OLIVIER KER OURIO

Olivier Ker Ourio (OKO) has been based in Paris since 1992, after a childhood spent on Reunion Island, Olivier Ker Ourio is today recognized as one of the best chromatic jazz harmonica players on the planet.

Hailed by critics as the worthy successor of Toots Thielemans, Ker Ourio is not only a much requested soloist (Alexandre Desplat, Sylvain Luc, Marcel Azzola, Michel Legrand, Didier Lockwood, Danyel Waro ...), but also a brilliant composer and inspired leader. Expressive and warm, his music favors emotion and goes straight to the heart.

In his 11 albums recorded to date, his compositions reveal a poetic world inhabited by lyrical melodies, inventive harmonies and unusual rhythms. The world of OKO is soulful. His last opus “Singular Insularity” was released in 2020, recorded with his island companions: Grégory Privat (piano / fender rhodes, Martinique), Gino Chantoiseau (bass, Mauritius), Arnaud Dolmen (drums, Guadeloupe), Inor Sotolongo (percussions , Cuba).

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WHAT THE PRESS SAYS ABOUT HIM:

“This master of the voluptuous trajectory .... Haute couture on a volatile fabric, shooting stars within reach, what a soloist! The vibrating metallic reed - at the origin of the sound of the harmonica and accordion - has rarely known so much flexibility ... "- Le Monde (FR)

“... Toots Thielemans gave birth to musical sons like Olivier Ker Ourio who continue to emotionally honor the 'mouth organ' in his happy wake. "-Télérama (FR)

"CD de L'Orkès Péï" - CHOC Jazzmagazine (FR)
"OKO is to French jazz what Jean-Jacques Milteau is to blues: THE benchmark" - Liberation (FR)

“In the family of“ blowers ”, he is a very privileged brotherhood, blessed by the gods. These are the musicians whose breath is naturally colored with music. As soon as they mouth their instrument, whether it is a saxophone, a trumpet, a flute or a harmonica, the music is there, immediately, without detour or escape. Like an evidence that immediately plunges the listener into a state of weightlessness by the only truth of the inner song that it imposes. This lyrical supplement is called the charm. Lester Young, Miles Davis, Chet Bak er, Stan Getz and a few others knew how to tame this gift which makes it possible to transform the breath into this "something blue which seemed like a wing" (Victor Hugo). Olivier Ker Ourio undoubtedly belongs to this chosen tribe. "- Jazzman (FR)

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IVAN PADUART

With 32 nominative CDs and a hundred international festivals to his name, pianist Ivan Paduart is one of the most active jazzmen of his generation at BENELUX.

In a short time, the pianist-composer has forged a style that has earned him the recognition of some luminaries of the genre, such as Richard Galliano (3 CDs together on the IGLOO label), Tom Harrell, Toots Thielemans (whom he accompanied for two years on many European stages), Manu Katché (with Richard Galliano, then in other projects…), Didier Lockwood, Philip Catherine (2 albums together, numerous concerts…), Claude Nougaro (promotional tour of the album Chansongs), Bob Malach (5 albums together), Bert Joris, Richard Bona, Peter King, Nigel Hitchcock, Sylvain Luc, Tim Armacost, Tineke Postma, Toon Roos, Rick Margitza, Deborah Brown and all the other musicians with whom he has worked in recent years. His recordings are as many journeys in the most varied formulas (solo, duo, trio, quartet, sextet, large orchestra…).

His last two CDs (Hand in hand and Ear we are) are the fruit of an intense collaboration with Patrick Deltenre, who was Maurane's guitarist for more than 20 years.

His friendship with Olivier Ker Ourio dates back to 2001 and their first collaboration in 2015, on the album Catharsis (with Quentin Dujardin, Manu Katché, Richard Bona and Bert Joris).

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Awards

- 1987 1st prize at the “KNACK TROPHY”, Oostende
- 1989 1st prize at the “JAZZ-RALLYE”, Brussels
- 1989 2nd prize at the “international jazz defense competition”, Paris
- 1990 1st prize at the “international competition for French-language radios”, Brussels
- 1992 1st prize at the “international competition of jazz compositions”, Monaco
- 1993 1st prize for composition “NICOLAS DOR” at the “international jazz festival in Liège”