Alain Pierre

Alain Pierre studied Classical Guitar, Chamber Music, free improvisation at « Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Liège », Belgium.
He studied Jazz Guitar, Jazz Harmony, arranging and composing at « Conservatoire Royal de Musique » in Brussels.
His fellow musicians include Ralph Towner, Philip Catherine, Paolo Radoni, Jacques Pirotton, Pierre Van Dormael, Serge Lazarevitch, Peter Hertmans, Steve Houben, Arnould Massart, Garrett List, …
One of the singularities of his art is the use of the classical guitar technique to play jazz and improvise on the 12-string and classical guitars.
His current and past projects
- « Tree-Ho ! », which he founded with Félix ZURSTRASSEN on Double-Bass and Antoine PIERRE on Drums, performs Alain’s compositions.
CD « Aaron & Allen » (Spinach Pie Records, SPR 101) (2016)
- He is a member of « WRaP! » with singer Barbara WIERNIK and Double-Bass player Jean-Louis RASSINFOSSE in a repertoire of original compositions and some standards.
CD « Endless » (Igloo, IGL 245) (2014)
- Together with Barbara WIERNIK, he set up the duo « Different Lines ». They play some of their favourite pop songs as well as their own compositions.
- A new project is born in 2016 with Sax player Johannes Lemke (DE), drummer Jens Düppe (DE) and Double-Bass player Fil Caporali (BR).
- He plays in a duet with guitarist Peter HERTMANS. They play their own compositions and repertoire of great musicians from the 70’s such as Richie Beirach, Ralph Towner, John Abercrombie…
- He plays also Solo performances. A solo guitar CD will be released in 2018.
- He is one of the initiators of a major Project, « Les 100 Ciels de Barbara WIERNIK », which includes musicians and repertoire of different groups in which Barbara Wiernik sang or still sings : « Barbara Wiernik Soul of Butterflies », Pirly Zurstrassen’s « PiWiZ », Alain Pierre’s « Acous-Trees » and Manu Hermia’s « Murmure de l’Orient » with a string quartet and a classical clarinet and bass clarinet from « Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles ». Musical direction and arrangements are led by Pirly Zurstrassen and Alain Pierre.
- He set up « Alain PIERRE Special Unit », playing his own compositions with Barbara WIERNIK (Vocals), Toine THYS (Saxes, Bass Clarinet), Félix ZURSTRASSEN (Bass) and Antoine PIERRE (Drums).
- He has founded « Acous-Trees », playing his own compositions with Barbara WIERNIK (Voice), Pierre BERNARD (Flutes), Olivier STALON (Electric & Acoustic Basses), Frédéric MALEMPRE (Percussions) and Antoine PIERRE (Drums).
- In 1999, he founded a Belgian-Tunisian ensemble called « Anfass » with Tunisian guitarist and oud player Fawzi CHEKILI, Belgian flute-sax player Steve HOUBEN and Tunisian ney player Hichem BADRANI.
CD « Anfass » (Igloo, IGL 148) (2000) with compositions of Alain and Fawzi Chekili.
- CD « Dolce Divertimento » (Mogno J024) (2007) with his own compositions in duet with Steve HOUBEN.
With these different projects he has toured Europe as well as Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India an Viet-Nam.
Alain has written several compositions for classical guitar solo, classical guitar trio (« Nuits » (1996), « Quiet Light » (2003), …), Flute & Classical Guitar Duo, Vocal Ensemble and Film scores.
He also wrote some arrangements for jazz bands, string quartets and classical music ensembles (« Les 100 Ciels de Barbara Wiernik », …)
- He has founded is own Label called « Spinach Pie Records » (www.spinachpierecords.com) distributed by Igloo Circle.
He has been teaching guitar and improvisation at the Conservatoire de Huy since 1987 as well as in different summer courses and clinics (Conservatoire de Huy and AKDT de Libramont in Belgium, C.M.A.M. in Tunisia, I.N.A. in the Democratic Republic of the Congo). He teaches sight-reading and Jazz ensemble at the Conservatoire royal of Brussels since 2015.