Preamble

 

      Although Warren Saxe's first passion was the piano, he found himself with an accordion in his hands at the age of six. At the classical accordion conservatory, he challenged the received ideas on this instrument and his "teachers" then had difficulty in adapting to it. At eleven, he entered the piano conservatory and gradually put aside the accordion while also taking an interest in acoustic synthesis ... It was much later, between 2015 and 2017, that by some happy coincidence, the public invited him to bring out the accordion; against all odds, the accordion will take its place in his life as a musician and composer; the stained glass artist Selma Le Curieux will say of him: "the piano is his heart, the accordion is his soul".

      From the start of its history, Warren Saxe was as passionate about baroque music (Bach, Scarlatti, Handel ...) as by English pop (Pink Floyd, Yes, Peter Gabriel, etc ...). A little later, it was through his encounter with jazz fusion (Weather report, Miles Davis, ECM jazz, Mac Coy Tiner, Bill Evans ...), that he evolved more and more towards improvisation while by being fond of composition (for him, improvisation is spontaneous composition). We understand his openness to a music identified as "third stream": from classical writing to contemporary jazz.

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Chronology

 

1983-1984 : at eighteen, Warren Saxe forms "Diaphane" (fusion quartet) / Tunisia: Carthage festival (first part of BB King), / France: Angers theater, Angoulême theater, Court festival des Miracles (Paris), regular programming at the jazzclub "River Bop" (Paris) etc…

 

1984-1985 : Warren Saxe forms the electro pop group "Grand Prix", produced by RCA (Polygram group) / series of concerts for the benefit of cancer research, "Grand prix" is generic of the "Paris-Dakar" ... In parallel, he continues the concerts with his quartet "Diaphane".

 

1986 to 1988 : In 1986, Warren dissolves his quartet "Diaphane", it is the beginning of a period during which he will be more and more requested by the Parisian and Brussels studios, like arranger and director… period that he gradually felt like confinement ... Warren Saxe is a man of the stage, of the public.

 

1989-1990 : Composition, orchestrations and musical direction for the show by French singer Xavier Lacouture: "ROCK'N VOLE" / two months tour in France, Switzerland, Belgium, and 3 weeks at the Dejazet Theater in Paris, followed by a concert at the Olympia. 1990, work on Corsican polyphonies with Patricia Paoli and Johny Clegg / concert at the Bastia stadium.

                                                           

1992 to 1994 : Composition, vocal arrangements and sound effects production for the musical comedy "the longest night" by Daisie Faye / performances until 1995 in Paris: Renaissance theater, Folies Bergères, Mogador and finally the Théâtre de Paris ... In 1994, Renaldo Cerri (CRC edition) asks Warren to release a compilation of his best compositions for the image ... this will be the opportunity to release a first album under his name: "MA PLANETE".

 

1995 : Not feeling in agreement with the show business, he withdraws,  begins to devote himself more precisely to his music and composes exclusively for the piano in order to take again the scene as he really wants ...

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1996 to 2000 : Warren Saxe creates his own production label (LA MAIN DU JAZZ), his own jazz club and definitively focused on these creations. Warren Saxe doesn’t like anything frozen and does not record many albums; The year 2000 will be the release of his second album: "L'AGE METIS" with saxophonist Frédéric Saumagne / Edition: CRC / Production: LA MAIN DU JAZZ.

 

2001-2013 : For four years, Warren devotes himself mainly to musical education: faced with the stupidity of the concervatories who want to make obedient elites, he wants to help his students to free themselves by expressing their own emotions.

      In 2005, creation of the show: "LE PIANO SAHARA" with the photographer Gérard Desroches: a giant screen above your head, his piano under his fingers, Warren SAXE offers you his own retrospective of the history of jazz, crowned by the mooving images of photographer Gérard Desroches ... Warren Saxe still records as little as ever, but in 2013, he records his third quartet album: "DOUBLE FACE" (production: LA MAIN DU JAZZ / editions: CRC), and paradoxically performed more and more in solo piano or in duo…

 

2014 to 2018 : 2014, Warren Saxe meets singer Pascale LE BIHAN, who becomes his wife; he creates with her, several concepts in duo such as the "JAZZ DUET" (vocal - piano) or even "the "ORIGINAL DUO" (vocal - accordion).

      In 2017, he finishes the writing of his “JAZZIC SONATAS”, compositions he qualifies as “third stream” (from classical writing to contemporary jazz), then he creates “HEMISPHERE SUD”, compositions and arrangements based on standards by Chick Corea, Astor Piazola, Angel Cabral, Mac Coy Tyner, etc… (mixture of piano and Argentinian accordion)…

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2019 to 2022 : In 2019 Warren SAXE created “LA MAIN DU JAZZ Radioweb”, not finding any French radio to his liking... this project will be stopped in 2020 by the so-called pandemic of a so-called virus. 2020 will also be the creation of his new solo show: “OCEAN”, an emblematic creation of the “third current”: classical writing sublimated by jazz improvisations and the morphing of images on a giant screen: “from the cosmos to the ocean… from the ocean to the cosmos. 2022: resumption of the radio station “LA MAIN DU JAZZ Radioweb” and its show “Du Jazz & d’Ailleurs”...

       

2023-2024 : 2023 is the year of great emptiness, everything has to be rebuilt and reinvented: the “La Main du Jazz” festival becomes the “Jazz en Fusion” festival and the “OCEAN” show which was to be presented in 2020, will not be played for the first time in September 2024 at the Romanesque church of Sallertaine (Vendée), the cause being still this troubled period, as bizarre as it is strange in our history... These two years will also be marked by the new creations with Pascale LE BIHAN who will put her voice on the original expression of Warren's accordion and bandoneon; it will also be jazz shaken up by English pop on a new piano-voice concept always with Pascale LE BIHAN of course. Warren SAXE does not advocate the death of jazz but that of the pseudo-elitist "chappelles" who sclerose jazz. “In a society in which “culture” is collapsing and the word animation replaces the words “concert” and “show”, we will have to hold on to create and be free to do so!” said Warren SAXE.

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