Laurent de Wilde

Laurent de Wilde is a musician, producer, writer and radio host. Former student of the École Normale Supérieure d'Ulm in Paris, he moved in New York for eight years, learning jazz piano. He starts performing professionally at the end of the 80's and records his first albums with Jack DeJohnette, Billy Hart and Eddie Henderson. Back in Paris in 1991, he pursues his musical career and is awarded the Prix Django Reinhardt in 1993 for his album Open Changes (1992). He then records two albums for Sony, The back burner (1995) then Spoon-a-rythm (1997) which grants him the Victoire du Jazz in 1998 as the Revelation of the Year. At the same time, he writes a biography of Thelonious Monk (L'Arpenteur - Gallimard,1996, then Folio, 1998), which is translated in English, Spanish, Italian and is awarded the Prix Charles Delaunay of the Académie du Jazz. During the 2000's, he immerses himself in electronic music, a musical genre in which he releases six albums. From then on, Laurent follows simultaneously a wide variety of projects : his own jazz trio, his electronic bands, but also in-depth collaborations with artists such as Jacques Gamblin or Abd Al Malik, as well as co-writing two documentaries for Arte (Monk, 2010 and Mingus, 2011). In October 2016, he releases Riddles (Gazebo), a two pianos album with African legend Ray Lema, and publishes with Grasset a succesfull essay on keyboards inventors of the twentieth century, Les Fous du Son. He also begins broadcasting a weekly radio show for TSF Jazz, Portrait in jazz. In 2017, the centennial of Thelonious Monk's birthday, Laurent puts out his New Monk Trio, dedicated to the compositions of the Genius of Modern Music, which receives in 2018 Best French Album Award by the Académie du Jazz. The same year, he is elected Musician of the Year by the Victoires du Jazz, and is awarded the Grand prix Sacem for lifetime achievement.