Biography of Antoine Hervé

Antoine Hervé Trio with Louis and François Moutin and two albums: Fluide (95) & Summertime (2002)

Promoted to Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2019

Django Reinhardt Prize from the Jazz Academy in 1985

Member of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation

Bio: Text by Vincent Bessières, this text is largely taken from the Cité de la Musique media library website.

Born on January 20, 1959, in Paris, France.

A brilliant pianist and composer with eclectic references synthesized with brio and imagination, Antoine Hervé established himself at a young age as one of the most remarkable French jazz musicians of his generation.
Appointed director of the second National Jazz Orchestra at the age of 28, he then suffered, like most musicians who have held this position, the downside of this early fame, despite his substantial creative work, often with transdisciplinary ambitions, and a trio of rare longevity and loyalty.

The nephew of composer Daniel Lesur, he grew up in an environment conducive to music, and his natural talent as a child led him to pursue musical studies.
A student at the Paris Conservatory of Music in the composition class of Marius Constant until 1982, he also studied piano with Pierre Sancan, heir to the Debussy tradition, and classical percussion with the aim of gaining experience in a symphony orchestra and studying orchestral conducting.
At the same time, his growing interest in jazz—improvisation and rhythm in particular—and rock led him to try his hand at electric piano, synthesizers, and computer music, and to frequent musicians such as Serge Lazarévitch, who introduced him to the Berklee School of Music, the Real Book, and modern jazz musicians, and Andy Emler, with whom he formed a duo in 1980 in which both played piano and vibraphone.

Awarded the following year at the Concours national de jazz de La Défense, Antoine Hervé emerged as one of the most talented representatives of a new generation of improvisers with a dual cultural background.
He himself aspires to "the fusion of music," particularly the European classical heritage, including its contemporary forms, and modern jazz.

ONJ 87 Album

In 1983, he formed an orchestra of thirteen musicians (which would later take the name Bob 13), which performed at the Paris Jazz Festival, thanks to which he established the originality of his work as a composer.

He also formed a trio with Michel Benita (double bass) and Peter Gritz (drums) in 1984.

On the piano, his composite style is influenced by Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Oscar Peterson, and McCoy Tyner (whom he has studied), but informed by his knowledge of classical technique, marked by a rhythmic and dynamic approach inherited from his training as a percussionist, and enriched by his regular study of piano literature (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Rachmaninov, etc.).

In 1985, he received the Django Reinhardt Prize from the Jazz Academy, which recognizes the French jazz musician of the year.

Appointed in 1987 as head of the National Jazz Orchestra, he assembled a group with which he gave over a hundred concerts and welcomed numerous guests: Quincy Jones, Gil Evans, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Toots Thielemans, Peter Erskine, Didier Lockwood, Randy Brecker, and others. Its ranks included musicians who would go on to become major players in French jazz over the following decade.

ballet “Tutti” by Philippe Découflé

Andy De Groat

Responsible for much of the repertoire, which combines rearranged jazz classics and original compositions, he opens it up to pieces written by Jaco Pastorius, Carla Bley, Jean-Loup Longnon, Daniel Goyone, Louis Sclavis, Patrice Caratini, Andy Emler, Denis Badault, and Gil Evans, whom he recognizes as one of his influences.

The ONJ also provided him with his first experiences of other forms of artistic expression, through collaborations with choreographers Philippe Découflé (ballet "Tutti" in 1988)

and Andy De Groat "Le Melon Royal" at the Centre Pompidou in 1989.

At the end of his term as director of the ONJ, Antoine Hervé turned his attention to improvisation in all its forms and, to this end, created the Hexameron association in 1990.

His encounter with Bulgarian singer Yildiz Ibrahimova led him to take an interest in Turkish and Bulgarian classical music ("Paris-Zagreb," 1991).

and led to the writing of L’Opéra des Pékins the following year, featuring the musicians from his quintet: singer Yildiz Ibrahimova, saxophonist Laurent Dehors, François Moutin (double bass), trombonist Yves Robert, bell player Jean Blanchard, and tambourine player Carlo Rizzo. The choreography was created by Dominique Rebaud with dancer Anna Rodriguez. 

Two years later, the same musicians participated in the creation of a Concerto Da Camera for jazz quintet and string quartet at Radio France.

Recognized as a composer, he wrote a piece in tribute to Frank Zappa, Transit, commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain (1994), and developed several musical shows such as Sonate d'automne with Anne Carrié and Mes bien chers frères, in which he performed songs by Serge Gainsbourg and his brother François Hervé.

He also composed a concerto for trumpet (Hommage à Miles Davis – CNSM Paris competition), Northsea for trumpet and marimba (CNSM Lyon competition), La Maison brûlée for string quartet, and Transactions for the Alternance ensemble.

In 1997, he created Mozart, la nuit, a show featuring 120 choristers (whom director Laurent Pelly dressed in pajamas and slippers!) and a quartet composed of the Moutin brothers and German trumpeter Markus Stockhausen, performing Mozart's greatest hits alongside contemporary compositions, urban jazz and funk sounds, and electronic music.

Blanca Li

A world without mercy

Continuing his eclectic journey, Antoine Hervé wrote the music for the show Macadam-Macadam by choreographer Bianca Li (1998),

collaborates with filmmaker Eric Rochant (music for the film A World Without Mercy)

and created Les Caprices de Morgane at the Inter-Celtic Festival of Lorient, with 19 musicians, including nine traditional musicians (bagpipes, bombards, Breton snare drums, and Celtic harp).

He also participates in Laura Scozzi's musical "A chacun son Serpent" at the Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar,

based on texts by Boris Vian with hip-hop dancers (2000) and created Absolute Dream, commissioned by the Cité de la musique, for his quintet and a seventeen-piece string ensemble (2002).

Laura Scozzi

Inspired by the instrumental formula of Béla Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, he formed the Opus 4 ensemble based on this model, in which he collaborates with his wife, Véronique Wilmart, also a pianist and specialist in electroacoustic processing (MAO), and two percussionists from the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Alongside this prolific compositional work, the pianist continues to express himself in contexts more closely linked to jazz, in various configurations: in duos with Didier Lockwood, Michel Portal, and Stéphane Belmondo; in a trio with the Moutin brothers (Fluide, 1994, and on a collection of standards, "Summertime," 2002) or in a quintet with trumpeter Markus Stockhausen ("Instantanés," reissued under the title "Invention Is You," 2001), while constantly demonstrating a desire for openness and synthesis of musical languages, which remains one of his main concerns.

In 2002, he improvised pieces from the classical repertoire at the Cité de la Musique.
The release of Inside the following year, a collection of solo piano recordings, marked the maturity of a pianist who, thanks to the intelligence he had acquired from his instrument, approached different modes of playing and embodied the "one-man band" whose countless avatars he had been tirelessly showcasing for several decades.

In 2006, he recorded "Road Movie" (Nocturne), an album consisting entirely of original compositions featuring a string quartet, brass instruments, percussion, and even a bombarde and bagpipes.

He then released a tribute to Thelonious Monk on Nocturne, a solo piano recording made at the Cité de la Musique in 2007: "I Mean You."

Since 2007, he has been collaborating with Jean-François Zygel on France 2 in the program "La Boîte à Musique," and co-producing with him on France Musique the program "Le Cabaret de France Musique" (2008-2009). The album "Double-Messieurs" was released by Naïve in 2010.

Since 2007, he has been giving monthly "Jazz Lessons" in Paris (MPAA-Auditorium St Germain and currently Le Petit Journal Montparnasse) and throughout France and its overseas territories, devoted to various themes such as "Oscar Peterson," "Bill Evans," "Thelonious Monk," "McCoy Tyner," "Keith Jarrett," "Weather Report," "Louis Armstrong," etc. (40 themes to date!) and tours in a piano duo with Jean-François Zygel.

He has produced seven DVDs of Leçon de Jazz, plus a box set featuring five pianists—Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, and Keith Jarrett—on his own label, RV Productions.

After a tour in China with prima ballerina Marie-Agnès Gillot,

In 2012, his album "PMT QUARKTET" was released, a mix of modern jazz and acousmatic music, with Véronique Wilmart on computer, Jean-Charles Richard on saxophones, and Philippe "Pipon" Garcia on drums. The album was very well received by the press and was named "album of the month" on Citizen Jazz.

His latest album, "Complètement Stones" (2014),featuring François Moutin on double bass and Philippe "Pipon" Garcia on drums (Dist Harmonia Mundi), is a trio tribute to the Rolling Stones and his brother Jean-Pierre, who was friends with them.