Andres Jimenez Trio
Biography Andres Jimenez Trio
Andrés Jimenez
performs at major international jazz events and jazz clubs around the world. His major projects as a leader include a quintet, a trio and a piano solo. In addition to his career on stage, Andres is a regular teacher at EJma in Lausanne and at AMR in Geneva.
Andres Jimenez, of Spanish descent, was raised in Geneva, Switzerland, and began at the age of 10 playing everything he heard by ear. Music has always been part of the life of his family which produced several professional musicians: "my parents bought a piano when they arrived in Geneva, I started reproducing what I heard on records and radio, then I started to improvise my own compositions. He soon began listening to pop recordings his brother brought home. He began performing along with these recordings, and in his teens he appeared on stage with cover bands of the Beatles, the Moody Blues, and other bands popular at the time.
Andres Jimenez studied jazz piano for two years with pianist Michel Bastet. Then, for eight years, he followed Sébastien Risler's course at the Conservatoire Populaire de Genève where he was deeply immersed and fascinated by classical and contemporary music. In addition, he took composition lessons with the composer Eric Gaudibert.
Later he took piano lessons with Franco d'Andrea, Richie Beirach and especially Kenny Werner.
In 1995, he completed his classical studies, obtaining the congratulations of the jury and the special Kneiffel Prize.
He then continued his exploration of jazz as an autodidact, transcribing solos and arrangements, playing with local musicians such as Erik Truffaz, Maurice Magnoni, Mathieu Michel, Christophe Calpini, Patrice Moret, Daniel Schläppi, Dominic Egli and Marcel Papals, to name a few.
He also founded the Andres Jimenez Quartet and performed his own compositions with musicians such as Marc Johnson, Bänz Oester and Norbert Pfammatte while touring Switzerland and France.
In one of his reviews, Daniel le Bris defined Andres as “a rare, sensitive and inventive artist, a subtle melodist who is worth it. Not wanting to succumb to the charms of the siren of ease, the musician realized that music is a question of feeling, of sensuality. And alone or with his trio, the note is there, arriving at the right place. His attraction to diversity makes him an "atypical" pianist attentive to all types of music.
Andres Jimenez has accompanied many singers, including Christine Python with whom he won the Sacem prize at the "Festival de Crest" vocal competition in France, he played with the drummer Daniel Humair and worked with the French singer Zizi Jeanmaire and the choreographer Roland Petit. He was the pianist and arranger for what should be the last “singing tour” of Ms. Zizi Jeanmaire. He also composed a song for her, which was recorded on the album "La Liberté est une Fleur".
