Vincent Peirani

Everything started to move faster for the young accordionist after he left the family cocoon in Nice and the classical repertoire for Paris, the jam sessions of his generation, experiences as a vocalist, and African music, flamenco... and above all the CNSM*, which proved to be doubly decisive. At the CNSM Vincent had his first experiences playing in duo, following a proposal from saxophonist Vincent Lê Quang. It was there too that he met Daniel Humair – a crucial encounter, for the latter was to boost his confidence, encourage him to assert himself as a soloist, and offer him a new playground: the Sweet & Sour Quartet, alongside Jérôme Regard and that will-o’-the-wisp Émile Parisien. That was in 2012. In two years, Vincent Peirani had gone from being someone that nobody had heard of to recording his first album as leader! He was soon in the spotlight. At the same time, he was accompanying Youn Sun Nah. The rocket had been launched, and Vincent’s encounter with Michel Portal was to develop his penchant for unforeseeable interactions – he who loves nothing so much as fitting in, planning ahead, organising, modifying… Vincent’s speciality is… not being a specialist. He has a great time providing dense scores for his Living Being Quintet, a jazz-pop formula in which everyone knows the script but is free to take personal liberties. And with Jokers, Ziv Ravitz and Federico Casagrande take him into the realm of jazz, opening up wide areas of freedom that he hadn’t anticipated.