Biography
Jean-Pierre Catoul stands among the rare contemporary violinists who fuse jazz and rock into a single expressive voice. He began studying the instrument at six and soon afterward acquired a grounding in music theory, after which he performed with an assortment of ensembles throughout the 1980s that ranged across jazz, rock, and big-band formats. Only in 1987 did his instrumental command fully emerge, when he undertook lessons with the distinguished French violinist Didier Lockwood.
Two years later the Jazz Academy presented him with its Saxe award, naming him “the best young hopeful of the year,” and he contributed his violin to a television broadcast covering the Queen Elisabeth Competition, appearing beside leading classical virtuosos of the era. In 1990 he encountered Stéphane Grappelli, one of the violin’s historic masters, who subsequently invited the younger player to share numerous concerts and festivals.
The following ten years proved unusually active. Catoul became the focus of the television program J-P Catoul, a Violin for Everywhere; he performed in the concert All the Violins of the World that Sir Yehudi Menuhin arranged at Brussels’s Cirque Royal with Grappelli and L. Subramaniam also on the stage. During the middle of the decade he established groups alongside Breton accordionist Gwenaël Micault and pianist Charles Loos, and he entered the ensemble One Shot, whose personnel included Charlie Mariano, Yvan Paduart, Nathalie Loriers, Peter Hertmans, Stefan Lievestro, and Hans VanOosterhout. Catoul additionally composed and conducted the symphonic arrangements for the European dates of rock legends Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, formerly of Led Zeppelin, in support of their hit album No Quarter. In 2001 he collaborated with pianist Pirly Zurstrassen on the recording Septimana.
Two years later the Jazz Academy presented him with its Saxe award, naming him “the best young hopeful of the year,” and he contributed his violin to a television broadcast covering the Queen Elisabeth Competition, appearing beside leading classical virtuosos of the era. In 1990 he encountered Stéphane Grappelli, one of the violin’s historic masters, who subsequently invited the younger player to share numerous concerts and festivals.
The following ten years proved unusually active. Catoul became the focus of the television program J-P Catoul, a Violin for Everywhere; he performed in the concert All the Violins of the World that Sir Yehudi Menuhin arranged at Brussels’s Cirque Royal with Grappelli and L. Subramaniam also on the stage. During the middle of the decade he established groups alongside Breton accordionist Gwenaël Micault and pianist Charles Loos, and he entered the ensemble One Shot, whose personnel included Charlie Mariano, Yvan Paduart, Nathalie Loriers, Peter Hertmans, Stefan Lievestro, and Hans VanOosterhout. Catoul additionally composed and conducted the symphonic arrangements for the European dates of rock legends Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, formerly of Led Zeppelin, in support of their hit album No Quarter. In 2001 he collaborated with pianist Pirly Zurstrassen on the recording Septimana.
Albums
