SÉLÉBÉYONE

USA, FRANCE, SENEGAL
CANADIAN PREMIERE

SUNDAY MAY 19   
CARRÉ 150 (Salle F. Lemaire)
8 PM - $44

A collaboration

Gaston Bandimic, Hprizm : voix
Steve Lehman : saxophone alto, séquançage
Maciek Lasserre : saxophone soprano, séquançage
Damion Reid : batterie

American saxophonist and composer STEVE LEHMAN is a “state-of-the-art musical thinker” according to The New York Times. He composes for top-flight chamber ensembles and leads small and mid-sized groups to perform his thrillingly nuanced pieces that draw from many musical streams and feature his distinctive alto saxophone sound. SÉLÉBÉYONE is among his most ambitious syntheses, a genre-hybrid laboratory for two radically complementary voices in contemporary rap: HPRIZM (aka HIGH PRIEST of Antipop Consortium) in English, and the Senegalese GASTON BANDIMIC in Wolof. Key to this recipe are the contributions of drummer DAMION REID, a leading exponent of post-J Dilla drumkit groove, and French saxophonist MACIEK LASSERRE. Following their 2016 debut release, SÉLÉBÉYONE (which means “intersection” in Wolof) released its sophomore recording, Xaybu: The Unseen (Pi Recordings) in 2022, an important step beyond the history of jazz-meets-rap fusion and, indeed, a profoundly contemporary statement about intercultural and inter-genre collaboration.