Jowee Omicil

Jowee Omicil (pronounced Joey Om-i-Sil) plays reeds, woodwinds, and sings; he is also a composer, bandleader, producer, and educator based in Miami, Florida and Paris, France. His tone, alternately soulful, spiritual, and warm, reflects his playing and singing in his father's church and his studies at Berklee College of Music. He is the son of Haitian immigrants to Montreal. His 2006 debut, Let's Do This, offered global grooves inside contemporary jazz. 2009's Roots & Grooves showcased cultural dialogue with musicians from four continents. 2014's Naked offered tributes to influences in (mostly) compact compositions, 2017's acclaimed Let's Bash! delivered contemporary jazz-funk and soul-jazz tunes, and 2018's Love Matters revealed avant expressions using Afro-Caribbean rhythms. 2020's Lekture provided various jazz, folk, and sacred music traditions in miniature compositions. 2024's Spiritual Healing: Bwa Kayiman Freedom Suite was composed and improvised to re-create the energy of an 18th century voodoo ceremony that reportedly inspired the Haitian Revolution. Omicil was born in Montreal to Haitian emigres. His mother, Rose-Annette Innocent, died when he was five, and he was raised by his pastor-father Joseph C. Omicil, Sr. The youngster sang and desperately wanted to learn to play piano. His sister already played organ in church and his brother studied trumpet. His father encouraged him to pick up a wind instrument. At 15, his father enrolled him in music school. The youngster picked up an old alto saxophone from a teacher's collection and fell in love with its sound. Omicil mastered alto, tenor, and the difficult soprano saxophone, and he continued to play flute, piccolo, clarinets, and harmonica. Three years into his formal studies, Omicil was offered a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he majored in music education. There he fell under the influence of saxophonists including Kenny Garrett, Steve Coleman, and Branford Marsalis. Later, he attended the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, and, while competing for the institution's top prize, he was featured on the BET Jazz channel. Upon leaving Berklee, Omicil moved to New York City. There he met, was befriended by, and had regular conversations with, Ornette Coleman. He played with Marsalis and Roy Hargrove's RH Factor. He also got session and live work with a wide variety of performers including Richard Bona, Marcus Miller, Pharoah Sanders, Wyclef Jean, and Harold Faustin. Omicil formed his own band and gigged around New York, Toronto, and Montreal. In 2006 he entered the latter's Studio Victor with a sextet that included electric bassist Chris Pottinger and drummer Charles Haynes and cut Let's Do This, his funky, contemporary jazz debut album, and released it on his own Jowee Juise, Inc. label. Canadian critics liked it and the record won airplay on the CBC. Following a Canadian tour and gigs in N.Y.C., Omicil and his band teamed with soloists from four continents on 2009's Roots & Grooves. These included guitarists Lionel Loueke (Africa), Mawuena Kodjovi (France), and Nir Felder (U.S.) vocalist Emeline Michel (Haiti), and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt (U.S.). The album won positive acclaim globally, and airplay in Germany, France, at jazz and public radio in the U.S., and even in Asia. Just before the album's release, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama requested him to perform at the White House's inaugural observation of Haitian Flag Day on May 18, 2010 (two months after Roots & Grooves' release). In 2011, Omicil appeared on Francisco Mela's Tree of Life as one of two saxophonists, the other was Uri Gurvich. Omicil toured the album for 18 months with different ensembles across North America, Western Europe, and the Caribbean. Upon return, he assembled a septet and recorded Naked live to tape at Miami's Riviera Theater as a continuation of his previous album. Other than set-opener "Prayer 4 Coltrane," tracks were between two- and four-minutes long. While it didn't attract the same global buzz as its predecessor, jazz critics appreciated its intimacy, canny use of harmony and rhythm, and warm sound. With a rigorous touring schedule and session work, Omicil's fourth album Let's Bash! was recorded at the famed La Buissonne studio in Paris. It appeared in 2017 to wide acclaim and airplay for its adventurous and elastic use of contemporary jazz-funk and soul-jazz. The following year, the saxophonist and his nonet pulled an about face and cut the celebrated Love Matters!, a deliberate exercise in modernist post-bop. He also contributed to Jonathan Jurion's Le Temps Fou: The Music of Marion Brown. Two years later, Omicil released Lekture. Recorded completely solo, its compositions strategically overdubbed his saxophones, winds, and piano. His only collaborator was mixing and mastering engineer Edouard Carbonne. That same year, the saxophonist and American pianist Randy Kerber recorded the duet offering Y Pati in France and released it through Komos Records. Omicil also appeared in the studio band for The Eddy film and soundtrack. In 2021, alongside bassist Louis Moutin and drummer François Moutin, he released M.O.M., a collection of eight melodic post-bop trio improvisations. The saxophonist also guested on trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf's 40 Melodies. Omicil returned in 2023 with SpiriTuaL HeaLinG: Bwa KaYimaN FreeDoM SuiTe. Easily his most ambitious and abstract recording, the saxophonist and his band channeled the night of August 14, 1791, when Saint-Domingue slaves gathered at the Bois Caïman for a voodoo ceremony, which fomented the 12-year Haitian Revolution. The recording is defiant yet vulnerable, commanding yet inquisitive, as it channels the spirits of leader/warriors Dutty Boukman and Toussaint Louverture. Released in December 2023, the hour-long, 21-track set resonated with global jazz critics, vanguard jazz, and indie music fans.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo