Biography

Pianist Baptiste Trotignon was born near Paris in 1974. He began to play the violin when he was 6, but at the age of 9, he decided that piano was his instrument. Since very young, he has won awards as a composer and performer at the Conservatorio de Nantes, the academy where he studied. As a teenager, he discovered and taught himself jazz. In 1994, he participated in the soundtrack of the film New World, by Alain Corneau. In 1998, he formed his first trio with Clovis Nicolas (double bass) and Tony Rabeson (drums). The group’s first record Fluide (Naïve, 2000) won the Django d’Or for best debut album of 2001. Also, in December of that year, he won the Django Reinhardt award for best jazz musician. He has performed as a soloist as well as with his trio at international festivals such as Jazz in Marciac, Montreal, La Villette Jazz Festival, Vienna, Nice Montreux, Vancouver, Toronto, Ramatuelle, Parc Floral de Paris and Jazz Pulsations. In the year 2002, he won the first prize of the Martial Solal competition in Paris. He has received rave reviews both for his solo piano recordings and his quartet’s (the specialized magazines Télérama, Jazzman and Jazz Magazine gave him the highest rating). His discography also includes Sightseeing, Solo y Trotignon, El-Malek, Hall, Pallemaerts (all released by Naïve).