Pierrick Pédron

Ten years after starting out on the saxophone, Pierrick Pedron discovered the world of jazz at the age of 16 and joined the CIM two years later. He made his first recordings as a sideman alongside Magik Malik among others in 1994 and 1995.

Winner of the Concours de la Défense in 1996 within the Artaud-Blanchet formation, he continues his experiences within the framework of the "Nuits blanches" of the Petit Opportun, Douzetet de Sax with Lionel Belmondo and François Théberge, concerts with Alain Jean Marie, and an album of Ernie Hammes (Bob Mintzer, Lew Solof) which takes him to New York, where he will stay several months to play in clubs and meet American jazzmen .

In 2000 he recorded his first album, Cherokee with Baptiste Trotignon, Vincent Artaud and Franck Agulhon. He also performs with Michel Graillier in duo, and plays regularly with the Belmondo brothers.

In 2001, he was chosen by Henri SELMER Paris to design the future Alto Reference saxophone and the Spirit mouthpiece.

In 2004, he released Classical Faces as a sextet, accompanied by Pierre de Bethmann, Malik Mezzadri, Franck Agulhon, Thomas Savy and Vincent Artaud. He took part in the Marciac Festival as first alto of Wynton Marsalis' Big Band, who noticed him for his qualities as a soloist. In 2006, he released his album Deep in a dream, recorded in New York with Mulgrew Miller, Lewis Nash (two monsters of jazz across the Atlantic) and Thomas Bramerie.

In 2006, Pierrick Pédron took part in the double bassist Jacques Vidal's septet and recorded the album Mingus Spirit with the American trumpeter Eddie Henderson. In 2009 he made a 180-degree turn with an ambitious album entitled Omry, where he left classical jazz for a singular fusion between pop music and jazz, with original compositions that pay tribute to both the pop music of Pink Floyd and the Egyptian singer Oum Kalsoum.

In 2010, Pierrick continued to collaborate with Jacques Vidal, but this time in the quintet formula where he took part in the recording of Fables of Mingus. The following year, he signed on the Act label and continued his pop turn initiated by Omry with Cheerleaders, a conceptual album mixing jazz, pop and psychedelia.

In 2012, Pierrick clearly returns to the jazz-bop he loves so much in an acrobatic formula without piano, in trio (with Franck Agulhon, Thomas Bramerie). The album, entitled Kubic's Monk, exclusively features compositions by Thelonious Monk, some of which are very rarely played. The album received very good critical acclaim and was awarded the French record prize of the Académie du jazz.

In 2014, again for Act, Pierrick Pédron takes up his trio formula again, this time proposing jazz arrangements based on songs by the rock band from the 1980s and 1990s: The Cure. The album Kubic's Cure is a new step in Pierrick Pédron's singular approach to synthesizing all the music he loves by infusing it with the singular sound of his alto saxophone and a jazz rhythmic arrangement. In the same year 2014, he took part in Ricardo del Fra's album My Chet, My Song in homage to Chet Baker as well as Jacques Vidal's Cuernavaca based on the music of Charles Mingus.

In 2015 he releases the album And The, and in 2017 he returns with Unknown.

Photo credit : Elise Dutartre - Guy Vivien