OLIVIER KER OURIO’S BIOGRAPHY

Biography

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.

Acclaimed by critics as a true inheritor of Toots Thielemans, OKO is a highly demanded soloist (Alexandre Desplat, Jean-Claude Petit, Sylvain Luc, Marcel Azzola, Michel Legrand, Didier Lockwood, Danyel Waro, Ralph Towner…) as much as a great composer and project leader.

In his 11 albums recorded as a leader, 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.

His new album “Singular Insularity” recorded with his companions of insularity: Gregory Privat (piano/fender rhodes), Gino Chantoiseau (bass), Arnaud Dolmen (drums) & Inor Stolongo (percussions) will be released January 31st, 2020.


PRESSE EXCERPTS:
Olivier Ker Ourio, a beautiful musician everyone is fighting to get…”
– Francis Marmande – Le Monde

– “Regarding French Jazz music, Olivier Ker Ourio is what Jean-Jacques Milteau represents for French Blues music: THE REFERENCE. Mister HARMONICA.”
– Bruno Pfeiffer – Libération

– It is easy to understand why so many great musicians have insisted on playing with him: he breathes with the soul.”
– Michel Contat – Télérama

– “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.”
– Pascal Anquetil – Jazzman

“As regards the harmonica, an instrument thought to be easy by the general public, and which can, in fact, be too easily charming, Toots Thielemans has finally found a plausible, even delightful, successor in the person of Olivier Ker Ourio, a melody-maker who fears neither humor nor emotion…”
– Télérama – Michel Contat

OKO collaborated with :

Alexandre Desplat, Jean-Claude Petit, Vladimir Cosma, Francis Lai, Ralph Towner, Michel Pétrucciani, Aldo Romano, Didier Lockwood, Philippe Catherine, Martial Solal, Toots Thielemans, Elisabeth Kontomanou, Jack Wilkins, 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, Fabrice Legros, Gren Sémé, Virginie Teychené, Fred Monino, Laurent Voulzy, Georges Moustaki, Lis Sorensen, Khalil Chahine, David Linx, Pierre de Bethmann, André Ceccarelli, Louis Winsberg, Frank Woeste, 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, England, Spain, Portugal, Italiy, Corsica, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Algeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Bahrein, United-States, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and the islands of Reunion, Mauritius, Guadeloupe, Madagascar, and Mayotte.

 

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