Louise combines the strange melodies of Ornette Coleman, hints towards the blues, and the energy of rock. Music full of momentum, twists, tension and relaxation.
A phenomenal album. And live performance of incredible momentum.
Emile Parisien exclusively plays soprano sax and he does it sublimely: you recognize him after a few notes.
It’s fascinating how this band blends the best of European and American jazz. Intense, modern and melodic. Undoubtedly an album of the year.
Emile Parisien’s sound is recogniseable among a thousand. […] An album between contained lyricism and free expressionism, contrasting, at times rugged, and always intense.
Perhaps the most important soprano saxophonist in contemporary European jazz. Free, young jazz by top-class American and European improvisers. Not an easy listen, but a great pleasure.
Emile Parisien's strongest record to date and this season's standout. Parisien and trumpeter Theo Croker pass on ideas to each other as if it were about winning the Grand Slam.
Passion, virtuosity and invention.
Ambitious and surprising.
A pan-Atlantic dreamteam!
A magnificent album. Exciting, original, virtuoso. ****
Emile Parisien is a stroke of luck in several ways: As an instrumentalist, as an improviser and as an inventor of unique, at the same time original and catchy compositions.
A brilliant kaleidoscope of jazz, and hands down one of the highlights at the beginning of the new year.
Some albums cannot be played on shuffle. Louise is one of those; it has a thread; it has a background to be explored, and it has a reminiscence at its core.
The music is both beautiful and swinging at times, while cacophonous and complex at others, but most of all it is utterly enthralling. One can only hope that despite the distances and obstacles involved, this group will come together again in the future and expand on this wonderful album.
Parisien may not be winning Downbeat awards or Grammys yet, but Louise indicates it won’t be long.
Émile Parisien is the most complete and exciting soprano sax player to come to my ears in a long while. He is joined by a hybrid collection of five outstanding American and European players who share Parisien’s lyrical expressiveness and whose different musical backgrounds merge seamlessly on Louise. The sextet feels like it has been playing together for years. Balanced, expressive, and confident, the music on Louise is deeply satisfying jazz played at a very high level.
This powerful album finds Parisien on the cusp of brilliance.
One of the foremost soprano saxophonists in Europe, Émile Parisien is a supremely balanced performer whose music is both harmonically sophisticated and kinetic, bringing together his classic influences with hard-driving jazz improvisation. It's this vibrant combination that he showcases on 2022's Louise, an album that marks his tenth year with the ACT label. […] From the frenetic to the mournful to the devastatingly beautiful, Parisien continually pulls all of this controlled chaos into something akin to poetry.
The impish French Soprano sax specialist Emile Parisien is a Euro-jazz star but here brings three US players into his band to get closer, he tells us, to his main sources of inspiration. The results are very engaging. A varied and enlivening set.
An epic and modern adventure.
Emile Parisien is one of those artists who are capable, at the slightest note, of being immediately recognized and creating a universe
One of the most important musicians on the European jazz scene, saxophonist Emile Parisien, releases an album which is both a return to his roots and one of his most ambitious projects. Recorded with a high-flying Franco-American group, this album is alternately soft and fiery, meticulous and powerful.
Simply one of the finest saxophonists I’ve ever heard or played with. Genius.
Simply one of the finest saxophonists I’ve ever heard or played with. Genius.