Richard Galliano

French accordionist Richard Galliano, recipient of multiple awards, accomplished for European folk music—above all the early-twentieth-century French ballroom style known as musette—what his mentor Astor Piazzolla achieved with Argentinian tango. Approaching that heritage like a jazz musician, he reshaped its emotional reach and harmonic palette to suit contemporary tastes while introducing improvisation. Beyond numerous musette sessions, Galliano has worked across borders with Piazzolla, Biréli Lagrène, Jan Garbarek, Michel Petrucciani, Wynton Marsalis, and Toots Thielemans. He has also supported forward-thinking French vocalists such as Brigitte Fontaine, Juliette Greco, and Charles Aznavour. Galliano’s highly personal approach deliberately erases conventional boundaries between genres. Active as both performer and recording artist since the early 1970s, he is best known for the 1995 album Laurita and the 2008 release Mare Nostrum.

Born in France to Italian parents, Galliano took up the accordion in childhood, following his father’s example. He later added trombone, enrolled in composition studies at the Academy in Nice, and, as a teenager, developed a passion for jazz—especially the cool-period work of Miles Davis and Clifford Brown—making that language his central focus by the late 1960s. Earning a living as a jazz accordionist remained challenging until, after relocating to Paris in 1973, he secured the roles of conductor, arranger, and composer with Claude Nougaro’s orchestra. He held that post until 1976, after which he collaborated with an array of American and European jazz figures, among them Joe Zawinul and Ron Carter.

An encounter with Piazzolla prompted Galliano to return to his European roots and breathe new life into musette, then widely viewed as outdated. He joined the Dreyfus roster in 1993; the association brought him initial attention at home and later among international jazz and world-music audiences. Subsequent recordings appeared regularly, some featuring clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Michel Portal, others guitarist Jean Marie Ecay, and still others his preferred rhythm team of bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark and drummer Daniel Humair—later replaced, after Jenny-Clark’s death, by Rémi Vignolo.

Dreyfus issued the 2001 compilation Gallianissimo, drawn from his first seven albums for the label, alongside the duet project Face to Face with pianist and vocalist Eddy Louiss. Following worldwide tours and reissues of earlier material, the 2004 duet album Blues sur Seine with cellist Jean-Charles Capon appeared on La Lichere; Galliano also performed as soloist with Josefine Cronholm on Blue Hat by Søren Siegumfeldt’s String Swing and on Concerts with Portal. These projects preceded the 2005 recording Ruby, My Dear by the New York Trio, comprising Galliano, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Clarence Penn.

In 2007 Galliano released the solo album Solo on Dreyfus, the co-led Mare Nostrum with Paolo Fresu and Jan Lundgren, and Luz Negra, a tango set by his own sextet. By then his schedule of concerts, compositions, and recordings had made him a frequent presence on both sides of the Atlantic. He recorded Love Day: Los Angeles Sessions in 2008 with Charlie Haden, Mino Cinelu, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Ten Years Ago with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra; both albums appeared on Milan. Signing with Deutsche Grammophon, he produced a trilogy of classically oriented projects: Richard Galliano: Bach in 2010, Nino Rota in 2011, Antonio Vivaldi in 2013, and Mozart in 2016.

Returning to jazz in 2014, Galliano recorded Sentimentale for Resonance under the supervision of label founder George Klabin. The studio ensemble included pianist and arranger Tamir Hendelman, guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist Carlos Del Puerto, and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli. That year also saw the Milan releases Tangaria and Au Brésil. In 2016 he issued the double-length New Jazz Musette on Ponderosa Music & Art, leading a quartet with double bassist Philippe Aerts, drummer André Ceccarelli, and guitarist Sylvain Luc. Later the same year he documented the duo concert Live at the Theaterstübchen, Kassel with bassist Ron Carter on In + Out Records. His second 2016 project, the duet recording Piazzolla, Satie: Jean-François Durez Meets Richard Galliano with percussionist Jean-François Durez on Indesens, reached the middle tier of the French folk charts. In 2018 Galliano partnered with pipe organist Thierry Escaich for the duet album Aria on Éditions Jade. Tribute to Michel Legrand followed in 2019, presenting several of Legrand’s celebrated film themes with the Prague String Quintet.

Galliano opened the 2020s with the solo collection Valse(s), juxtaposing his own pieces with miniatures by Frederic Chopin, Dimitri Shostakovich, and Chico Buarque. After 2023’s collaboration Madreperla with the South Czech Philharmonic, he released Around Gershwin in 2024. Consisting solely of extended original compositions, the album honors the American songwriter by threading his material through works by early-twentieth-century contemporaries Rachmaninov, Satie, Debussy, Ravel, and Fauré.