Bio - Cédric Hanriot

Bio

« Cédric is one of the most talented musicians I know.
His wide range of abilities from playing to arranging and sound design, makes him a triple threat »

Terri Lyne Carrington

4 time Grammy Award winning drummer & producer

Cédric Hanriot

BIO:

Cédric Hanriot is a pianist, composer, arranger, sound designer, and music producer. Winner of prestigious scholarships and international awards, Hanriot is known worldwide for his collaborations with Herbie Hancock, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ibrahim Maalouf, Donny McClaslin, Erik Truffaz, and other big names in the jazz world.
Hanriot served as pianist and sound designer alongside with Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, Gregory Porter on Dianne Reeves’s album “Beautiful Life”, which won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2015.

Curious, attracted by surprising mixtures, and fond of new openings, Cédric Hanriot seeks to consider and approach crossovers differently. To breathe freshness into his creations, he draws inspiration from great classical composers (Fauré, Ravel, Debussy, Messiaen, Chopin, Bach), but he also draws equally from electronic music, hip-hop (Common, Kendrick Lamar, J Dilla), neo-soul and pop rock, all while linking it to his profoundly jazz identity (Bud Powell, Errol Garner, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau).

In 2022, Cédric Hanriot released his album “Time is Color Vol.1” which is a singular work, a powerful mixture of jazz, hip-hop, and urban music – an album that resembles himself. The enthusiastic reception of “Time is Color Vol.1” by the public as well as the press testifies to the strength of the magic operated by Hanriot. The choice to unreservedly take on his authenticity, his openness to a rich range of musical genres, and his quasi-scientific sensitivity to colors, textures, and musical dimensions has borne fruit.
“Time is Color Vol.1” has been the subject of a number of glowing reviews: Le Monde, The Jazz Shows with Jamie Cullum, one song appeared on Barack Obama’s Summer 2022 Spotify playlist, among others. The album was quickly voted CHOC by Jazz Magazine, 5-stars by BBC Magazine, and ranked among the ten best albums of the year 2022 by the English magazine MOJO.

In 2025, Hanriot released his album “Time is Color Vol.2 – A Luminous World”. The roots of Hanriot’s new work flourish within the modern jazz idiom. Tracks on the album such as ‘Comforting Glow’ carry echoes of Bill Evans, while other songs embrace hip-hop, funk, soul and electronica. ‘A Luminous World Part 2’ is a high-impact number featuring US vocalist Tony Moreau, while ‘Ego Chase’ features head-nod verses from renowned UK saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch. Further wordplay is contributed by American MC’s JSWISS and Charles X, while saxophonist and singer Braxton Cook adds some sweet soul vibes to proceedings. More magic is created on ‘La Source’ and ‘La Barque Du Temps’ via French narrations from Arthur H and Cyrielle Clair, while Swiss trumpeter Erik Truffaz (Blue Note), provides a great top line on ‘A Luminous World Part 1’. The album is woven together by Hanriot’s phenomenal ability on piano, Fender Rhodes and analog synths.
Speaking about the album, Cédric says: “In recent years, I have explored my spirituality in greater depth, thanks to numerous encounters, books, happy and unhappy experiences but also reflections. For some time now, quantum physics has been shedding scientific light on some of life’s mystical phenomena. My belief is that quantum physics and spirituality are not antagonistic in nature, but rather speak of the same thing, a synchronized tautology of sorts, thus it became a critical catalyst for this album. We are Energy, Music is Energy and Life is magic!“
“Time is Color Vol.2 – A Luminous World” traverses many different paths, venturing in to unexplored territory and undoubtedly placing Cédric Hanriot in position as one of the most exciting and talented musicians working around the world today.

This man, who has accompanied the masters of jazz for more than a decade now, is now becoming one of them, an unclassifiable artist who searches for the right sounds and colors with a delicate stubbornness. His eclectic musical universe reflects the atypical background of a self-taught musician who built himself at his own time, and above all, in his own temporality. Cédric Hanriot is an inventive artist, inhabited by an embedded rich interior, which is expressed with a mixture of strength and finesse as rare as it is precious.

Performance credits

Europe

France: Jazz à Vienne, Jazz in Marciac, l’Arsenal/Metz, La Défense Jazz Festival, Jazz à Juan, Théâtre de Caen, La Filature/Mulhouse, NJP/Nancy, Opéra de Lyon

UK: Love Supreme Festival, Ronnie’s Scott/London, Scarborough Jazz Festival

Europe: Philharmonie de Luxembourg, Bimhuis/Amsterdam, Ystad Jazz Festival/Sweden, Odessa Jazz Festival/Ukraine, Schloss Elmau/Germany, Colors of Ostrava/Czech Republic, Zagreb Jazz Festival/Croatia

France: Jazz à Vienne, Jazz in Marciac, l’Arsenal/Metz, La Défense Jazz Festival, Jazz à Juan, Théâtre de Caen, La Filature/Mulhouse, NJP/Nancy, Opéra de Lyon

UK: Love Supreme Festival, Ronnie’s Scott/London, Scarborough Jazz Festival

Americas

USA/Canada: All Classical Radio/Portland, the Kennedy Center/DC, the Iridium/NYC, Tanglewood Jazz Festival/MA, Vancouver and Victoria Jazz Festivals/Canada

Latin America: Europa Jazz/Mexico, Teatro Solis/Uruguay

Asia

Japan: Motion Blue, Pit Inn, Star Eyes

China: Blue Note Shanghai, Blue Note Beijing, JZ Festival

South Korea: Jarasum Jazz Festival

Awards

57th Grammy Awards / best jazz vocal album with Dianne Reeves, album “Beautiful Life” – Grammy winning album

66th Grammy Awards / best arrangement, instruments&vocals with Maria Mendes & John Beasley, song “Com Que Voz” – Grammy Nomination

French American Jazz Exchange / for the project “City of Poets” with Jason Palmer, Donny McCaslin, Clarence Penn and Michael Janisch

Fulbright Grant / music category, for my music studies at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA.

Collaborations

Dianne Reeves, Herbie Hancock, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ibrahim Maalouf, John Patitucci, Donny McCaslin, Erik Truffaz, Metropol Orkestra, Maria Mendes, John Beasley, Soweto Kinch, Florin Nicolescu, Luis Salinas, Melissa Aldana, Tineke Postma, Nelson Veras, Wayne Escoffery, Tim Miller, Michael Janisch, Braxton Cook, Jason Palmer, Gregoire Maret, Clarence Penn, Alex Han, Otis Brown III, André Ceccarelli, Paco Sery, Arthur H.

Record Labels

Masterclasses

Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood (France), Royal Academy of Arts (London/England), Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore), Indiana University (USA), Royal Conservatory of Scotland (Scotland)