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Paris-based musician, composer,
band leader, and highly-regarded soloist,
Olivier Ker Ourio has established himself as one of the world’s
premiere chromatic jazz harmonica players. His compositions combine
lyric melodies with invigorating rhythms and inventive harmonies.
Emotionally expressive, warm and inviting, Ker Ourio’s music is
committed, fresh, and melodic — and above all,
straight from the heart.
Ker Ourio was born in Paris in 1964, but grew up in his
family's
homeland: the small French
territory of Reunion Island, where
his ancestors from Brittany came
to settle in 1728.
When he was only eight years old, his father
handed him a chromatic harmonica. At first a toy,
it eventually became the instrument of his life's passion.
At 20, Ker Ourio returned to France to study computer programming, in
Grenoble. Fortunately, his harmonica accompanied him, and it's here that his
story truly begins — with the discovery of his love for jazz, and his first
amateur concerts.
Returning to Reunion Island, he studies under François Jeanneau at the
National Conservatory of Music, forms his first group and
plays extensively in clubs and festivals on the island. He
opens for renowned singer Dee Dee Bridgewater. Then in
1992, he moves back to France permanently to pursue jazz
full-time.
One year later, with vibraphonist David Patrois, a
milestone: he wins both the soloist and orchestral
categories at the National Jazz Competition of La
Défense and is later featured in the Paris Jazz
Festival at Radio France. Concert and television
appearances follow. He plays throughout Europe
and embarks on an extended tour of Russia with the group InterJazz.
In 1994, Ker Ourio meets and performs with pianist
Michel Petrucciani in concerts and on national radio. He
also meets drummer Aldo Romano and records on his
album Prosodie with Paolo Fresu, Stefano di Battista,
Franco d'Andrea, and Furio di Castri. He also wins the
"Fondation de la Vocation" award.
In 1995, it's another move — this time to New York — to search out the true
source of the American form. While studying
composition with pianist Franck Amsallem, he plays
as a sideman with a number of celebrated musicians
and is featured on vibraphonist Joe Locke's Sound
Tracks, with Rufus Reid and Gene Jackson, for
Fantasy Records.
Central Park Nord (1997), recorded in NYC with David Kikoski, Ed
Howard and Clarence Penn, marks Ker Ourio’s debut as a composer
and leader, binding technical mastery to a rare lyrical talent. The
critics agree: Ker Ourio is "the only worthy successor to Toots
Thielemans."
Returning to Paris, Ker Ourio
widens his musical palette and
collaborates with many
musicians, including Denis
Leloup, Tony Rabeson, Pierrick
Hardy, Gildas
Boclé and
Pierre de
Bethmann (of
Prysm). In
1999, he brings
them together to record his
second offering: Oté l'ancêtre! (Hey, Ancestor!). The groove is an
exceptional blend of jazz and maloya rhythms — and a musical rejoinder to
his island roots and his ancestral Celtic heritage.
A Ride With the Wind (2001), continues musical ties
with Pierre de Bethmann and Gildas Boclé, and
welcomes a newcomer,
drummer Franck Agulhon.
The quartet is rounded out
with guest appearances by
Toots Thielemans (by now a true mentor and
friend), Claudio Pontiggia, Jacques Pellen and
Nelson Veras. The band tours in France,
Belgium, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, the Indian Ocean and Venezuela.
The album is dubbed "a new and decisive phase in the evolution of this selfmade musician, whose career is just waiting to explode." In the words of
master jazz harmonicist Toots, it is simply: "these tunes stick with you."
In 2002, Ker Ourio organizes an artistic
residence on Reunion Island, with the
goal of creating a new fusion: jazz and
Creole music. He forms a collaboration
with the island's legendary maloya
vocalist, Danyel
Waro. Together with
the quartet, he records
a fourth album, Sominnkér (Path of the Heart). The
eleven tracks represent a rare blend of poetry, world
music and jazz. The album wins praise from the press,
and a still wider audience for Ker Ourio's music.
Siroko (2005) marks a return to a smaller, focused ensemble format. The CD
is recorded with just two
other musicians: Heiri
Kaenzig, bass virtuoso of
the Vienna Art Orchestra —
and renowned American
guitarist Ralph Towner
(founding member of
Oregon). The sound is lyrical, sinuous, soaring... assertive, daring, and
precise. According to the press: “The guitar, bass and harmonica blend to
perfection, often attaining a rare lyricism. Between the unpredictable chords
of Towner, and the melancholic sounds of the harmonica you have plenty to
listen to, and one is very often magically transported to musical landscapes
of rare color. It’s been said a thousand times Ker Ourio is the worthy
successor to Toots Thielemans… but this CD, with an ingenious
combination of sounds, expressive modern rhythms, and original melodies
makes it one all his own. Undeniably!
 P. Dulieu -- Dragon Jazz Magazine, Belgium, June 2005
OVERSEA
Dreyfus Jazz 2010
With Sylvain Luc, André Ceccarelli, Didier
Lockwood, Louis Winsberg, Glenn Ferris,
André Minvielle, Danyel Waro, Jean-Michel
Pilc, Manuel Rocheman...
"In the family of wind instruments, there is a
brotherhood of the highly gifted, blessed by the
gods. They are musicians whose breath is naturally colored with music. As
soon as they put their instrument to their lips - whether it is a saxophone, a
trumpet, a flute or a harmonica - the music is there, right away, guileless and
inescapable. Like a truth that immediately plunges the listener into a state of
weightlessness with the sheer honesty of its inner voice. This lyrical
endowment is called charm. Lester Young, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Stan
Getz and a few others have succeeded in harnessing this gift, which
transforms breath into "something blue that appeared like a wing" (Victor
Hugo). Olivier Ker Ourio definitely belongs to this clan of the chosen.
With this first album under the label Dreyfus Jazz, Olivier Ker Ourio invites
us to take a new and elemental voyage... this gentle nomad of the harmonica
has chosen, for each track, fellow travelers in his own image. All are true
adventurers of musical freedom: pianists Manuel Rocheman and JeanMichel Pilc, guitarists Sylvain Luc and Louis Winsberg, vocalists André
Minvielle and Danyel Waro, trombonist Glenn Ferris and kayamb player
Laurent Dalleau, not to forget a fantastic rhythm section with André
Ceccarelli and Diego Imbert... At every turn, we find charm and magic,
swing and poetry. How rare!"
-- Pascal Anquetil
MAGIC TREE
Plus Loin Music – 2010
with
Philip Catherine (guitars)
Emmanuel Bex (Hammond organ)
André Ceccarelli (drums)
Jazz
For the Jazz harmonica world, Toots
Thielemans, the man who transformed this toy instrument into an essential
voice in Jazz and Cinema (just remember "The Getaway", by Sam
Peckinpah in 1972), is still the main figure. With his seventh album since
1998, Magic Tree, Olivier Ker Ourio gets to shine in his own light, breathing
calmly in his harmonica as on a summer night. The light is soft, the son of
Reunion Island climbed the magic tree of his childhood and looks at the
sunset over Saint-Denis. He dreams. And he has ideal partners: Emmanuel
Bex, who mixes warmly the sounds of his Hammond organ with the
sometimes very close mouth organ sounds; Philip Catherine, the one and
only, king of melody; André Ceccarelli who discreetly anchors the boat.
All Olivier's original compositions swing with island rythms: calypso,
habanera, cachucha, maloya..., that the Jazz critic will uneasily identify,
while Olivier Ker Ourio euphorically improvises with generous lyricism. It
is easy to understand why so many great musicians, from Michel Petrucciani
to Ralph Towner, from George Moustaki to Michel Legrand, from Aldo
Romano to Rick Margitza, insisted to play with him: he breaths with the
soul.
Michel Contat 4 Clés Telerama n° 3175 - 20 november 2010
Today, Ker Ourio is currently busy touring with his
OVERSEA 4TET and his MAGIC TREE 4TET,
and also performs duets with Manuel Rocheman,
Louis Winsberg and Sylvain Luc.
Ker Ourio plays and endorses HOHNER chromatic harmonicas and is a
HOHNER FRANCE and HOHNER GERMANY artist.
OKO has collaborated with:
Ralph Towner, Sylvain Luc, Michel Pétrucciani, Aldo Romano, Didier Lockwood,
Philippe Catherine, Martial Solal, Toots Thielemans, Daniel Humair, Michel
Legrand, Manuel Rocheman, Jean-Claude Vannier, Sylvain Luc, Paolo Fresu,
Stefano di Battista, Rick Margitza, David Kikoski, Rufus Reid, Gene Jackson, Joe
Locke, Jean-Michel Pilc, Diederik Wissels, Danyel Waro, Lo Kwa Kanza, Laurent
Voulzy, Georges Moustaki, Lis Sorensen, Khalil Chahine, David Linx, Pierre de
Bethmann, André Ceccarelli, Louis Winsberg, Jean-Marc Jafet, David Patrois,
Jacques Pellen, Thierry Lang, Heiri Kaenzig, Denis Leloup, Barend Middelhoff,
Pierrick Hardy, Benoît Sourisse, André Charlier, Jean-Jacques Milteau, Igor
Butman, Andrei Kondakov, Frédéric Favarel, Claudio Pontiggia, Jean-Christophe
Cholet, Zool Fleischer, Guillaume de Chassy, Franck Amsallem, Jean-Marie
Ecay, Yvinek...
He has performed in:
France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain,
Portugal, England, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia,
Algeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Bahrein, United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico,
and the islands of Reunion, Mauritius, Guadeloupe, Madagascar, Corsica and
Mayotte.