Le Piano Dans L’Art Du Jazz – Paul Lay

Le Bal Blomet offers a new cycle of concerts entirely dedicated to jazz piano: a solo artist on stage tells us his art, plays his music while freely evoking the jazz pianists of the past or the present who have been sources of inspiration.  The concert «swingue» thus between music and the history of jazz where the pianist reveals how the piano of today integrates, aggregates and exceeds the influences of those who preceded it.

The cycle is conceived in the same spirit as that of the 1001 Nuits du Jazz, while being complementary: over the course of the concerts, these back and forth between pianists of the past and the present draw the place and the complete history of the piano in the jazz, from its origins to the present day.

The first guests of the Piano in the art of Jazz are Fred HERSCH (25 and 26 June), Stefano BOLLANI (27 and 28 September), Baptiste TROTIGNON

«Paul LAY is the most brilliant jazz pianist of his generation» Francis Marmande, LE MONDE. 

A pianist with multiple musical facets, whose singular play has been enriched by numerous collaborations over the past 10 years, Paul Lay enters the big leagues. After studying at the CNSM of Paris, Paul signed in 2010 his first trio record, Unveiling opus warmly acclaimed by the critics. 

Between 2014 and 2019, he made five other albums: Mikado, The Party, Alcazar Memories, Thanks a Million which will make him play in the 4 corners of the world for more than 200 concerts.

At the same time in 2015, he created Billie Holiday for the Folle Journée de Nantes, a passionate video-musical performance alongside video artist Olivier Garouste. This project is performed at the Paris Philharmonie, the Trident in Cherbourg, the Roque d'Anthéron festival, and the French May Festival in Hong Kong.

Over the last ten years Paul has received many prestigious awards: Soloist Prize of the Concours de la Défense, Piano-Jazz Competition of Moscow, Martial Solal Competition, Concours de Montreux, Prize of the Charles Cros Academy with his second album «Mikado»,(2014) and the Django Reinhardt Award from the Academy of Jazz for Best Jazz Artist of the Year (2016).

In 2018, he obtained the support of the BNP Paribas Foundation for the development of his career.

In 2020, Paul is back on the road with two new creations: Deep Rivers – a tribute to pre-jazz jazz with 100-year-old American folk songs and Beethoven at Night – a solo piano musical fresco composed of improvisations on the composer’s most beautiful themes.