Born on 5 January 1946 in Nice, André Ceccarelli began playing with the rock group Les Chats Sauvages, led by Dick Rivers in the sixties, when he was only fourteen years old. He later joined, at the beginning of the sixties, Aimé Barelli’s orchestra, playing with Martial Solal and Maurice Vander. After playing with numerous pop artists, he focused on jazz, something he had wanted to do from his earliest beginnings. He started playing sessions with the greatest jazz musicians of the time, all while becoming a very active studio musician. In 1979, he began a career in the United States alongside Bunny Brunel and Chick Corea. His first solo album, Ceccarelli, came out in 1981. In 1987, André Ceccarelli joined the ranks of the Orchestre National de Jazz conducted by Antoine Hervé. He is the official godfather of the festival “Jazz à toute heure” since 1999. In 2000, he founded Trio Sud with Sylvain Luc et Jean-Marc Jafet. Awarded a Grand Prix de la Sacem in 1998, the drummer also received a medal from the Ordre des Arts et Lettres.