Hervé Celcal

Hervé Celcal starts learning piano at the age of 7 on his native island Martinique (French, West Indies) and continues his lessons at l’École normale Alfred Cortot in Paris (France). He meets the jazz pianist Bernard Maury, who proposes to join his teaching staff in the school ha has just founded. But Hervé is already on stage doing keyboards for various artists (Oliver N’Goma, Sally Nyolo, Cabo Verde Show, Boy Gé Mendes, Admiral T dont il est le chef d’orchestre live, Dédé St Prix, Tanya St Val, Jacques Higelin…).

Today, Hervé Celcal is devoted as a pianist on a very personal acoustic project inspired by the traditional music of Martinique, the bèlè : “Bel Air for Piano”. A franco-anglo-creyol title for a universal project. Within Bèle, which is intimitly linked to drums, Hervé introduces a novelty, his instrument: the piano and all the modern aspects of jazz spirit.

He also honored different musical forms issued from his typical forms issued from this local culture: biguine, mazurka, chouval bwa, quadrille, creyol waltz.
This already very rich body fusions very well, thanks to the genius of bèlè which recreates jazz, its harmonies, its improvisations, basically : its spirit.