Grégory Privat was born in Martinique, into a family for whom music was central: his father, José Privat, was the pianist of the celebrated group Malavoi. Introduced to the piano at the age of six, young Grégory spent a decade in classical training before turning to improvisation and jazz. While studying engineering in Toulouse between 2004 and 2007, he kept performing in local jazz clubs, where his true calling gradually took shape.
International competitions soon confirmed his talent: semi-finalist at the Montreux Jazz Festival piano competition in 2008, then at the Concours Martial Solal in 2010. In 2012, at the age of 27, he made the decisive choice to leave engineering behind and devote himself entirely to music.
His debut album, Ki Koté (2011), laid the foundation for a personal musical language in which Caribbean roots meet jazz writing. It was followed by Tales of Cyparis (2013), a concept album inspired by the sole survivor of the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée, then Luminescence (2015), a duo with gwoka master Sonny Troupé, which earned him a Victoires du Jazz nomination (Revelation of the Year, Frank-Ténot Prize). That same year, he joined Swedish double bassist Lars Danielsson’s Liberetto quartet, a collaboration that established him firmly on European stages and led to a deal with ACT Music, the label on which his trio album Family Tree (2016) was released.
In 2019, Grégory Privat founded his own independent label, Buddham Jazz, through which he now releases all of his work: Soley (2020, trio), Yonn (2022, his first solo album, an intimate dialogue between piano and voice), Nuit & Jour (2023, solo improvisations), Phoenix (2024, trio) and 22 (2025), a duo with saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart. His latest album, Darling (2026), marks a new step: his third entirely solo record, on which he plays every instrument himself.
In recent years, Grégory Privat has fully embraced another facet of his artistry: singing. On more than ten tracks across his last three albums, in French and in Creole, his voice joins the piano as a second instrument in its own right. His Creole songs, such as “Supernova,” have been sung back by audiences as far apart as France, Germany, Turkey, and Estonia — a sign of a reach that extends well beyond the borders of jazz.
Acclaimed by peers and international critics alike, Grégory Privat received the Adami “Artist to Watch” award in 2023, the Académie du Jazz’s Prix Django Reinhardt, and was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture in 2025.
On stage — solo, in duo, or in trio, at the piano as much as in song — Grégory Privat offers a deeply felt jazz where Creole memory and contemporary writing meet in an unrestrained intensity.