I started playing bass at the age of 14. Being open to many musical styles, I gained much live experience on many stages. At the same time, I was playing a weekly radio show called “À Vous La Chanson”. 

 

In need of a change and musical development, I decided to move to the USA in 1987 and studied at the Bass Institute of Technology of Los Angeles.

 

Teachers and mentors included, Gary Willis, Jeff Berlin, Scott Henderson, amongst many others. Enriched by many great experiences I graduated with Honors and Vocational 1st prize for Outstanding Bass Player of the Year, the highest degree at the Musicians Institute.

 

During my stay in the USA, I mostly  played live with the band Perfect World (pop) and Loogaroo, a jazz-fusion quartet.

 

Upon my return to Europe, I went on tour with the Broadway Company of New York. For two years, I played the music for Hair, Cats, Chorus Line, Rocky Horror Picture Show…

Ever since, I can say that touring is a part of my life… 

I performed mainly in Europe and Canada with bands like AIFred&the Acid Soul Connection, the jazz-fusion Trio Latino, the platinum’s awards band Sweet People, the pop-rock group Taboo and Laurence Revey, the barefoot Ethno singer.

 

Besides live and studio performances, I played for the saturday night TV show Generations and also Première Scène - a particularly fun experience particularly when booked to sing on the TV-commercial Bounty!

You may also have seen me playing Musicals Productions in Paris, France, such as Irma la Douce or Frou Frou les Bains, performing with the International Center of Percussions, as well as The Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne.

I recorded the soundtrack of the Italian movie Azzuro, which received international awards, starring Paolo Villagio. 

Subsequently, I had the opportunity to record the movie-soundtrack HandyMan, along with Marco Rima.

 

Further album recordings took me to many famous studios in Europa and North America, working for artistic directors and producers like Hugh Padgham, Stefan Galvas, Harris Jons and Chris Birkett.

 

During this intense period, the producer of Eldissa, asked me to become the MD of his project, re-arranging disco-music standards in lounge-bossanova, a big hit/success in Asia

 

In Asia, I had the opportunity to record an album with Susan Wong from China.

 

I was very fortunate to tour around the world with DJ Bobo who wan a world music award for the single Chihuahua. During this time, the DJ Bobo band also performed with Sandra, Culture Beat and Real McCoy.

 

Around the year 2005, I started touring with a new collective jazz project named Injaztigator. We recorded 3 albums with 3 different musical concepts….Jazz was beginning to reappear !

 

In 2011, I was involved in the production and recording of a new Swiss talent, Bastian Baker. His huge success started right away on radio with the single “Lucky”.

 

More recently, I played the SEAT Music Session, directed by Phil Dankner.

This concept brings together artists of R&B, Soul, Funk, Hip-Hop, House, Rock and Pop from all over the world.

To name only a few: America's Got Talent Michael Grimm, Marc Broussard, Roachford, Paolo Mendonca, Rolf Stahlhofen, Anthony Moriah, Chinua Hawk, Chardel, Lisa Millet, Marco Rima, Nubya, Michael von der Heide, Gotthard’s singer Steve Lee, Kandlbauer, Adrian Stern, Myron, Seven, Marc Sway, rapper Bligg, Steff La Cheffe, Alain Clarke, Joannes Oerding, Gregor Meyle, Anna Kaenzig, Jaz Ellington, Shanya Steele (Snarky Puppy), Nina Attal and many other great talents.

 

I'm very grateful for further collaborations that followed, particularly tours with great American blues-soul artists such as Marc Broussard, Larry Garner, Bob Margolin (Muddy Waters), John Primer (Muddy Waters), Robert Lee Nelson, the harmonica player of John Lee Hooker, Doug Duffey, Larry Woodley, or Canadian singer Bob Walsh and Irish guitarist Jimmy Smyth.

 

 

At the Montreux Jazz Festival, I had the honor to play in duo with jazz-fusion guitarist Mike Stern (Miles Davis) and also in trio with vibraphonist Mike Mainieri (Steps Ahead) and drummer Steve Smith for two specials shows organized by Yamaha Instruments Europe.

I addition, I had the privilege to perform with Patato Valdes Big Band (Santana), Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Chaka Khan and Gilberto Gil.

 

Just before the pandemic, we were fortunate to record nine TV episodes for the first season of the show “Sing Meinen Song”. We had the chance to work with Stephanie Heinzmann, Steffe La Cheffe, Francine Jordi, Loco Escrito, Seven, Ritschi, Marc Storace (Krokus). 

Sharing the passion for music for an entire month and with so many artists and musicians was fantastic! 

After arranging the music, all the live shows were filmed and recorded in Las Palmas. Viewers loved it! The album with its 43 tracks was released and was number 1 for several weeks!

 

Mixing Jazz with other musical styles being what I care about most, I got to meet and play with Mino Cinelu, the subtle Miles Davis + Sting percussionist,  and with the impressive French saxophonists Stéphane Guillaume and Christophe Monniot. Imagine how happy I am to have shared the stage and played with these musicians!

 

More recently, I recorded a first album with “The Woodgies”, two Irish folk-pop singers with whom I also enjoy playing live. 

I then went to record Jazzz2, the second album of a hip-hop-slam-jazz poet, an amazing concept-album released along with a nice book.  

 

 

Mister PC is my newest project on which I have been working for a couple of years. The first Album featured legendary trombonist Fred Wesley, Musical Director for James Brown and horn section member in the Maceo Parker Band. The project also features some of the finest Swiss and French funk-jazz musicians!

 

MrPC Dune, the second album, is coming out soon. It’s a new trio project with Julien Revilloud on guitar and Marcol Savoy on drums.

 

 

 

English translation : Thomas Maeder