Fred Nardin's Biography

Pianist, Organist, Artistic Director, Composer, Arranger

Born in 1987, Fred Nardin started playing the piano at age five. He entered the Conservatoire de Chalon-sur-Saône to study classical music and later became part of the jazz class there, directed by Sylvain Beuf. At eighteen, he joined the Department of Jazz and Improvised Music at the Conservatoire de Paris. He graduated in 2011 alongside Hervé Sellin, Riccardo Del Fra, François Theberge, Glenn Ferris, and Dré Pallemaerts. Two years later, his passion for writing and cinema led him to take a film score writing class directed by Laurent Petitgirard and Marie-Jeanne Serero.

In 2010, with Jon Boutellier, Bastien Ballaz, and David Enhco, he founded the Amazing Keystone Big Band, which brought together eighteen of the most promising young musicians from the Lyon and Paris scenes. Their debut album, Pierre et le Loup... et le jazz, a re-adaptation for jazz big band of Prokofiev’s famous piece, read by Denis Podalydès and Leslie Menu, won the Académie du Jazz award for Best French Jazz Album in 2013. It was followed by Le Carnaval jazz des animaux, narrated by Édouard Baer (2015), Mr. Django and Lady Swing, narrated by Guillaume Gallienne (2017), The Voice of Ella narrated by Vincent Dedienne (2018), Alice in Wonderland, narrated by Virginie Efira in 2022, as well as the Christmas album "Christmas Celebration".

The Amazing Keystone Big Band has also collaborated with many internationally acclaimed artists, such as Quincy Jones, Rhoda Scott, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Zaz, Charles Aznavour, Liz McComb, Nikki Yanofsky, James Carter, Gregory Porter, China Moses, Sarah McKenzie, and Bill Mobley. In 2018, it was awarded a Victoires du Jazz award in the category Best Band of the Year.

In 2017, Nardin received the Prix Django Reinhardt (French Musician of the Year 2016) from the Académie du Jazz, the same year that released Opening, his first trio album with Or Bareket and Leon Parker, an album highly praised by critics. In 2018 he was nominated for a Victoires du Jazz award in the category Rising Artist. In 2019, the album Look Ahead was released, the second trio opus with Or Bareket and Leon Parker on the label Naïve. In 2021, he participated as pianist, arranger and artistic director on the album “Morricone Stories" by Italian saxophonist Stefano Di Battista (Warner Music). In 2022 the album Live in Paris will be released, a trio with Or Bareket and Leon Parker, recorded at Sunside in Paris.

In 2023, he produced and arranged the fourteenth album of French pop singer Pascal Obispo “Le Beau qui pleut” (Atletico Records) alongside saxophonist Max Pinto, with whom he also provided musical direction for the Zénith tour “Obispo 30 years of success".

He currently performs in a trio with Leon Parker and Or Bareket and in many other bands, such as the Fred Nardin/Jon Boutellier 4tet, the Stefano Di Battista 4tet, the Hugo Lippi 4tet, the Switch Trio, the Sophie Alour Trio, the Gael Horellou Organ Trio, and the Amazing Keystone Big Band.

In parallel with his career as a musician, he taught jazz piano at the Chalon-sur-Saône regional Conservatoire (from 2009 to 2015) and arrangement and jazz piano at the Pôle d’Enseignement Supérieur de la Musique de Bourgogne (from 2011 to 2015). He is also a regular instructor at the Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood and several other renowned international workshops.

He has also performed alongside Stefano Di Battista, Benny Benack III, Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo, Fabrizio Bosso, Seamus Blake, André Ceccarelli, Evan Christopher, Hugh Coltman, Raynald Colom, Jesse Davis, Joël Frahm, Rodney Green, Eric Harland, Nancy Harms, Scott Hamilton, Michel Hausser, Benjamin Henocq, Baptiste Herbin, Max Ionata, Manu Katché, Biréli Lagrène, Ralph Lalama, Didier Lockwood, Fabien Mary, Christian McBride, Robin McKelle, Don Menza, Ralph Moore, Charnett Moffett, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Joe Sanders, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Bria Skonberg, Gary Smulyan, Anne Sila, Veronica Swift, Stochelo Rosenberg, Saul Rubin, and many others.

Discography as Leader / Co-leader

Discography as Sideman

Other collaborations: artistic direction / conducting / arrangements

Movie Music