Paul Lay

Acclaimed by the French Jazz Academy in 2016, Paul Lay received the «Django Reinhardt» Prize for the Best French Jazz Musician of the Year. He was also elected Best Young French Jazz Talent of the Year by a poll of critics produced by Jazz magazine. With "Mikado" opus in 2014, the Paul Lay Quartet won the prestigious Charles Cros Academy prize for "the Best International Jazz Album Of The Year".

Acclaimed by the French Jazz Academy in 2016, Paul Lay received the «Django Reinhardt» Prize for the Best French Jazz Musician of the Year. He was also elected Best Young French Jazz Talent of the Year by a poll of critics produced by Jazz magazine. With "Mikado" opus in 2014, the Paul Lay Quartet won the prestigious Charles Cros Academy prize for "the Best International Jazz Album Of The Year".

L’Odyssée d’Homère m’accompagne depuis l’enfance. C’est en en faisant la lecture à mon fils durant la pandémie de 2020 que j’ai redécouvert, sous un éclairage nouveau, certains passages du poème homérique. Peu à peu, des mélodies me sont venues qui se sont muées en ritournelles obsédantes. Le répertoire s’est constitué progressivement en retranscrivant, durant plusieurs mois, ces partitions intérieures directement inspirées des aventures d’Ulysse.

Paul Lay, a young French pianist, pays tribute to the music of American soldiers from the First World War: music that introduced jazz to France. Jazz is the Africans who put the daoua in Western music and who regenerate it while it was in the process of becoming academic, notably by removing from its teaching the art of improvisation. The music which does not like being locked up then crosses the Atlantic and wakes up all jazz undressed by the grace of miserable slaves who were going to invent the greatest lesson of musical freedom.

Paul Lay and his trio - Dré Pallemaerts and Clemens Van der Feen - revisit some of the most beautiful compositions of the legendary Bill Evans (Blue in Green, The Two Lonely People), as well as great jazz standards of which Bill Evans was the reference interpreter, such as Alice in Wonderland.

Paul Lay presents his new trio album, "L'Odyssée de Paul Lay", to be released on October, 11 (Gazebo). Inspired by Greek poet Homer's epic tale, Paul transposes into music Ulysses' incredible journey home, encountering an array of mythical creatures from Cyclops and Sirens to giants and goddesses. With "L'Odyssée", he confirms his vocation as a composer, inventing astonishing colors and soundscapes.

"It all started with a proposition by Rene Martin for his Folle Journée de Nantes in 2020. He invited me to interpret some of Beethoven’s works, I was free to do what I wanted, the idea was to select a few of his most beautiful melodies and play them my way, opening them up for improvisation.

« Alcazar Memories » , c’est un voyage hommage aux racines de la chanson populaire française, plus particulièrement provençale, et suédoise. C’est aussi une affirmation de ce travail de composition et d’écriture qui, depuis quelques années, marque le talent de Paul Lay. Une alchimie parfaite entre la connaissance de l’histoire de la musique, classique, jazz et cette capacité à en extraire une nouvelle direction, de nouvelles voies pour présenter un univers où l’on se sent immédiatement conquis.

Very greedy Paul Lay who starts the year 2017 with not one but two albums that he publishes simultaneously: Alcazar Memories and The Party. The first is built around his piano, a voice (that of Isabel Sörling) and a bass (held by Simon Tailleu). "It was the sound I had in mind for this repertoire of songs and poems inspired by nature and its riches, to create many climates and music as dense as air. All these pieces celebrate this Nature, its strength, its multitude, but also describe the Man and his moods, through songs of love. "Paul Lay brings together personal compositions but also signed pieces including Gershwin or Vincent Scotto.