Thierry Gutmann

Thierry Gutmann was born in Brussels on April 5, 1961. He discovered the drums at the age of 13 and met Bruno Castellucci two years later during summer workshops. In 1979, he attended jazz seminar courses at the Conservatoire de Liège. In 1988, he entered the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in the drum class of Bruno Castellucci and obtained the Premier Prix Jazz in 1991. From the age of 16, he began performing in a quartet with Nicolas Fiszman and Michael Blass. At 18, Thierry joined the group Bassorah, which experienced rapid success and performed at numerous Belgian and European festivals. At the same time, he learned the jazz repertoire with the trio of Alain Rochette and Alex Furnelle, as well as with the Guy Raiff Quartet. During the 1980s, he had the opportunity to perform with many musicians including Robert Jeanne, Jacques Pelzer, Paolo Radoni, Pierre Van Dormael, Yvan Paduart, Peter Hermans, Kevin Mulligan, Patricia Beysens, Sadi, Calvin Owens, Gino Lattuca, the Tars Lootens Band with Theo de Jong and Frank Deruyter, and Flavio Del’Isola. He also participated in several sessions with the BRT Jazz Orchestra.

Around the age of 24, he met Patrick Deltenre, Paolo Ragadzu, Michel Hatzigeorgiou, François Garny, Daniel Roméo, and Frank Deruyter, with whom he regularly worked in a more contemporary jazz style. During the 1990s, he was regularly engaged with the ensemble of Alex Scorier. Thierry is a versatile musician whose career has led him to perform in all musical styles. He has accompanied bluesman Marc Lelangue, Tony O’Malley, Brazilian singer Marcia Maria, the Brazilian group Tupi, the African group Feso Trombone, Senegalese singer Abdou Guité, and American singer Zorra Young. He has also appeared alongside many pop artists including Jo Lemaire, Viktor Lazlo, Isabelle Antena, Maurane, Kadja Nin, David Linx, William Sheller, Alec Mansion, William Dunker, Rocco Granata, Adamo, and Vaya Con Dios.

In the 2000s, he continued his activities as a sideman and appeared in major television productions for Radio 2, VTM Band, RTL, Vivacité, and others. Auditioned by Mike Stern, he accompanied the guitarist in a series of masterclasses together with Daniel Roméo. He performs in concert with the group Expresso, Jazz Latin, and with artists such as Michael Blass, Fabien Degryse, Bart De Nolf, Hervé Martens, UDO Soul Session, Vincent Mardens, Françoise Derissen, Francis de Lablancherie, Jean Van Lint, the Jazz Station Big Band, the Jean Luc Pappi Trio, the Max Blessin Trio, Hervé Letor, and others. Between 2013 and 2017, Thierry participated in several projects including the recording of the CD Why Not Samba by trombonist Sébastien Semal with Charles Loos, Ali Ryerson, Anne Wolf, and Frédéric Malempré, the recording of a DVD with Brazilian percussionist Marco Lobo, the recording of the CD by the group N’Fusion with Frank Deruytter, Didier Deruytter, Vincent Pierins, Nico Schepers, Carlo Mertens, and Patrick Vanderdonckt, the project Wild as the Wind as a tribute to Nina Simone with Tamara Geert, Salvatore La Rocca, and Anne Wolf, and a series of concerts with the trio of pianist Jean Luc Pappi and the sextet of Bernard Guyo with Daniel Stokart, Michel Paré, and Boris Schmidt. In 2016, he joined the Nathalie Loriers Groovy Trio with Benoit Vandestraeten on bass.

Teaching Activities

Thierry has taught at the Jazz Studio in Antwerp and has led numerous workshops for Jeunesses Musicales de Belgique. For three years, he participated in the Jazz Seminar of Taipei in Taiwan. Since 2007, he has been a lecturer in jazz drums at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. He has been teaching jazz drums at the Académie de Bruxelles since 2011 and at the Académie d’Evere since 2015.