Hervé Sellin was born in 1957 in Paris. He started playing trumpet, then trombone and did classical piano studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris with Aldo Ciccolini. He obtained, in 1980, a double prize of piano and chamber music.
During the same period his father, great French trumpet player Pierre Sellin, introduced him into Jazz. So he started playing with great soloists such as Sonny Grey, Guy Lafitte, Gérard Badini, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Joe Newman, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Art Farmer, Barney Wilen, Clifford Jordan, James Moody, Chet Baker, Slide Hampton…
In 1984, he met Johnny Griffin and played in his European quartet for 15 years. Between 1986 to 1989 Hervé played with singer Dee Dee Bridgewater in many concerts and tours, and recorded with her the album Live in Paris.
In 1990 Sellin obtained the Django Reinhardt award from The French Jazz Academy for his activities as pianist, composer and arranger. In 1991 he met Branford Marsalis and recorded with him (Columbia/Sony Hervé Sellin Sextet featuring Branford Marsalis). From 1995 to 2000 Hervé toured with French drummer/composer Bertrand Renaudin playing on concerts and tours and recording three albums with him.
In 2001 Sellin recorded, live at the Bayonne Jazz Festival, a solo piano album, Thèmes et Variations. On occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Jazz in Marciac Festival in 2002, he performed a suite for ten musicians composed and arranged by himself. In 2003 Hervé played, with French accordionist Richard Galliano and a string quintet, on Piazzolla For Ever, an outake of the tango music of Astor Piazzolla, doing concerts, tours, a CD (2003 -Dreyfus Jazz) and a DVD (2006)
In October 2003 Hervé was invited by Wynton Marsalis to play two concerts at The Lincoln Center of New-York with his tentet.
In 2008 he released the album Marciac-New-York Express, by The Hervé Sellin Tentet (Crystal records/Harmonia Mundi), and got the award for Best French Jazz Album of the Year given by The French Jazz Academy.
Hervé works also full-time as a teacher at the Jazz and Improvised Music department of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.