Thierry Lang

The Swiss pianist and composer, Thierry Lang, was born on the 16th December 1956 in the small town of Romont in the canton of Fribourg. He started learning piano at the age of 5 and by 7 years old had decided to make piano his career. He excelled in classical piano studies until the age of 21 while at the same time developing a passion for jazz.

Swiss pianist Thierry Lang has always admired Toots Thielemans with great affection and sincerity. Thus it was only a matter of time for the two to work together. This happened when, in 1989, Toots Thielemans and the Thierry Lang Trio got together for a great concert at Cully Jazz Festival. The result was so special that the promoter of Cully Jazz Festival decided to repeat the experience the following year, something quite rare in the programming of any festival. This never-released-before-material was recorded by Radio Suisse Romande (now the RTS, Radio Télévision Suisse) and contains tracks from both events.

The leader of this unique instrumental trio is the Swiss composer and pianist Thierry Lang, age 56. He has been playing piano since 5 and at 7 he decided to dedicate his life to music. When studying classic (up to 21) at 15 Thierry heard Bill Evans whose work became for Thierry a model of synthesis of jazz and classical music. He finally fell in love with jazz after he heard music of Erroll Garner and Oscar Peterson.

Swiss pianist Thierry Lang combines jazz, folk and classical influences on this, his recording debut for ACT. This is defiantly Swiss music but as the album’s liner notes explain label boss Siegfried Loch envisages this often beautiful music reaching out to a wider constituency. The word “Lyoba” is a dialect word for “cow herder’s chant” and comes from the Fribourg region in the West of Switzerland, the area from which Lang hails. The pianist had released two previous “Lyoba” albums locally before being discovered by Loch but the ACT deal has given him the opportunity to present his ideas to an international audience.

Thierry Lang is a Swiss composer and jazz pianist. In 2006, Lang gave a concert in his native village of Romont along with bassist Heiri Kanzig and violinist Didier Lockwood. He teaches piano and composition at the University of Lausanne and University of Bern in Switzerland. He has recorded jazz music discs with Blue Note Records, among others. In 2008 Lang was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from the European University.