Didier Squiban is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

His musical work is a combination of traditional Breton music, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 improvisation

Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

 and classical romanticism and has added the piano to the repertoire of modern Breton music.

He has been influenced by Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, Keith Jarrett

Keith Jarrett

Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...

, Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

 and Bill Evans

Bill Evans

William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...

 as well as Debussy

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

, Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

, Erik Satie

Erik Satie

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...

, Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...

, Schönberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

 and Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould

Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach...

. In 1993, he worked as the accompanying pianist for the Breton singer Yann-Fañch Kemener

Yann-Fañch Kemener

Yann-Fañch Kemener is a traditional singer from Britanny, born in Sainte-Tréphine , France.He took part in reviving Kan ha diskan in the 1970s and 1980s, especially with Erik Marchand...

 in the acclaimed live show Héritage des Celtes

Héritage des Celtes (album)

Héritage des Celtes is a folk-rock album by Dan Ar Braz, released in 1994 by Columbia France, catalogue number COL 477763 2.The album was produced by ex-Bothy Band and Moving Hearts leader Dónal Lunny...

(The Heritage of the Celts) and thereby got closer in touch with the music of his home region Brittany. In 1997, on the island of his ancestors, Molène, he recorded his first Breton solo piano album: "Molène".

Solo piano

• Tournée des chapelles 2004 (2005)
• Ballades (2003)
• Trilogie pour piano (2001)
  • Rozbras (2001)
  • Porz Gwenn (1999)
  • Molène (1997)
• Concert Lorient (recorded at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient) (2000)

With band

• Bangor - Formation Sirius (L'orchestre de Jazz de Bretagne) (1995)
• Jazz à Vauban (1994)
• Tendances (1990)

Cooperations

• Manu Lann Huel chante Léo Ferré - Lann Huel/Squiban/Trévarin (2003)
• Kimiad - Kemener/Squiban (2000)
• Île-Exil - Kemener/Squiban (1996)
• Penn-Ar-Bed/Brest 96 - Didier Squiban & An Tour Tan (1996)
• Karnag "Pierre Lumière"(1996)
• Enez Eusa - Kemener/Squiban (1995)
• Héritage des Celtes en concert - Dan Ar Braz (1995)
• Live - Didier Squiban & An Tour Tan (1997)

External links

• website about Didier Squiban (French)
• L'OZ record label