"French violinist Dominique Pifarély has been a vivid influence in European jazz and new music since the late 1970s and he has found a personal language that expressively adapts to orthodox jazz settings, cutting-edge improv, and contemporary classical music alike."[…]"Everything a Pifarély band plays sounds as if it has a rich and reflective old and new music history to it." John Fordham / The Guardian
"Dominique Pifarély modernized jazz violin, combining extraordinary technical skills with an inclusive idea of music-making. He has been soon very in-demand as a straight jazz player, but was soon in some of the more adventurous groups in Europe." Francesco Martinelli /allmusic.com
"A nulle autre, la voix de Pifarély n’est comparable : le violon solitaire, son phrasé sinueux et ses développements souvent abrupts demeurent inimitables. Grappelli avait coutume de dire qu’un grand violoniste se reconnaissait à la profondeur et à la beauté du son, mais que cette qualité ne pouvait s’acquérir qu’avec le temps. Ecoutez le violon de Pifarély, et vous en serez convaincus." Philippe Hansebout / CultureTops
New album "Preludes and Songs" on ECM Records
Dominique Pifarély, violin - François Couturier, piano
Pianist François Couturier and violinist Dominique Pifarély, important figures on the French improvisation scene, have played together in many projects over the last 30 years, including their duo, which made its recording debut for ECM in 1997 with the remarkable album Poros. Preludes and Songs continues the story and includes music by both musicians as well as pieces by Jacques Brel, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and J. J. Johnson. With their jazz and contemporary compositional sensibilities, Couturier and Pifarély transform the wide-ranging repertoire into captivating, expressive music. Preludes and Songs was recorded in the exceptional acoustics of the Reitstadel Neumarkt in October 2023.
2025 - 2026
2022-10-05 22:52:48
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"French violinist Dominique Pifarély gives an outstanding solo violin recital. The music is totally improvised and it roves through a range of moods and atmospheres, textures and tone colours, dynamically and unpredictably." (Steve Lake, ECM Records).
2022-10-05 22:52:21
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Dominique Pifarély & François Couturier "Preludes & Songs"
A collaboration that has lasted for more than thirty years, in various configurations, has brought together these two very singular musicians who team again today, in the reaffirmation of their great artistic complicity. A first album was recorded – and published by the prestigious German label ECM – in 1997. They are now creating an new original program for piano and violin, refined in the crucible of improvisation and jazz, and the rich tradition of their instruments.
NEW ALBUM Jan. 1rst 2024 "Preludes and Songs" (ECM)
2024-02-11 11:29:58
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Dominique Pifarély Trio feat. Heiri Känzig & Mário Costa
This new trio returns to a concept that gives pride of place to the violin as a solo instrument, while highlighting the bass-drums rhythm section through its reduced architecture. The writing and formal concepts of the leader, as developed in larger formations, or the collective freedom experimented in his previous quartet, are concentrated here, in an immediate expression, and in a very new instrumental configuration.
2022-10-05 22:51:41
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Géraldine Keller & Dominique Pifarély "Gegenlicht"
Une performance autour de Paul Celan, alliant poésie et musique improvisée, une formidable invitation à explorer la profondeur et la complexité de son œuvre. Dominique Pifarély et Géraldine Keller, par leur créativité et leur engagement sensible avec le texte, créent une rencontre entre le langage des mots et celui de la musique.
Gegenlicht propose un dialogue vivant, une hybridation des formes qui prend corps dans l’instant grâce à l’improvisation.