StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jacky Terrasson plays "Caravan," "NY Slick," and "Les Chemins de l'Amour"

This week, we turn the video spotlight on pianist Jacky Terrasson, who will be in St. Louis next week to perform Wednesday, December 17 through Saturday, December 20 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Terrasson, 42, was born in Germany to an American mother and French father. He studied at Berklee College of Music, and first gained wide public attention as the winner of the 1993 Thelonious Monk Piano Competition. He worked as a sideman with Betty Carter and Cassandra Wilson, and released his first solo CD on the Blue Note label in 1994, Since then, Terrasson has put out eleven more CDs as leader, mostly on Blue Note or its corporate parent EMI, earning comparisons to jazz luminaries such as Keith Jarrett, Ahmad Jamal and Herbie Hancock. Terrasson's most recent release is the solo piano effort Mirror, which came out in 2007.

First up today is a video from 2007 featuring Terrasson playing the standard "Caravan," a version of which was included on Mirror, with his quartet at the Jazz Baltica festival. The second clip shows him in a trio with bassist Ron Carter and guitarist Russell Malone, doing a Carter original called "NY Slick." Last but not least is a clip from 2002 that shows Terrasson performing his interpretation of the well-known Francis Poulenc composition "Les Chemins de l'Amour" at the Piano aux Jacobins festival in Toulouse, France.





(Edited 12/17/08 to fix a garbled sentence.)