music?
I hope that those who listen to us can hum the melodies we played for them.
