Patrice Héral: drummer, percussionist and vocals for jazz and improvisations. Member of the French National Jazz Orchestra.
Born in 1965 in Montpellier, Patrice Héral is the brother of Christophe Héral, the film score and video game music composer. Essentially self-taught, he has learned his trade from Alain Joule and Barre Phillips.
Until 1990, he worked with Malabar Paillasson and Tropique du Cancer, both street theatre companies.
Since 1990 he has worked in Vienna, playing alongside many musicians, such as Georg Graf, Otto Lechner, Max Nagl, João de Bruçó, Toni Burger, Paul Urbanek, Karl Sayer, Bumi Fian, Andy Manndorff, Stephan Aschböck, Joanna Lewis, Leszek Zadlound Alegre Corrêa, and has taken part in several recording sessions.
In the 1990s he commuted between Vienna, Berlin, Oslo and his hometown, playing alongside Gérard Pansanel, Doudou Gouirand, Frédéric Monino, Michel Marre, TerjeRypdal, Tore Brunborg, Kirsten Brattberg, NguyênLê, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Wolfgang Puschnig, Dhafer Youssef, Antonello Salis, Furio Di Castri, Paolo Fresu, Tom Cora, Iva Bittová, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Michel Portal, Chano Domínguez, Charlie Mariano, Ferenc Snétberger, Steve Swallow, Ralph Towner, John Taylor and Maria Pia De Vito. After this he played in a trio with Arild Andersen and Markus Stockhausen, and with Arild Andersen and Carsten Dahl.
From 2005 to 2007, he was a member of the French National Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Franck Tortiller. He was also in the Pago Libre ensemble with John Wolf Brennan, Cho Theissing, Arkady Shilkloper and Georg Breinschmid.
