Jacky Terrasson

Jacques-Laurent Terrasson was born in 1965 in Berlin of an American mother and a French father. The family moved to Paris, where Jacky took classical piano lessons from the age of five. In his mother’s LP collection he discovered Billie Holiday and Miles Davis albums when he was twelve, and before long he was trying his hand at jazz, guided by recordings of Bud Powell, Bill Evans and Thelonius Monk. After studying classical piano in school, he went to Boston and enrolled at the renowned Berklee College of Music to specialize in jazz. After his diploma he stayed on in the US, jamming in clubs in New York City. In 1993 he won the renowned Thelonius Monk Competition; one year later, he landed a contract with the prestigious Blue Note label, for which he recorded a total of ten albums, including three with his trio. Terrasson has been on the roster of prizewinning productions featuring Michael Brecker, Cassandra Wilson and Stefon Harris, and he has collaborated on further recording projects with Charles Aznavour, Dianne Reeves and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Jacky Terrasson performed for the first time at the Ruhr Piano Festival in 1999.