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Born on the 4th of July, a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Joachim Caffonnette grew up in the suburbs of Brussels. Surrounded by a creative environment — his mother being a leading figure of avant-garde theatre and his father a sculptor/technician/blacksmith/fight choreographer — the young boy picked interest in various activities such as drawing, chess, writing, combat sport, football… and of course music! At the age of six he started taking piano lessons and in his teenage years, his interest in jazz music was sparked by rummaging through his parents’ CD collection. He
entered a classical music high school program and started to compose and improvise. He learned a great many jazz standards, attended jazz classes and workshops, and right after finishing high school, he entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where he took jazz piano and compositions classes while diving into the night life of the Belgian capital’s jazz clubs. He quickly made himself a name in the local jazz scene, visited New York’s clubs and jam sessions several times, and released a first album with his quintet in 2015 (“Simplexity”, AZ Productions) following a two-year residency at the legendary Sounds Jazz Club. He then started touring around Europe, joined the board of the long-lived organisation “Les Lundis d’Hortense” (of which he was chairman between 2018 and 2021) and composed music for theatre plays. In 2019, he released a second album in trio (“Vers l’azur noir”, Neuklang Records) followed by live performances across the UK, France and Belgium. In 2021, he recorded a third album (“Bittersweet Times”, Hypnote Records) featuring six musicians.
Relentless in his practice of the jazz standards repertoire, composing, playing and arranging music for all kinds of ensembles of any size, teaching and constantly learning, committed to the associative sector, co-running a jazz club, and a strong advocate of the cultural sector, Joachim continues steering his ship into the rough artistic world of the 21st century.