JEF GIANSILY QUINTET
“INSIGHT”

Jef Giansily “Insight”
Influenced by the great jazz ensembles of the 1960s (Miles Davis’s quintet or the classic Blue Note albums by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter), Jef Giansily’s music remains unmistakably singular, personal, and modern.
It’s music that ticks all the boxes: both a pleasure to listen to and tremendously demanding. Jef Giansily often composes starting from a melody built around a bass line he hears in his mind. His impressive left-hand work is driven by obsessive ostinatos and propelled by the power and groove of his now well-established rhythm section, Apostolos Sideris and Gautier Garrigue.
This quintet stands with one foot in the past of the great historic formations of modern jazz, another foot in the future through a fresh and innovative rhythmic approach — yet both legs firmly in the present, delivering an exciting and uplifting kind of contemporary acoustic jazz. — Lionel Eskenazi, Jazz Magazine

INSIGHT
Insight features a vibrant, cross-city quintet led by Jef Giansily—an artistic milestone that reflects the pianist’s most personal vision to date. Insight evokes an inner gaze through which our perception of the world shifts, mirroring the way music can alter our senses and our experience of time.

The album’s eight pieces form a coherent narrative, influenced by the great acoustic jazz ensembles of the 1960s yet expressed through a resolutely contemporary lens.

This quintet features some of Europe’s finest musicians, including both multi-award-winning trumpeter Hermon Mehari and drummer Gautier Garrigue, alongside bassist Apostolos Sideris and tenor saxophonist Pierre Bernier —resulting in a powerful and subtle identity.

Closing with Silver Glints, sung by Charlotte Wassy, the album offers a poetic resolution to this inner musical journey.
Chosen for the individuality of their voices, each of these world class players shape a sound both expressive and modern.

Jef Giansily, piano
French pianist and composer Jef Giansily, crafts a singular blend of modern jazz, where intricate rhythmic structures and lyrical introspection converge.
A Paris native and long-time Istanbul resident, Giansily draws from the post-bop era while forging a contemporary personal sound.

Over the years, he has been involved in numerous projects, collaborating with European, Turkish, and American musicians. His album Sketches, released on the label Circle — which he founded in 2009 to capture encounters between improvising musicians from varied backgrounds — is a superb meeting with prominent figures from the Istanbul scene, such as guitarist Sarp Maden, drummer Ferit Odman, and bassist Kağan Yıldız. Recent collaborations include Imer Demirer, Darrell Green, Andre Williams, and Ricky Ford, among many others.
His 2025 quintet album Insight recorded in Paris and released on Fresh Sound Records exemplifies his musical approach, weaving complex grooves, shifting meters, and emotive melodies into a cohesive narrative.
The ensemble features rising stars American trumpeter Hermon Mehari and drummer Gautier Garrigue, with tenor saxophonist Pierre Bernier, bassist Apostolos Sideris and guest vocalist Charlotte Wassy.
Grounded in a deep sense of groove and hypnotic motifs, Giansily’s music offers an experience that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally resonant.
“A shifting, contrasting and expressive music, marked by great sensitivity and imbued with a spiritual dimension”. —Lionel Eskenazi, Jazz Magazine
“An unusual freshness! By propelling into 2025 the modernity of writing and playing of the great quintets of the 1960’s, Jef Giansily sketches a radiant future. With him, history doesn’t strutter, it sparkles.” —Alex Dutilh, Open Jazz
“Jef Giansily has the art of composing quicksilver themes —elegant and spirited— blending fire and melodic grace. You find those same qualities in his solos”. —Jean-François Mondot, Jazz Magazine

Hermon Mehari, trumpet
In his pioneering quest for a new sound while exploring his Eritrean origins, trumpeter Hermon Mehari recently composed an album entirely influenced by the harmonies, rhythms, and melodies of Eritrean music. However, this project, Asmara (Komos), his third as a leader, does not stem solely from musical expression—the pieces carry an emotional dimension and convey the different facets of his relationship with family and culture.
Having grown musically within the Kansas City jazz tradition, Mehari’s sound reflects that heritage of pushing boundaries while remaining rooted in the past. He won the Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition in 2015 and was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in 2014. Mehari also won the National Trumpet Competition in 2008.
He has performed professionally alongside Bobby Watson, Randy Brecker, Aaron Parks, Joe Sanders, Jeff Ballard, Nate Wood, Hubert Laws, Kevin Morby, David Linx, Henri Texier, and Sélène Saint-Aimé, among others.

Apostolos Sideris, contrabass
Drawn to the crossroads where jazz interacts with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern traditions, Greek bassist Apostolos Sideris has developed a voice shaped by life in Athens, New York, Istanbul, and now Paris. His 2023 album Past-Presented (Parallel Records) reflects that path—an exploration of Eastern modal phrasing intertwined with contemporary jazz harmony and rhythmic ideas connected to African-diaspora music. The project carries the imprint of the cultures he’s lived in as much as the musicians who have marked his journey.
Sideris studied at Berklee College of Music and later completed a master’s degree at the City College of New York, where John Patitucci became an important mentor. Those years in New York placed him alongside forward-thinking improvisers—artists such as Lionel Loueke, Rez Abbasi, Leo Genovese, Clarence Penn, Mokhtar Samba, or Seamus Blake—while his time in Istanbul opened new musical doors through collaborations with Ziad Rahbani, Sanaa Moussa, Ara Dinkjian, and the Turkish modern-folk ensemble MESEL, which he co-founded. Work with ECM artist Savina Yannatou further deepened his connection to improvisation grounded in regional traditions.
His projects have taken him to international stages including Roskilde, the Seoul Jazz Festival, the Istanbul Jazz Festival, and Festival d’Arles, among others—settings where his cross-cultural approach resonates naturally. Earlier albums like Summation (FreshSound, 2019) and Hane (TMC Publishing, 2022) trace the evolution of this hybrid identity and the collaborations that continue to shape it.
Now based in Paris, Sideris leads Nomades, bringing together prominent voices from the French world-music scene, while also working closely with artists such as Eleonore Fourniau, Naïssam Jalal, and Lynn Adib. His current work reflects a musician constantly absorbing new influences, allowing each encounter—musical or geographic—to broaden the sound world he continues to build.

Pierre Bernier, saxophone
Pierre Bernier is a saxophonist, composer, and teacher originally from Brittany. He studied at the C.R.R. of Paris and then at the P.S.P.B.B., where he completed musical, academic, and pedagogical training.
He has participated in numerous projects, including the quartet pinocchioO co-led with Marc-Antoine Perrio, TWNSHP, Franck Tortiller’s Collectiv orchestra, Ellinoa’s Wanderlust Orchestra, Thibault Chevaillier’s CLERKS, and the Aman Octet. For several years, he hosted the D’Addario jam session in Paris, sharing the stage with saxophonists such as Jerry Bergonzi, Stéphane Guillaume, André Villéger, Rick Margitza, and others.
More recently, he has launched a new project centered on his own compositions with his brother, drummer Simon Bernier, joined by guitarist Simon Martineau, double bassist Gabriel Midon, and pianist Édouard Ravelomanantsoa.
He can currently be heard in various ensembles, including the quintet Lennie’s, a collective project dedicated to the music of Lennie Tristano (Lennie’s, 2024, Jazz Magazine “Révélation”), and Antoine Karacostas’s quartet (Trails, 2017, and Frames, 2023), with which he tours in Japan, Greece or India.

Darrell Green, drums
Innovative master drummer, Darrell Green is one of theleading, most sought-after musicians on today’s jazz scene. As a prolific sideman, bandleader, educator, clinician, composerand producer, Darrell developed his mastery in the heart of Oakland, California.
Green has developed a style rooted in modern post-bop, but which retains elements of his gospel and classical lineage. Though jazz is his primary focus, Green is conversant in every genre fromstraight-ahead jazz to Latin and West African music.
Green has toured and recorded with notable jazz artistsCassandra Wilson, Pharoah Sanders, Benny Golson, BusterWilliams, Mary Stallings, Russell Malone, Houston Person, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Antoine Roney, Charles Tolliver, MarlenaShaw, Sherman Irby, Steve Turre, Wallace Roney, StefonHarris, Red Holloway, and Faye Carol. He also co-leads a collaborative project with vocalist and saxophonist CamilleThurman.