Emile Parisien, saxophone
A key figure in the creative and inspired French jazz scene, Emile Parisien has traversed the early years of this century in a way that few others have: a rising star from Marciac at the turn of the millennium, the alto and soprano saxophonist has worked hard to explore tradition and history while going far beyond them. It’s an evolution that owes much to the curiosity of Emile Parisien, whose profile as a rising jazz star has gradually been refined to reveal a more complex artist with a sharp mind, beyond the obvious appearances.
From his collaborations with Daniel Humair, Vincent Peirani, Joachim Kühn and Michel Portal to his innovations with Jeff Mills and his ACT Quartet, Emile Parisien has established himself in France and across Europe as a catalyst for new ideas, even on the fringes of established territory (most recently in the XXXX project, alongside Wollny, Lefebvre and Lillinger, also with ACT).
A line drawn between the two poles of a music on the move that finds, in the stylistic splintering and exaltation of the 2020s, an obvious sounding board: within a reality of increasingly blurred aesthetic boundaries, the compass matters less than intuition, without hesitation.
It’s the perfect philosophy for Emile Parisien’s future new sextet, Louise, scheduled for 2021, alongside Frenchmen Roberto Negro and Manu Codjia, thanks to which the saxophonist is crossing the Atlantic to join forces with Americans Joe Martin, Nasheet Waits and Theo Croker. This was undoubtedly his most ambitious project to date.
