Pierre LEVY   Saxophones  Piano  Composition  Lead                     Back to CD page

Pierre LEVY was born near Paris, he became a jazz fan when he was 10 by listening his parents records and because a cousin working for Black and Blue Records invited  him to a recording of Jay McSHANN, Arnett COBB,  Milt BUCKNER and other famous american musicians. Since that jazz and music became all his life.

He played the piano, harmonica, guitar, percussions with records and when he was 17 decided to play saxophone.
He studied one year and started to play with a local band the « JAZZTERIX ».
At this time he was playing only by ear, and couldn’t read the notes.
He continued his way as an autodidact, playing here and there with jazz and blues groups.

When he was 25 he decided to become professionnal and started to practice 6 hours a day ; he also went to a school to learn composition, harmony, musical theory and arrangement in Israel. Back in France he continued his studies of musical writing (4 years in the famous jazz school in Paris, CIM).

He founded his first professionnal group « ATTILA JAZZ QUINTET » with whom he played a few years, and changed the name to « PIERRE LEVY QUINTET ».

Pierre had performed with or without this band in many places, like Paris (Duc des Lombards, Sunset, Petit Journal Montparnasse, Festivals), Capetown- South Africa, Bahia Blanca- Buenos Aires Argentina, ENSEMS Festival of Valencia- Spain, Altenstadt- Germany, Tel Aviv and Eilat- Israel, Praia- Cape Verde, Sharm el Sheik- Egypt...

In this group played excellent french musicians as Airelle BESSON, Nicolas GENEST, Bruno ROUSSELET, Richard RAUX, Jean GOBINET, Georges BECKERICH, Bruno BIANCHI, Jean Claude JOUY, and the Americans Larry GILLESPIE, Ronnie PATTERSON, David ANGEL, Napoleon Maddox.

Pierre LEVY also had the opportunity to play with Luther ALLISON, Jack VAN POLL, Jean Claude FORHENBACH (played with Django REINHARDT), Jerry GARVAL (played with Charles MINGUS, Steve LACY), Jess GERZSTENKORN (played with Rahsaan Roland KIRK, Clifford JORDAN, Sir Roland HANNA)…

He was at the masterclasses of Bill FRISELL, Lee KONITZ, Dave LIBMAN.

To Pierre LEVY’s CD, « SAMAR : The Birth », the drummer (and painter) Daniel HUMAIR gave his support and wrote :

«Pierre LEVY and his friends show us in that CD their purity and knowledge. I answer for their work with enthusiasm. »

Now, Pierre likes not to stay in the jazz world only. He plays with very different groups and musicians as Napoleon Maddox, Bachir Sanogo, Young Do Seo, ENSEMBLE BARCELONA NOVA MUSICA (contemporary and improvised music), TRIVIA (a vocal trio that sings corsica polyphonic music based on music written between the 16th century to contemporary music), and other temporary groups.