Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Raymond Fol was born in Paris, France on April 28, 1928 and along with his brother Hubert was  raised in a musical household. He began playing piano at five years of age, and both he and his brother played in Claude Abadie’s ensemble after the end of World War II.

The Fol brothers then formed their own group, the Be Bop Minstrels, however, Raymond worked around this time with musicians such as Pierre Braslavsky, Jean-Claude Fohrenbach, Django Reinhardt, Roy Eldridge, and Johnny Hodges. In 1952, he did a European tour in Dizzy Gillespie’s band, and for several years in the middle of the decade was a regular at Paris’s Club Saint-Germain. He also worked in the 1950s with Sidney Bechet, Claude Luter, Guy Lafitte, and Stephane Grappelli.

He worked briefly in Rome, Italy in 1958, then returned to Paris, playing both piano and celesta at the Club Saint-Germain. In the 1960s and 1970s he worked with Kenny Clarke, Duke Ellington, Paul Gonsalves, Cat Anderson, and Gerard Badini. Raymond also recorded a few times on solo piano in the first half of the 1970s.

Pianist Raymond Fol passed away in the City of Lights on May 1, 1979.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano