Michel Herr
Encyclopedia
Michel Herr is a Belgian
pianist
, composer
and arranger
active in the fields of jazz and film music.
Since the seventies he has been active on the Europe
an Jazz scene
. He appeared on more than 60 jazz albums.
Since 1984, he regularly played piano
and keyboards
with harmonica player Toots Thielemans
. He performed with him throughout the world (Europe
, Japan
, Africa
, U.S.
), played many major festivals and participated in many records, TV shows and film soundtrack
s.
Michel Herr had the opportunity to play with great American musicians like Joe Lovano
, Chet Baker
, Lee Konitz
, Art Farmer
, Joe Henderson
, Johnny Griffin
, Pepper Adams
, Bill Frisell
, as well as many top European musicians, such as Palle Mikkelborg
, Riccardo Del Fra, Palle Danielsson
, Richard Galliano
and the best Belgian musicians: Philip Catherine
, Steve Houben
, Bert Joris
and others.
He led several bands, from the trio to the big band, a.o. a European quintet with Wolfgang Engstfeld (sax) and Bert Joris
(tp), a nonet named "Life Lines", etc... in which he presents his compositions.
He wrote for numerous jazz ensembles : WDR Big Band, ACT big Band, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra
(a.o. with singer David Linx
, the Metropole Orchestra (NL), etc...
2008 sees the release of a double album of his big band compositions with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra
, "The Music of Michel Herr".
He is also active in the field of film music.
etc...
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
active in the fields of jazz and film music.
Since the seventies he has been active on the Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an Jazz scene
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. He appeared on more than 60 jazz albums.
Since 1984, he regularly played piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
with harmonica player Toots Thielemans
Toots Thielemans
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...
. He performed with him throughout the world (Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
), played many major festivals and participated in many records, TV shows and film soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
s.
Michel Herr had the opportunity to play with great American musicians like Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
, Art Farmer
Art Farmer
Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...
, Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
, Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
, Pepper Adams
Pepper Adams
Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III was a jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 43 pieces, was the leader on twenty albums, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman.-Biography:...
, Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
, as well as many top European musicians, such as Palle Mikkelborg
Palle Mikkelborg
Palle Mikkelborg , is a Danish jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger and record producer. He started playing professionally in 1960, and has since been a dominant figure on the Danish and international progressive jazz scene...
, Riccardo Del Fra, Palle Danielsson
Palle Danielsson
Palle Danielsson is a Swedish jazz double bassist born in Stockholm, Sweden, perhaps most notable for his work done with Keith Jarrett from 1974 to 1979, becoming a member of his European quartet for that period.-Career:...
, Richard Galliano
Richard Galliano
Richard Galliano is a French accordionist.-Biography:He was drawn to music at an early age, starting with the accordion at 4, influenced by his father Lucien, an accordionist originally from Italy, living in Nice.After a long and intense period of study Richard Galliano (born December 12, 1950,...
and the best Belgian musicians: Philip Catherine
Philip Catherine
Philip Catherine is a Belgian jazz guitarist.-Biography:He was born in London from an English mother and Belgian father....
, Steve Houben
Steve Houben
Steve Houben is a Belgian jazz saxophonist and flutist. He was born in 1950. In the mid 1970s, he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Houben created on his return to Belgium the jazz seminar at the Liège conservatory, in association with Henri Pousseur. In his long career he played...
, Bert Joris
Bert Joris
Bert Joris is an internationally renowned jazz trumpeter, composer and arranger from Belgium. In 1996 he received the Golden Django.-References:*...
and others.
He led several bands, from the trio to the big band, a.o. a European quintet with Wolfgang Engstfeld (sax) and Bert Joris
Bert Joris
Bert Joris is an internationally renowned jazz trumpeter, composer and arranger from Belgium. In 1996 he received the Golden Django.-References:*...
(tp), a nonet named "Life Lines", etc... in which he presents his compositions.
He wrote for numerous jazz ensembles : WDR Big Band, ACT big Band, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra
Brussels Jazz Orchestra
Brussels Jazz Orchestra is a Belgian jazz big band founded in 1993 by saxophonist and composer Frank Vaganée. They recorded their first CD in 1997...
(a.o. with singer David Linx
David Linx
David Linx is a Belgian jazz singer, composer and songwriter.-As guest:*Diederik Wissels*Trio Bravo*Viktor Lazlo*Maurane*La Grande Formation*Aka Moon- Notes :...
, the Metropole Orchestra (NL), etc...
2008 sees the release of a double album of his big band compositions with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra
Brussels Jazz Orchestra
Brussels Jazz Orchestra is a Belgian jazz big band founded in 1993 by saxophonist and composer Frank Vaganée. They recorded their first CD in 1997...
, "The Music of Michel Herr".
He is also active in the field of film music.
Albums as a leader or co-leader
- Solis Lacus (1975)
- Ouverture éclair (1977) (Michel Herr Trio)
- Perspective (1978) (with Wolfgang Engstfeld)
- Good buddies (1979) (with Bill Frisell)
- Continuous flow (1980) (Engstfeld / Herr / Danielsson / Lowe)
- Short stories (1982) (with Wolfgang Engstfeld)
- Intuitions (1989) (trio)
- Meet Curtis Lundy & Kenny Washington (Steve HoubenSteve HoubenSteve Houben is a Belgian jazz saxophonist and flutist. He was born in 1950. In the mid 1970s, he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Houben created on his return to Belgium the jazz seminar at the Liège conservatory, in association with Henri Pousseur. In his long career he played...
& Michel Herr) (1983) - Just friends (Michel Herr & Archie SheppArchie SheppArchie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
)(1993) (movie soundtrack) - Notes of life (1998) (Quintet)
- A tribute to Belgian Jazz (1998)
- The Music of Michel Herr (with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra) (2008)
- Jazz Olympics (1 track in tentet with Michel & Life Lines) (2008)
Albums as a piano player, composer, arranger, etc...
- Dom Rocket (Gijs Hendriks Quartet) (1979)
- Remembering Bobby Jaspar and Rene Thomas (Saxo 1000) (1980)
- Act Big Band (1981)
- Steve Houben + strings (1982)
- Soon spring (John Ruocco) (1983)
- Your precious love (Toots Thielemans) (1984)
- Sweet seventina (Bert Joris) (1985)
- Transparence (Philip Catherine) (1986)
- Solid steps (Joe Lovano) (1986)
- Extremes (Act Big Band and guests) (1987)
- Bim bim (Bruno Castellucci) (1987)
- Take it from the top (Denise Jannah) (1991)
- Loop the loop (Fabrice Alleman Quartet) (1993)
- En public (Phil Abraham Quartet) (1997)
- The live takes (Toots Thielemans) (1999)
- Restless (Jean-Pierre Catoul / Peter Hertmans) (1999)
- Sides of Life (Fabrice Alleman) (2004)
- Changing Faces (1 track feat. David Linx / Brussels Jazz Orchestra) (2007)
- Jazz Olympics (1 track feat. David Linx / Brussels Jazz Orchestra) (2008)
- Let me hear a simple song (Radoni's Tribe / Arranger) (2009)
etc...
As a composer, arranger for movies
- Le Scoop (Jean-Louis Colmant) (1977) (TV)
- La Mésaventure (Freddy Charles) (1980) (TV)
- Les Fugitifs (Freddy Charles) (1981) (TV)
- San Francisco (Freddy Charles) (1982) (TV)
- Les Magiciens du mercredi (Freddy Charles) (1984) (TV)
- Just Friends (Marc-Henri Wajnberg) (1993)
- Éclats de famille (Didier Grousset) (1994) (TV)
- Les Monos / Le responsable (Didier Grousset) (1999) (TV)
- Le Coup du lapin (Didier Grousset) (2000) (TV)
- Odette Toulemonde (Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt) (Nicola PiovaniNicola PiovaniNicola Piovani is a light-classical musician, theater and film score composer, and winner of the 1998 Best Original Dramatic Score Oscar for the score of the Roberto Benigni film La Vita è bella, better known to English-speaking audiences as Life Is Beautiful.After high school, Piovani enrolled at...
) (arranger/orchestrator of Joséphine Baker songs) (2007) - Un crime très populaire (Didier Grousset) (2007) (TV)