Eric Legnini first made his mark in the mid-1990s as the young, discreet but highly talented pianist of the Stefano Di Battista quartet. His piano was a perfect foil for the fiery and voluble alto saxophonist. His open, generous style springs directly from the dark heart of jazz: rich phrasing, refined and sensual, always marrying itself effortlessly to the melody and the vocal. An exceptional talent for swing, grounded in a rigor and sobriety in his rhythmic placing worthy of the great masters of the hard bop. It was not long before Legnini became the grounding element amongst the disparate temperaments of the Di Battista quartet, as well as one of the most requested sidemen of the Rue des Lombards set. Ten years have passed since his arrival on the international jazz scene—ten years during which the pianist has thrown himself heart and soul into a maelstrom of projects, while never ceasing to place his talent at the disposal of others. Today, at 35, Legnini has reached full stylistic maturity, and has decided to celebrate by finally stepping out of the sidelines with Miss Soul, his first major album on a French label. It is an opportunity to enable a wider public to enjoy his rich seductive musical universe, and his totally original way of marrying tradition and modernity, artistic savvy and popular expression. A chance to discover (or rediscover) a great musician.

Eric Legnini was born in Belgium, on February 20th, 1970, at Huy, near Liege, to a family of Italian immigrants. His father was an amateur guitarist, his mother a singer, a professor at the Municipal Conservatory. Little Eric met his first piano at the tender age of six and passed a childhood immersed in Bach and Puccini—musical composition carried to the heights of incandescent abstraction and a soul laid bare in the human voice raised in song… In the beginning of the 1980s, the discovery of an Erroll Garner album revealed an entirely new musical horizon, especially when it came to keyboards. With his exceptional ear for music, he tinkered with these strange harmonies seized on the fly and quickly fell under the spell of jazz—Eric had found his means of expression.

Thus began a period of intensive apprenticeship, in collaboration with a friend from the conservatory, drummer Stéphane Galland, and soon thereafter, with Fabrizio Cassol, two musicians who, several years later, founded the experimental group Aka Moon. Legnini with his typical thirst for knowledge, totally immersed himself in the history of traditional and modern jazz and rapidly constituted his personal pantheon: McCoy Tyner, for his dramatic intensity, Chick Corea for his readability and faultless technique, and Keith Jarrett for his revolutionary conception when it came to rearranging old standards. Still accompanied by Stéphane Galland, he began putting together his first fusion and jazz groups and, from the middle of the 1980s onwards, he scoured all the clubs on the Belgian scene, in search of jam sessions where he could hone his skills and explore disparate styles.

It was there, in 1987, that he encountered one of the major figures of Belgian and European jazz, saxophonist Jacques Pelzer, who invited him to perform a duo with him, then to join his band. It was a decisive point in his career that helped the young pianist deepen his knowledge and widen his repertoire of standards and thrust him into the ranks of the most promising young sidemen on the Belgian jazz scene. He was then recording his first album as principal performer on the Igloo label, Essentials, when he suddenly decided to go study in the US. It was 1988, and Eric was barely eighteen.

He remained in New York for two years—time enough to take the pulse of the cosmopolis. He also discovered another interest: rap, and such artists as Public Enemy and Ice-T—Legnini’s other great passion. He also managed to pick up a few courses at Long Island University with Richie Beirach, but above all he was getting “on-the-job training,” spending his nights in epic jam sessions in the company of the finest flower of the young jazz musicians of the period (Vincent Herring, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett…). Through the medium of Kenny Kirkland’s voluble and precise style, Legnini began to appreciate the seminal importance of Herbie Hancock in the history of piano jazz, and from then on he became a devotee of that free hard bop that is a standard of the modern Blue Note esthetic of the 1960s.

Under the double aegis of Kirkland and Hancock, Legnini returned to Belgium in 1990. He immediately obtained a position as a professor of jazz piano of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, hooked up with his old friend Jacques Pelzer, with whom he recorded a new album with Igloo, Never Let Me Go, and, without skipping a beat, joined the Toots Thielemans orchestra. There, for almost two years, he performed concerts and toured around the world. With multiple projects in as many directions, he now began an extensive amount of studio work, experimenting with funk, rap and electronic music.

Now established as one of the pillars of the Belgian jazz scene, Legnini’s life took another turn in 1992, when he met two Italian musicians at a Brussels club one night—trumpeter Flavio Boltro and saxophonist Stefano Di Battista, then playing with Laurent Cugny. The three men immediately clicked and they decided to work together, form a band and try their luck in Paris.

At the end of 1993, it’s the jump into the great beyond: Di Battista and his orchestra head out to conquer Paris. Their seductive, resolute hard bop, combined with passion, talent and the obvious pleasure they derived from playing made them an instant sensation within a few months of their arrival. They came to the attention of Aldo Romano, who took them under his wing—they had made it. A first album with Label Bleu, Volare, in 1997, released to universal critical acclaim, confirmed their standing as “the new group to watch.”

It was a new beginning for Eric Legnini. The pianist was indispensable to the balance of the quintet. He remained with them through the album Round About Roma (Blue Note), released in 2003, and was the faithful companion of the Italian saxophonist. As his reputation amongst his peers grew, he was solicited from all sides and began a series of collaborations with the Belmondo brothers, Eric Lelann (Today I Fell In Love), and Paco Sery (Voyages).

Often performing with drummer André Ceccarelli, he is one of the most sought-after sidemen in Paris, and accompanies most of the great musicians as they pass through the capital, at the Sunset or the Duc des Lombards (Enrico Rava, Joe Lovano, Mark Turner, Jean Toussaint, etc.). He didn’t neglect the studio either, recording about fifty albums to this date! With his reputation for musicality and savoir-faire, Legnini began working as an artistic director on a few variety albums, an activity that will achieve its apotheosis in 2004, with the co-creation of the ultimate opus of the great Claude Nougaro, La Note Bleue (Blue Note). Another project: the production of an album, under the pseudonym of Moogoo, with the collective Anakroniq, of the first young French R&B sensation, Kayna Samet, Entre Deux Je (Barclay). It is a refined bit of work, bringing together his love of vocals, soul and hip hop.

Once more making headlines with his participation on the album Wonderland (B Flat) with the Belmondo brothers (which won best French jazz album at Victoires de la Musique 2005), as well as his production work on Daniel Mille’s last album, Après La Pluie (Universal Jazz), Eric Legnini is today one of the major figures in the European jazz world, as well as being one of the most eclectic and prolific artists on the Paris music scene. In his first album as a bandleader for a French label, rich with his extensive experience as a sideman and producer, Legnini went back to tradition, with a pared-down, classic trio—bassist Rosario Bonaccorso and percussionist Franck Agulhon. With his carefully selected repertoire, deftly mixing original compositions with tried-and-true standards (some more famous than others), and pop remakes (Björk), Legnini plunges head-on into the most intimate aspects of the African-American tradition of piano jazz, whose founding fathers include Junior Mance, Ray Bryant, Les McCan and also Phineas Newborn, who is the object of several tributes on the album. The music is warm, direct, and replete with swing and gospel, and, without faux nostalgia, celebrates the timeless modernity of jazz.