JAZZ à la CARTE.
The jazz pianist Yves Renard is available for engagements. Yves has played professionally for years in the USA as well as on the Côte d'Azur (see his bio below).
Yves is available as a solo pianist or with a variety of 5 groups to suit your venue and budget, from duo (with bass or horn) to sextet (with bass, drums and clarinet, trumpet and sax or trombone). Ambiance and swing guaranteed.
A Demo CD is available.
Contact Yves on 06 61 65 02 22
or on hatu.oko@free.fr
Yves Renard (piano)
In spite of his love of classical music, he fell into bad company in the Club du Haut-de Cagnes, where he played with many musicians including Marc Laferrière, Maxim Saury and Benny Waters. He continued to play there until the summer of 1973, when the American musician Alan Frederickson invited him to the USA to play with the Queen City Jazz Band in Denver, and later the River Plate Dixieland Jazz Band.
After some time playing in New Orleans, Yves returned to France to play with local musicians including Bernard Plassit, Jean Tordo and Bernard Daurat in bands including the Original Jazz Gang, the Swing Parade and more recently the Martinique Jazz Band, in hotels and restaurants in the south of France, before putting together his own band a la Carte.
Yves listened to Swing from an early age and his piano influences include Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller, Oscar Peterson and many more, particularly Count Basie.
John Wilson (bass)
John studied piano at the Cork School of Music in his native Ireland and then took up the guitar and the bass guitar.
After coming to France, he played bass with the Cannes blues band Rocktime before switching to jazz and the double bass. He has since played with a number of groups and accompanied several singers. After attending summer courses with Berklee in Italy and with his idol, the late Neils-Henning Orsted-Pedersen, he continued to study classical bass and jazz arrangement at the Conservatoire d'Antibes, where he played in the Conservatoire Big Band.
As well as playing jazz at many venues in the region, he is in the string section of the Sophia Antipolis Symphony Orchestra.
Bernard Plassit (clarinet)
Bernard studied piano for 12 years in Bordeaux and took up the clarinet and the tenor sax.
He played with some groups in the Bordeaux area and came to Nice where he played with local bands at the "Pied Bleu" in Haut de Cagnes with the Bootleggers and the Original Jazz Gang of Roger Humbert. He participated to concerts in the USA with a swiss band, The Old School Band.
He now plays with different local bands including Yves's "Tribute to Benny Goodman".
e-mail : hatu.oko@free.fr