Collection: Daniel Humair

Daniel Humair was born in Geneva in 1938, grew up playing drums, and arrived in Paris in the late 1950s in time to become the drummer that every American musician passing through Europe wanted to play with. Lucky Thompson, Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Dexter Gordon, Phil Woods, Eric Dolphy and Randy Weston all worked with him across the 1960s, and his reputation as a sideman of unusual sensitivity and harmonic awareness placed him at the centre of Paris's jazz scene in a way few European drummers have managed. The trio he formed with pianist Joachim Kühn and bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark in 1970 became one of the most important European jazz groupings of the following three decades: a genuinely leaderless ensemble in which the bass and drums were as melodically active as the piano, a model of collective improvisation that influenced the direction of European jazz without ever becoming widely known outside specialist circles. The trio remained active until Jenny-Clark's death in 1998. Humair's own recordings as a leader include the Owl label sessions of the late 1970s, particularly "Triple Hip Trip" (Owl, 1979) with vibraphonist David Friedman and bassist Harvie Swartz, and "Humair Jeanneau Texier" (Owl, 1979) with saxophonist François Jeanneau and bassist Henri Texier, both recorded in the same productive year. "Scratch" (Enja, 1985), a trio session with Kenny Barron on piano and Dave Holland on bass, remains one of his most collected recordings. He became a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1986 and an Officer in 1992. His parallel career as a painter, working in a style he describes as figurative abstract, has brought international exhibitions and academic recognition alongside his music. He is still active, aged 87.