Paul Lay

Paul Lay (born on July 22, 1984) is a French jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, who first rose to fame as a member of avant-garde jazz ensemble Ping Machine. Lay has participated in and won several jazz competitions, most notably the Concours National de Jazz de la Défense in 2008. After studying at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris under Riccardo Del Fra, Lay joined his mentor’s quintet and released Unveiling (2010), his studio debut as a solo artist. He followed up with Mikado (2014), which was recorded as a quartet with saxophonist Antonin-Tri Hoang, double-bassist Clemens Van Der Feen, and drummer Dré Pallemaerts. The album won a Grand Prix Jazz by the Charles-Cros Academy and earned Lay an award for French Revelation of the Year by Jazz Magazine the following year. In 2017, the jazz virtuoso came back with Alcazar Memories, a reimagining of the Provençal repertoire, and The Party, a collection of songs inspired by Blake Edward’s homonymous film. In subsequent years, he collaborated with trumpeter Éric Le Lann on the Louis Armstrong tribute Thanks a Million (2018) and explored American spirituals of the late 19th century and early 20th century on Deep Rivers (2020). A year later, Paul Lay returned with the album Full Solo, in which he reimagined the works of Ludwig van Beethoven.

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