Alexandre Destrez

Musical collaborations

Main collaborations

In 1995, Destrez recorded "Deep In It" and "Street Scene" (4 SHAZZ) on St. Germain's album Boulevard. This was followed by several years of collaboration with Ludovic Navarre, starting from the 1996 concert tour in France and Europe up to the recording of the Tourist album (Blue Note records) in 2001.

Simultaneously, using the pseudonym Alejandro Del Abelgam, he became the accomplice of another phenomenon of the French House scene: Shazz. He participated in the first eponymous album Shazz nominated in the French award ceremony "Victoires de la musique" then at the EP "El Camino Project" (Yellow Prod) and appeared for the first time as artist on the maxi vinyl Shazz & Alexandre Destrez, Hermosa Maria (Epic Records). They went on to jointly produce two titles for Aco, a young singer well known in Japan. In 2001, the second album from Shazz, In the light (Epic Records) came out, on which Destrez composed, arranged, interpreted and collaborated with Shazz and directed the musicians during recording sessions. In 2004, on a third album entitled Beautiful, (Ulm/Universal), Destrez can be heard performing in an even more developed jazz style on a track of the same name.

In 2000, Destrez met the group Overhead and became its keyboard player, signing up as artist with Naïve Records. The group's first album Silent Witness was acclaimed unanimously by the press. (Les Inrockuptibles, Libération, "ffff" Télérama). Two important events for the group were the concert at "La Cigale" and a concert on one of Bernard Lenoir's 'Black Sessions' programmes dedicated to Overhead and broadcast live on France Inter.

In 2002, David Hachour and Florent Sabaton (alias Oscar), in need of a pianist for their first concert at the Rex Club, contacted Destrez. He went on to join the group and collaborated on several Maxi vinyls and two albums from Oscar: Parisian Soul (2003) and Portrait Robot (2004) with Denote Records. In 2004, Alex composed and interpreted Echoes and Echoes Extended Version (piano solo) for Oscar and Blanck Project respectively. He featured alongside Oscar on the track "Mon plus beau matin" (additional track on the Japanese version of the album Portrait Robot).

He also signed up with Shazz for his first remix "Latin Break revisited by Alexandre Destrez" (2005 Universal Music ULM). In 2005, Destrez composed and collaborated with David H. on the music of Alabama 65, (Paris - 2006)

David Grumel Festival Musilac (Aix les Bains – 2006) Le Brise Glace (Annecy - 2007)

Tania de Montaigne: at L’Européen and at the Réservoir (Paris – 2007) - with guests: Jo Wedin and Bibi Tanga singing, Martin Bauer on the viola da gamba

E.T. on the Beach:

at "La CLEF" (Saint-Germain-en-Laye - March 2011) - guest Sodadeth San at the "Vingtième Théâtre" (Paris - May 2011) guests: Sodadeth San, Phoebe Killdeer (Nouvelle Vague) et Olivier Coursier (AaRON)

Original film soundtracks "Le Ciel, les Oiseaux et... ta mère !" directed by Djamel Bensalah (1999) – The title "Hermosa Maria" by Shazz & Alexandre Destrez "Sauve-moi" directed by Christian Vincent (2000) – Piano recording of music by Philippe Cohen Solal (Gotan Project) "Chaos" (Coline Serreau) (2001) – recording with Ludovic Navarre (St. Germain) of the original soundtrack (released in 2002)

Selected discography and concerts (by artist)

With St. Germain 1995: Album "Boulevard" (F Com) 1996: Concert tour in France and Europe 1997: St. Germain Remix Pierre Henry "Messe Pour Le Temps Présent" (Polygram) 1999: "From Detroit to St Germain" (F Com) 2001: Album "Tourist" (Blue Note Records) - 3 Victoires de la Musique – N°1 best selling jazz album in the USA 2002: Original film soundtrack of "CHAOS" (Coline Serreau) 2012: Album "Tourist remasterisé"

With Shazz 1998: Eponymous album "Shazz"(Columbia) – Nomination at the Victoires de la Musique 2001: Album "In The Light"(Epic Records) 2001: Maxi vinyl recording of Shazz & Alexandre Destrez "Hermosa Maria" (Sony Music) 2002: Remix album "In The Night" (Epic Records) 2004: Shazz "Beautiful"(ULM) 2005: Human ? (Naïve Records) 2008: Concert in St.Petersburg and Moscow with Stéphane Pompougnac for the compilation "Hôtel Costes Volume 11" 2009: Album "Heritage" (Pschent) - Concert at the Midem in Cannes

With Dimitri from Paris 1998: Remix of MOA "Joy Pain" (Tommy Boy) 2001: Featuring on the album of Bran Van 3000 "Discosis"

With Overhead 2002: Album "Silent Witness" (Naïve Records) - ffff Télérama - Concert at the TransMusicales in Rennes Live concert broadcast on France Inter for one of Bernard Lenoir's "Black Sessions shows" Concert at La Cigale for the "Festival des Inrockuptibles"

With Oscar 2002: Concert at the "Rex Club" in Paris 2003: Album "Parisian Soul" (Denote Records) and concerts in France and Belgium 2004: Album "Portrait Robot" (Denote Records) and concerts at the "FrancoPhonic Festival" in Berlin and the "FrancoFolies de La Rochelle"

With Martin Solveig 2005: Album "Hedonist" (Universal) nominated at the Victoires de la Musique

With Anthony Fletcher 2009: Eponymous album "Anthony Fletcher Paris" French tour and live concert during the Stéphane Bern programme "Le Fou du Roi" broadcast on "France Inter" 2011: Album "I Guess"

With DJ Yass Over twenty singles and remix albums made since 2005 as pianist, composer or producer, including:

2011: Remix "Everyday" (Foliage) 2012: Remix "Working Hard" (House Afrika) 2013: "Bring it Up" (Kingstreet) / "Who You Are" (Purple Music) / "African Woman" (Foliage) / "Z-Tribute" (Street King) / Remix "Let’s Get It" (Sole Channel) 2014: Concert with Dj Yass et Jay Sebag (singer on songs of Martin Solveig) au SO Night Lounge Marrakech Since 2001: Concerts in Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Tbilissi, Batumi (Georgia 2014–2015), Termoli (Italia 2015) Varna (Bulgaria 2014–2015), Sofia (Bulgaria 2015)

With David H 2005: Creation of the "Alabama 65" project 2012: Creation of "RIVE GAUCHE" electro jazz project 2012: Concerts with RIVE GAUCHE at the Electro Jazz Festival" in Megève (Haute-Savoie, France) 2013: Concerts with RIVE GAUCHE at the Silvain Theatre in Marseille (Festival Borderline - May 2013) 2014: Concerts with RIVE GAUCHE at Magazine Club of Lille (France) 2015: Concerts with RIVE GAUCHE at the Jazz Festival Eclats d'Email of Limoges (France) 2016: Release of the first EP with RIVE GAUCHE Walking... on BBE records label