André Ceccarelli - West Side Story

On November 27, 2026, at Le Baiser Salé in Paris, André Ceccarelli revisits West Side Story with his drum kit front and center. Trained in Nice before the jazz‑rock venture Troc, the drummer has forged a language in which swing and electric energy coexist, blending a bebop inheritance with modernity and the studio‑honed suppleness. A longtime collaborator of Claude Nougaro who has also worked with Dee Dee Bridgewater and Enrico Rava, he combines precise timekeeping, a keen sense of nuance and the art of accompaniment, always in service of the themes’ melodic expression.

Within Bernstein’s universe, Ceccarelli makes rhythm a narrative engine: velvety pulses, nervy syncopations, subtle breaks and cymbal washes that reshape motifs without hardening them. One hears his taste for compact formats and tight interplay, where each snare rebound opens space for improvisation and the dramaturgy of the melodies. It is a reading that links Broadway and today’s jazz, with that percussive grain that makes the lines breathe and brings the music close to the stage.