I have had the pleasure of working with Grégory in my band “Liberetto” the recent year. I had a list of fantastic pianists on my side before, like Leszek Możdżer, Tigran Hamasyan, they all contribute a special flavour to my music, and so does Grégory.

It has been a fantastic experience to get to know him, not only as a musician, but also as a person. He always puts great spirit into the music and he is sending good vibrations on stage. Grégory is a real performer.

On “Family Tree” he is developing his improvisation through new rhythms and beautiful melodies. Actually, as soon as I started listening to the album, I got carried away and did not want it to stop.

It opens beautifully with “Le Bonheur”, a very “French” moody tune reminiscent of Michel Legrand. “Happy Invasion” is a light melody moving into a hysterically fast piano riff in a very intense way. You can hear that this trio has played a lot together, it sounds very balanced. One of my favourite tunes on the album is “Ladja”. This tune demonstrates the trio’s high level of interplay. The melody is very sensitive and moves in many interesting directions. When I hear this song, I imagine myself walking through a rainy Paris, very early in the morning. “Seducing The Sun”, is just what we want to do while listening to this song, a melancholic ballad with a backbeat theme.

The brushes are dancing on the cymbals. “Zig Zagriyen” is a song of Impressionism - Debussy meets African rhythms - continued by a beautiful bass solo and a creative drum part .Grégory’s fingers are running light on the piano… the music stops… is it already over…???

Music is all about opening your mind, about letting go and dreaming. I am dreaming of a better world listening to this music.

I am sure you will enjoy it too!

Lars Danielsson

A few years ago, I decided to learn about my family tree. As I was born in Martinique, and according to some old family pictures, logic has it that my ancestors come from very different places in the world: Africa, Europe, India and China. I had this strange idea about the fact that in the Caribbean world, somehow, all these different cultures still exist and live within us all, at the same time, co-existing in a kind of perfect balance. To some extent, maybe this is how the Creole culture was born, mixing different traditions, different ways of understanding the world, to create and turn a very dark part of History into something very unique, and very beautiful.

Grégory Privat