Pierre Michelot

Michelot was born in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris on 3 March 1928. He studied piano from 1936 until 1938. He switched to playing bass at the age of sixteen.

He played and recorded with visiting American musicians in Paris. He "played with Rex Stewart (1948), performed at Frisco's in Paris with Kenny Clarke (summer 1949), and joined Clarke in a band accompanying Coleman Hawkins (winter 1949–50), with whom he recorded; in 1949 he also recorded with Clarke in an ad hoc band led by Sidney Bechet."

Through his career he played with Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, Don Byas, Thelonious Monk, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Bud Powell, Zoot Sims, Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker.

With Miles Davis he was responsible for the 1957 soundtrack of Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. He was a member of the Jacques Loussier Trio, known for the Play Bach album series from 1959. For two decades beginning in the early 1960s, he concentrated on arranging and studio work. He also appeared in the 1986 film Round Midnight. In later life he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died of Alzheimer's in Paris on 3 July 2005.

Source: Article "Pierre Michelot" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.