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| Louis Mazetier |
 Louis Mazetier (b. 2/17/60 in Paris) is a great stride pianist, in the tradition of Fats Waller, James P. Johnson and Willie "the Lion" Smith. Mazetier, who also works as a radiologist in Paris, gives concerts throughout Europe and the U.S., as a soloist, in duos and with bands such as the Paris Washboard. He first heard Fats Waller on a record in 1974, when he was studying classical piano, and he learned the tune by ear. By 1978, he was playing in Paris jazz clubs. "The word ''stride'' characterizes visually the spectacular playing of the left hand," Mazetier wrote in a French music journal. "Its accompaniment consists of alternating in an often very rapid ''windshield wiper'' movement between a note (or an octave or yet a tenth) played on the strong beats in the low register of the keyboard, and a chord struck in the middle register on the weak beats (giving an effect of ''oom-pah, oom-pah'')." It is a style of playing that is not just part of jazz history, Mazetier writes, but "in continuous search and refinement of harmony and rhythm." |
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