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Pianist Michel Petrucciani was one of the greatest jazz musicians to emerge from France. His tragically short life was crammed full of accolades, albums and worldwide touring, as we’ll discover in this article…

From his early days on the Côte d’Azur learning to play piano, turning professional at the age of just thirteen and relocating to Paris, California and New York, Petrucciani led a full and productive musical life.

These achievements are made even more remarkable when one considers the fragility of his health and the major obstacles he had to overcome.

Born in 1962 Montpellier into a musical Italo-French family, Petrucciani was quickly diagnosed with the genetic condition osteogenesis imperfecta – otherwise known as brittle bone disease.

With bones prone to breaking – something which happened more than 100 times before he reached his teens – the disease was responsible for his short stature.

But whilst he was featured by the Guinness Book of Records as the shortest professional pianist in history at 91cm, it also led to mult

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Michel Petrucciani

Michel Petrucciani was born to Italian parents in Montpellier, France. His family was musical, and as a child he played the drums in a band with his father, Tony, a guitarist, and his brother Louis, a bassist.

Michel was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as "glass bones," a disease that stunted his growth (he was only three feet tall and weighed barely 50 pounds) and weakened his bones.

At the age of four he discovered the piano. One evening, seeing Duke Ellington for the first time on television, he pointed at the screen and said, "I want to play that." At Christmas that year his parents gave him a small toy piano. At once Michel seized a hammer and smashed the toy to pieces. "I want a real one," he said. His father bought him an old piano that was falling apart, and made an extension so that Michel's feet could reach the pedals. Michel studied classical music for eight years, then turned his attention to jazz because he loved to improvise and wanted to write his own music. Later on, when he was thirty, Michel paid tribute to the man who first in

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Michel Petrucciani Overcame Enormous Odds To Become A World-Renowned Pianist

Michel Petrucciani overcame severe physical disabilities – he was born, on December 28, 1962, with osteogenesis imperfecta, known as “glass bone disease” – to earn wide renown as a pianist and composer. “Sometimes I think someone upstairs saved me from being ordinary,” he said.

Petrucciani was born to Italian parents in Montpellier, France. He could not walk, and his bones fractured constantly. He grew to only three feet tall and weighed barely 50 pounds. Petrucciani had to be carried onto the stage and had a special attachment to use the sustaining pedal of the piano. Yet his long, graceful fingers played with seemingly tireless energy and verve.

Strong enough to make the piano feel little

He first became interested in the piano as a toddler after seeing Duke Ellington on television. Petrucciani was encouraged by his father, a Sicilian jazz guitarist, who had a job at a military base and brought home a battered piano left behind by British soldiers. The instrument changed the youngster’s life.