Jean François Maljean Official Space

Born on January 14th 1953 in Verviers, Belgium, Jean-François Maljean grew up next to his piano. He started playing very early on and showed a remarkable talent from the beginning. Many people say that he’s gifted with a style both indefinable and incomparable, a quality which made him stand out, but at the same time allowing him a career where he’s recognizable.
After finishing his studies in Verviers, Liège and Brussels, Jean-François explored new horizons. It was in Berklee Music College in Boston (USA), that the artist reinforced his talent and his passion for jazz. His journey to the new continent sprinkled his music with a touch even more stylized, which revealed his true artistic personality.
Upon his return from the USA, Jean-Francois formed the group Smokey Mokes (ragtime) with Jacques Stotzem, amongst others, on the guitar. Later on he joined Pierre Rapsat’s group Transfert, which he had already accompanied before his journey to the USA. In total, this would be 10 intensive years of collaboration.
His singing-career has its debut with the group Maljean-Willems in 1984. The group toured and recorded albums with success during a decade.
Better known under the name of "Shang Malong” in China, he’s made countless successful concerts in Asia, where he often tours and is very well-known.
1996: First solo piano album: Vue Sur Mer and Jean-François started to play concerts.
1998: Second album: Legendes (New Age)
1999: Jean-François began to work with the publisher “ADASONG” who released his albums in South East Asian Countries. Success was immediate.
2001: New piano solo album Voyages. Two CDs Music and Nature came also out:Piano & Sea and Ruisseaux des Fagnes (piano and rivers).
2002: New album Piano Hits 1 + four album of a new collection: Grand Piano. In December, JF started to play in Asia (Taiwan-China) under the name of Shang Malong. From this year, all the CDs would be released in China.
2003: Jean-François started to work for Piano Disc in the USA. He recorded two albums for them: French Songs and Voyages. In October, Jean-François went for the first time in Mainland China and played at the Shanghai Festival.
2004: Successful tour of 10 dates in China.
2005: New album called Dreams. One of the tracks, “Via Aurelia”, was released in a collection, called “Real Piano”, made by the prestigious US record company “Real Music”. Jean-François gave three prestigious concerts in Shanghai and made the first concert with the “girls band” (six female musicians) of Dreams in Belgium the 11th March. In the summer, Jean-François went to Sacramento (California) to record two new albums for Piano Disc: one of Chinese Folk Songs and a collection of his best compositions called Spa. He also gave his first concert in the East Coast of the US. He went on turning in China and He played an outside concert for a 20.000 people audience.
2006: Concert in the prestigious Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, (France) His new CD Gallery was released first in Japan in the same time as Dreams in this country. Gallery is an album of songs of Kitaro played solo piano by JF. This CD was produced by Domo records (USA), the record company of Kitaro himself. In 2006, JF gave a lot of concerts in China and played also for the first time in Singapore. In December, Gallery was released in South East Asia (China, Taiwan...).
2007: Gallery was released in the US on January 16th. For the first time, he went on tour in Japan, in February, in partnership with the famous Belgian chocolate Galler. He gave also concerts in Singapore, China and of course Europe.
2008: His last album, called Latin One, an electro-latin-jazz album, with piano, percussions, sax, trumpet, bass and electro drums featuring, was released by the prestigious record company Columbia in Japan at December 5th. He played again in China and in MIDEM. Latin One was released in Belgium in 2008 through September Records (jazz label), and was also signed in many countries. This year Le Mandarin du Piano (“The Mandarin of Piano”) was recorded in China, and here we can follow Jean-François’ musical adventure on the other side of the world. The documentary has already been broadcasted three times with success on the RTBF (Belgian channel).
2009: At the moment, Jean-François is working on his new album, where he mixes his own music with the music of the Dongs, a Chinese minority, and concerts in France took place by the end of March 2009. This year the concerts are piling up, with the concerts in March and more concerts in Asia, Europe and South America later on this year.
DISCOGRAPHY
Pianist - Composer :
Latin One