Pierre Favre

Swiss drummer Pierre Favre, much like saxophonist Steve Lacy and trombonist Roswell Rudd among his peers, began in Dixieland before shifting toward free jazz. Entirely self-taught, Favre turned professional at age seventeen and accompanied visiting Americans such as Lil Hardin Armstrong and Albert Nicholas throughout the mid-1950s. During the following decade he appeared alongside bop figures Bud Powell, Benny Bailey, and Booker Ervin while also taking a position at the Swiss cymbal and gong manufacturer Paiste & Sohn. By the mid-1960s his growing fascination with free jazz prompted the formation of a trio featuring pianist Irene Schweizer and bassist George Mraz, the latter eventually replaced by Peter Kowald. Evan Parker’s arrival on saxophone in 1968 expanded the ensemble to a quartet. In the late 1960s Favre further collaborated with Peter Brotzmann, John Stevens, and Manfred Schoof, among others, and simultaneously initiated projects uniting him with contemporary classical performers and avant-garde artists from additional fields. His first solo recording, Mountain Wind, appeared in 1978, after which he assembled an all-percussion ensemble that included Nana Vasconcelos and Paul Motian. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he contributed to numerous ECM sessions alongside vocalist Tamia, classical composer Arvo Pärt, saxophonist and composer John Surman, and bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi. The new century opened with the releases Punctus in 2001, Crisscrossing in 2004, and Fleuve in 2007.