About Anne Paceo
Anne Paceo is a fertile leader and composer who has created a singular style, identifiable from the first few notes. Her nomination to the order of « Chevaliers des Arts et des Lettres » in 2021, her 3 Victoires de la musique (Grammys’ equivalent) and her prolix discography are proof of this.
Beating the beat as well as breaking down distances… Crisscrossing rhythmic spaces as well as geographical spaces… This is the very essence of Anne Paceo’s music. Between north and south, she never stops traveling the world, in search of new cultures and new sounds. She has discovered more than forty countries, in search of impressions, landscapes to contemplate and sacred moments, eager to describe what moves her beyond and across the borders.
With 7 albums & 3 EP to her credit, Anne Paceo plays with codes and styles, making it a point of honor to break down borders and seek out very particular alchemies between the musicians who make up her groups.
Anne spent the first three years of her life in Daloa, Ivory Coast, lulled by the sound of percussionists rehearsing next to the family home. At the age of 10, she discovered the drums which became her refuge.
At 13 years old, it was by chance that she met jazz when her mother decided to move to Paris. She fell madly in love with this music, that represented for her freedom, the abolition of frontiers, and the meeting of minds, in its truest essence.
First spotted as a side woman, she has been playing and recording since she was 19 years old with some of the greatest names of the French and international music scene: Archie Shepp, Rhoda Scott, Christian Escoudé, Rick Margitza, Marcel Azzola, Henri Texier, Andy Sheppard, Alain Jean-Marie, Leyla McCalla, Philippe Catherine, Sandra Nkaké, Jeanne Added, Melissa Laveaux, China Moses, … just to name a few.
From 2005 to 2009 she studied drums, composition and jazz at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Dré Pallemaerts and Riccardo Del Fra. She is chosen to represent the Conservatoire at the International Association for Jazz Education in New-York and gets to play with the legend Michel Legrand.
In 2008 and 2010 she published her first two albums «Triphase» and «Empreintes», on Laborie Jazz record. They both are trio albums where she co-composed the music with her two companions. She received her first distinction, the Django d’or «New Talent» in 2009, and then the Victoires du jazz «revelation» in 2011.
The group toured around the world, from Chile to Brazil, through Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Morocco, Algeria, Taiwan, Cambodia, …
In 2012 she published «Yôkai», a sound travelogue in 5tet, inspired by the Japanese animist cultures, entirely composed by her, which allowed her to embrace her independence and affirm her talents as a composer. «Yôkaï is one of those solar, hypnotic and addictive works that leave you dreaming, with a blocked smile» FIP
In 2015 she met the team of the BNP Paribas Foundation, which became her patron and still accompanies her projects to this day.
In 2016, with «Circles» she asserts her style and her writing: organic, abundant and generous, at the borders of jazz, pop, electronic music and world music. The group played more than 150 concerts throughout France and the world, including the famous Jazz in Marciac, Winter Jazz Festival in New-York, Vitoria Gasteiz festival in Spain, MIMO festival in Brasil or Tanger Jazz festival. The critics are full of praise and she is celebrated as « Artist of the year » at the Victoires du Jazz . «With Circles Anne Paceo invites us to a journey where cosmic rock enters the soul prayer, where the cold steel funk can lead to strange alien drifts, leading us step by step to another territory, unknown and fascinating» Les Inrocks
From 2010 to 2018, she regularly stays at the French Institute of Myanmar to explore the local music and culture. She fell in love with «traditional Burmese music» and vowed to create a repertoire with a Burmese orchestra and European improvisers. The premiere of «Fables of Shwedagon» took place in 2016 at the Mingalaba festival in Rangoon.
In 2017 she became an associate artist at the festival Jazz sous les Pommiers, until 2020. She played the first French concert of «Fables of Shwedagon» at the Festival jazz sous les pommiers in Coutances, which became a live eponymous album released in 2018. «Rarely have two cultures, two musical histories coexisted so well, this music has absolutely nothing artificial or calculated, it is of a rare spiritualitý, in that it wonderfully embodies the idea of playing together.» Jazz magazine
Then will follow many creations including: « Bright Shadows », which will be the subject of the eponymous album in 2019 «An album both demanding and accessible» Rolling Stones « Alegria » bringing in Daniel Santiago and Federico Heliodoro, two exceptional Brasilian musicians, « Rewind » a creation featuring the American and Palestinian rappers Racecar, Mike Ladd and Osloob, « Exil» that explores Middle Eastern music with the Egyptian Oud player Ihab Radwan, And finally S.H.A.M.A.N.E.S., her 9th album currently on tour.
In 2019 she receives her second Victoire du Jazz as « Artist of the year », becoming the only musician artist, male or female, to receive this distinction twice. The same year she takes the road of the biggest festivals, theaters and national stages (Philharmonie de Paris, Jazz in Juan, Jazz in Marciac, …)
In 2020 she released « Samâ » an EP mixing live tracks recorded at Philharmonie de Paris and three bonus studio tracks. The same year she is invited as a mentor at the Montreux Jazz Academy to teach alongside John Mc Laughlin and Snarky Puppy.
In 2021 she launched her own record company, Jusqu’à La Nuit, on which her 8th album, « Circles Live » was released. The same year she becomes associate artist at the National Theatre « Les Gémeaux » in Sceaux for 4 years, where she imagines several multidisciplinary creations.
Her song «Sunshine» is chosen by Kurt Elling for his tour « Apparition Bridge: Music of Contemporary European Composers » with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. She is featured along Kenny Wheeler, Michel Legrand, Jan Garbarek and Joe Zawinul.
In 2022 she created « Melting Three » with the hip-hop choreographer Mickael Le Mer, as well as a new scenography for S.H.A.M.A.N.E.S with INVIVO, an immersive, visual and digital arts company. She is also taking advantage of this partnership to imagine
a travelling duo with the saxophonist Raphael Imbert whose goal is to bring culture to places where it is not expected.
In 2022 she produced and published her 9th album on her own label, Jusqu’à la nuit: «S.H.A.M.A.N.E.S.». The release party is set at La Cigale, Paris. The show is sold out and the press is unanimous: from France Inter, France Culture, France Musique, Fip, Tva 5 monde, RFI, Canal+ to Rolling Stones or l’Humanité, … Libération, Le Monde and Télérama devoted portraits to her: «Anne Paceo has imposed herself as one of the major figures of the French musical scene» Libération
At the same time she participates in several projects, including the theatrical adaptation of the best seller essay, « Sorcières » by Mona Chollet, at the Théâtre de l’Atelier in Paris with some of the most renowned actresses of the French scene – Anna Mouglalis, Clothilde Hesme, Valérie Donzelli or Jennifer Decker from the Comédie Française.
In 2023, in parallel with the European tour of S.H.A.M.A.N.E.S, and as part of her residency at Les Gémeaux, she will create a cine-concert on the 1922 silent film by Robert Flaherty «Nanouk l’esquimau» for which she plays and composes, as well as «Breath and Whisper» accompanied by an amateur choir of 100 people.
She is also working on an interdisciplinary creation set to premiere during the Spring of 2023 at the Arsenal of Metz, imagined as a duet between a draughtsman (Cyril Pedrosa) and her. For this creation she surrounded herself by some of the best artists and craftsman of the new contemporary scene: Ablaye Cissoko (kora), Eric Soyer (lights and scenography), Mathieu Sanchez (video).
She is currently working on her 10th album as well as on a feminist mentoring project called «WIZZ» which will be launched in December 2024. It is aimed to provide support and empower upcoming female jazz instrumentalists in all aspects of their career (business, master classes, instrumental workshops, career management), in partnership with the national stage Les Gémeaux and Jazz sous les Pommiers.