Jean-Michel Pilc profile picture

Jean-Michel Pilc

jmpilc

About Me

*NEW: All Jean-Michel's albums & songs now available on iTunes Store: search for "Jean-Michel Pilc", listen & download
*NEW: Success in MN & ID for Hoenig Pilc Project
Read road report
Check articles & blogs
(scroll down to "Other Articles - 2008")
More about Hoenig Pilc Project
(scroll down to bottom of page)
* Check Jean-Michel's 2008 itinerary including:
-April / June 08: European Tours
Trio, NYU Summer Jazz Intensive etc.
-July 08: Hoenig Pilc Project Tour
-Oct / Nov 08: Korea & European Tours - Trio, Solo
In progress - Please contact us for bookings
SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH 3 NEW VIDEOS
Widmung clip + 2 excerpts of a new film about Jean-Michel.

Born in Paris in 1960, self-taught, Pilc was a jazz devotee by age 8 which is when he first heard Bix Beiderbecke.
After building a respectable musical career in Europe, Pilc arrived in the U. S. in 1995 and soon signed on as musical director for Harry Belafonte (who wrote the liner notes for Pilc's 2002 Dreyfus debut, Welcome Home). To date, Pilc has played with such greats as Roy Haynes, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, John Abercrombie, Jean Toussaint, Martial Solal, Michel Portal, Marcus Miller and Lenny White and made recent sideman appearances with his esteemed peers Ari Hoenig, Sam Newsome, Rosario Giuliani, Elisabeth Kontomanou, Richard Bona and more.
But Pilc's accomplishments as a leader have garnered the widest praise. The legendary critic Dan Morgenstern chose Pilc's masterful Cardinal Points as a top-ten album of 2003. JazzTimes enthused that it 'should be studied in every music school in the galaxy...' Pilc's follow-up, the solo piano Follow Me, was one of Howard Reich's top 2004 picks in the Chicago Tribune. Andrew Durkin of All About Jazz wrote: 'Pilc leans toward a comprehensive pianism, ably expressing-on a single instrument, no less-so much of what has made jazz fascinating, problematic, or inspiring over the last hundred years.'
'No jazz pianist today offers anything like his melange of monster chops, wildly impulsive imagination..."
-Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes

'Mr. Pilc seems to have dropped from the sky fully formed with technique and his ideas in place. He is a physical and densely harmonic player, a splashy stunner...'
-Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

'...visual art references come to mind: Cubist renderings of melody in which the original is reshaped into a completely different visual perspective... Pilc is a player with a future, one whose impressive work deserves far wider exposure.'
-Don Heckman, The Los Angeles Times

'The right hand runs of jazz pianist Jean-Michel Pilc are enough to send shivers up your spine, but he is about more than chops. His densely harmonic reinventions of standards you thought you knew clearly shows a musical genius at work.'
-Eric Brace, Washington Post

'Beyond all that can be said about his masterful technique and his beauty of touch, it is the unpredictability that is central to his remarkable talent. As one listens to each selection, be they vintage or newborn, one is taken into his world of improvisation where the unexpected is constant.'
-Harry Belafonte

VIDEOS
Widmung
Jean-Michel, Thomas Bramerie (b) and Mark Mondesir (d) play "Widmung", a Schumann melody arranged by Jean-Michel, from his upcoming CD "New Dreams" (Dreyfus, release 2007). A clip by Gildas Boclé.
Jean-Michel Pilc: A Portrait (2 excerpts)
An upcoming film about Jean-Michel by John McCormick (release 2008 - DVD & iTunes). Featuring Ari Hoenig, François Moutin, etc.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/21/2007
Band Website: jmpilc.com
Influences: Angels have no watch.
Source unknown

Music is the universe once again.
Schopenhauer

My music is best understood by children and animals.
Igor Stravinsky

Behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly.
Albert Einstein

To stay sane, you have to categorize the insanity of the world.
Jerry Bruckheimer

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
Steve Jobs

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
Mark Twain

You can't be serious.
John McEnroe

Johnny Mac, don't ever change.
Jack Nicholson

When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs.
Pablo Picasso
(along with many other great Picasso quotes on http://www.artquotes.net/masters/picasso_quotes.htm )
Sounds Like: Go to my albums page
Record Label: Dreyfus - www.dreyfusrecords.com
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

JMPilcNews April 07: French Tour Apr 17-25 + 55 Bar Apr 30

*FRENCH TOUR APRIL 17-25*Apr 17-18-19 / Paris / Sunside Jazz Club / Jean-Michel Pilc Trio / Thomas Bramerie, b - Mark Mondesir, dhttp://www.sunset-sunside.com/ *Apr 19 / Paris / Radio France / Jean-Mi...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:35:00 PST

JMPilcNews March 07: 55 Bar gigs etc.

www.jmpilc.comfeaturing latest CD "New Dreams"_____________________________________________________ ___________*GIGS in NYC*Mon March 10 @ 55 BarJean-Michel Pilc, p - Richard Bona, b - Obed Calvaire, d...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:15:00 PST

JMPilcNews Feb 07: Smalls, 55, Hoenig Pilc Project

*GIGS in NYC*Mon Feb 18 @ SmallsAri Hoenig, d - Jean-Michel Pilc, p - Hans Glawischnig, b183 W 10th St. at 7th Ave. - New York, NY 100142 sets 10:30 pm & midnighthttp://www.smallsjazzclub.com/*Wed Feb...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:26:00 PST

JMPilcNews May 07: DC, Knit, Radio France etc.

www.jmpilc.comwww.myspace.com/jmpilc ____________________________________________________________ ____*GIGS-NYCMon, May 12 @ Knitting Factory Tap Bar, NYCJean-Michel Pilc Trio / François Moutin, b - B...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:09:00 PST

55 Bar, NYC next Tue + MN & ID w/Hoenig Pilc Project Feb 1-4

www.jmpilc.comfeaturing latest CD "New Dreams" ____________________________________________________________ ____*Tue Jan 15 / NYC / 55 BarJean-Michel Pilc 4tet / Sam Newsome, sax - Chris Tordini, b - ...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:39:00 PST

Jean-Michel Pilc Teaching Activities

Jean-Michel teaches jazz piano, ensembles and workshops at NYU.Available for private lessons (all instruments), workshops, clinics & masterclasses.Contact: [email protected]'s Educator Res...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:28:00 PST

JMPilcNews Dec 07: NYC gigs

www.jmpilc.comfeaturing latest CD "New Dreams"www.myspace.com/jmpilc ____________________________________________________________ ____*DECEMBER GIGS*Wed Dec 5 @ Fazioli Holiday Piano SeriesJean-Michel...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:31:00 PST

JMPilcNews Oct-Nov 07: West Coast, Philly, NYC, Europe

Some great new reviews on my websiteYou can also check my full itinerary on my Tour page (incl. links to venues).____________________________________________________ ____________*OCT 26-NOV 1 / WEST CO...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:49:00 PST

JMPilcNews Oct 07: Jazz Standard Tue-Wed, West Coast, Europe

NYC CD RELEASE"New Dreams NYC CD release": Oct 2-3 at Jazz Standard - only NYC gig in the fallListen, buy (& watch) on my website. ____________________________________________________________ ____GIGS ...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Thu, 27 Sep 2007 07:48:00 PST

JMPilcNews Sept 07: new CD + gigs

CD RELEASEMy new CD "New Dreams" (featuring Thomas Bramerie, b - Ari Hoenig / Mark Mondesir, d) is now available in the US on Dreyfus RecordsYou can now listen, buy (& watch) on my website.NYC CD rele...
Posted by Jean-Michel Pilc on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:37:00 PST