Jacky Terrasson

Jacky Terrasson is a German jazz pianist and composer who was born in Berlin in 1965 to a American mother and a French father. He learned classical piano from an early age and studied at the Lycée Lamartine until 1985 when, at the age of twenty, he was invited to take up a scholarship at the Berlee College of Music in Boston. He returned to France in 1988 to complete his military service obligations and then returned to the USA in 1990 where he joined Art Taylor's band in New York. Three years later he won the prestigious Thelonius Monk International Jazz Piano competition and in doing so received one of the highest accolades which could be bestowed on a young jazz pianist.

In 1995 after recording two albums he signed with the word famous Blue Note Records and recorded ten career-defining albums with the label during a 15-year period. Latterly he has been signed to the Impulse! record label and his most recent recording is a 2016 collaboration with the French trumpet player and drummer Stéphane Belmondo.