Pierre Christophe is a French jazz pianist born in Bourges on June 29, 1969. He studied in Marseille and New York, where he took lessons from Jaki Byard, and he built his reputation on a run of albums devoted to Byard's music, which he recorded for the Black & Blue label from the early 2000s. In 2007 the Académie du Jazz named him French jazz musician of the year with its Prix Django Reinhardt. He has since moved between his own trio and quartet records, a tribute to Erroll Garner, a duo with the guitarist Hugo Lippi and a record with a string quartet, and he plays regularly in Paris clubs.

He studied classical and jazz piano side by side at the regional conservatoire in Marseille, in the class of Guy Longnon, and took a gold medal there in 1991. Holding a scholarship from the French Ministry of Culture, he then went to the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Music and studied with Byard, from 1991 to 1995. His professional career dates from 1990. Early records as a sideman include the cellist Vincent Courtois's Cello News (Nocturne, 1990) and his follow-up Pleine Lune.

His first record as a leader was Reflets dans l'Hudson (Nocturne, NTCD 315, 1995), eight pieces that he wrote himself, among them "Fats Meets Erroll". The band was the alto saxophonist Myron Walden, the tenor saxophonist Ari Ambrose, the bassist Hans Glawischnig and the drummer Jason Wildman, with the trumpeter Michael Leonhart on two tracks. A self-released CD-R preserves a Paris concert of October 3, 2000, in which his trio plays Byard's compositions with the bassist Nicolas Rageau and the drummer Vincent Frade. In Amsterdam on December 19, 2001 he recorded Benjamin Herman Plays Jaki Byard (A-Records) with the Dutch saxophonist, the bassist Jos Machtel and the drummer Joost van Schaik, and shares the co-producer credit.

The Byard project then moved to Black & Blue as the Pierre Christophe Trio. Byard by Us (BB 673.2) has Clovis Nicolas on bass and Mourad Benhammou on drums, with liner notes by Gérard Badini; Byard by Us Vol. 2 (BB 685.2) and Byard... & More (BB 697.2) use Raphaël Dever on bass, and Christophe also produced the second. Byard by Us Live! (BB 625.2), by the same trio, was recorded for France Musique on July 25, 2007 at the Festival de Radio France Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, the year of his Prix Django Reinhardt. He had also won the piano category of the Jazz à Juan Révélations competition in 2005. On July 22, 2006 the trio backed the alto saxophonist and flutist James Spaulding at the Sunside in Paris for Down with It (Marge), produced by Gérard Terronès.

Under his own name he led a quartet with Raphaël Dever, Mourad Benhammou and the alto saxophonist Olivier Zanot. It recorded Frozen Tears in September 2009 at Studio Cordiboy in Chérizy and Valparaiso in September 2014, both for Black & Blue, with lyrics by Célia Vieyra on one piece of each. In 2016 he was one of nine Paris pianists who each recorded a disc on a Steinway D in the apartment of Laurent Courthaliac, collected as the box set At Barloyd's (Jazz&People); his disc, made on June 30, 2016, has Zanot on five tracks, and the other pianists in the set include Alain Jean-Marie and Fred Nardin. His Live! Tribute to Erroll Garner (Camille Productions, released February 23, 2017) is a quartet set with Dever, Stan Laferrière and Laurent Bataille. The New York club Smalls lists his trio dates with the saxophonist Joel Frahm and the bassist Joe Martin on April 6, 2017 and August 22, 2018, and the group's Live at Smalls followed on Camille Productions.

His later records are with the guitarist Hugo Lippi, whom he had known for about twenty-five years. Flowing (Camille Productions/Socadisc), recorded in April 2021 in Meudon and released on November 5, 2021, pairs original pieces with nods to Duke Ellington, Ravel, Jobim and Paul McCartney. Passing By (Camille Productions, released November 8, 2024), his twelfth album, adds the Quatuor Hanson, with string arrangements by Philip Maniez on five tracks and a piece titled "I Remember Jaki". It was recorded at Studio Sextan in Malakoff on November 27 and 28, 2023. Listings for Paris concerts run from 2009 to 2025 and include Sunside, the Duc des Lombards and Café Laurent, where he has been a frequent performer since 2016, and a solo concert at the Studio de l'Ermitage on November 26, 2024.

Besides his own records he has been a regular sideman in the Paris mainstream scene, notably in Gérard Badini's Super Swing Machine big band on French Cooking and Scriabin's Groove, and in the groups of the saxophonist Michel Pastre. He recorded the French 5tet album with the bassist Butch Warren, and his biography lists work with Frank Morgan, Ricky Ford, Pete Christlieb, Ulf Wakenius, Géraldine Laurent, Lew Tabackin, Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen.

Christophe is a swinging pianist and composer whose clearest reference point is Jaki Byard. He has dedicated four albums to Byard's compositions, and his 2024 record Passing By includes a piece titled "I Remember Jaki". A second reference is Erroll Garner, whom his SmallsLive biography names as an important influence and whom he honoured on a live tribute album; his own piece "Fats Meets Erroll" appears on both his 1995 debut and on Valparaiso. A review of the duo Flowing describes an intimate, attentive conversation with Hugo Lippi, with no electronic effects, and credits him with a wide-ranging approach as pianist and composer. Discogs files his records under Post Bop, Swing, Hard Bop, Contemporary Jazz and, for the 1995 debut, Free Jazz, which fits a career that runs from Byard's angular tunes to Garner's unhurried swing.