André Ceccarelli

Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France

André "Dédé" Ceccarelli (born 5 January 1946) is a French jazz drummer.

After learning to play the drums from his father, Ceccarelli started out playing in the salons of the Hotel Royal Nice Promenade des Anglais at the age of fifteen, where he played with some musicians at tea dances on weekends. He was spotted by a lady who was the wife of John Tosan, and was presented to the brothers John Rob alias Jean-Claude and James Fawler alias Gerard Roboly, and on their request participated on rehearsals with the French band rock Les Chats Sauvages, who was looking for a new drummer, and was hired at age 16 in May 1962, which corresponds to the beginning of his long career.

After almost two years, several tours and many recordings with this band, he left in January 1964 to resume the position of drummer in the band the Casino Sporting Club Monaco, and playing with many entertainers in studio and on tour, including Claude François, he turned to jazz. He had always wanted to be able to play with the jazz greats of the time, and could do so when becoming an active studio musician.

From the late 1960s, he collaborated with arranger and trumpeter Ivan Jullien with whom he recorded the album including 'Synthesis' (1978). It also participates in the short-lived group Troc (1972) with Jannick Top and Alex Ligertwood and sign two fusion style albums, one on the label Bingow, recorded between 1972 and 1973, the other for the Carla label in 1977. In 1974, he played in the orchestra of Jean-Claude Naude and participated on the album A New Kind of Band.

In 1979, he began a career in the United States alongside Bunny Brunel and Chick Corea, and met Dee Dee Bridgewater in 1987, with whom he continued a long lasting collaboration. He founded the 'Trio Sud' with Sylvain Luc and Jean-Marc Jafet in 2000.

He has recorded as leader since the 1976, and released the album Avenue Des Diables Blues (2005) within his own trio.

Ceccarelli is the sponsor of the festival Jazz at Any Time that started in 1998 in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse and the Nice Jazz Festival in 2013.

He has worked with Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sting, Enrico Rava, Kenny Wheeler, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Jean-Luc Ponty, Stéphane Grappelli, Didier Lockwood, Chick Corea, Joey DeFrancesco, John McLaughlin, Biréli Lagrène, Christian Escoudé, Philippe Catherine, Nguyên Lê and Sylvain Luc.

Source: Article "André Ceccarelli" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.