Michel Petrucciani

Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist. Michel Petrucciani came from an Italo-French family with a musical background. His father Tony played... guitar, his brother Louis played bass and his brother Philippe also plays the guitar. Michel was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, which is a genetic disease that causes brittle bones and in his case short stature. It is also often linked to pulmonary ailments. This disease caused his bones to fracture over one hundred times until he reached adolescence. The disease caused pain that continued throughout his entire life. “I have pain all the time. I’m used to having hurt arms,” he said. In Michel's early career his father and brother occasionally carried him, literally, because he could not walk far on his own unaided. In certain respects though he considered his disability an advantage as he got rid of distractions, like sports, that other boys tended to become involved in. And he hints that his disability was helpful in other parts of his life. He said: "Sometimes I think someone upstairs saved me from being ordinary.
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