Neil Saidi & Noé Huchard

Neil Saidi: Neil Saidi is a young French saxophonist born in 1991. Primarily an alto saxophonist, he is also regularly heard on tenor and baritone saxophones. He studied at the CNSM in Paris and the New School for Jazz in New York. He is currently artistic director of the ZOOT Collectif. His main influences include Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean and Gerry Mulligan. A lover of bebop, he has dug this furrow and developed his musical personality over the years through new discoveries and musical encounters. Neil composes and arranges music for small and large ensembles. His latest projects include the "Zoot Symphonique" project, the "Pannonica" show and the Zoot Octet's latest album, "Zoot Suite Vol.2". The latter received a warm welcome from the critics (Indispensable Jazz News, Record of the Day on TSF Jazz, Record of the Week on Jazz a Fip). Neil is lucky enough to share the stage with more experienced musicians such as Alain Jean-Marie, Gilles Naturel, Philippe Soirat... With whom he recently recorded an album, accompanied by his trumpet acolyte Noé Codjia, to be released in 2022. Neil has lived in New York, where he studied under various grants (Fulbright Commission and Fondation Safran pour la musique). There he recorded his first album, "New York Sessions", released on Gut String Records, a snapshot of his time spent there and the beautiful musical encounters that took place.

Noé Huchard: Noé Huchard is a young jazz pianist (1999) with a growing presence on the French scene. He began playing music at the age of 3 and took his first classical piano lessons. Muzaffar Abdullah, a Malaysian concert pianist living in Paris, was his classical piano teacher for over 10 years. In his teens, Noé also began working on jazz. After graduating from the Val Maubuée conservatory in Noisiel (DEM mention Très Bien à l'Unanimité avec les Félicitations du jury), he entered the CRR de Paris (where he studied with Paul Lay, Emil Spányi, Pierre Bertrand...), before joining the jazz department of the CNSMD de Paris in 2017. Since then, he has multiplied his musical encounters of all kinds: in November 2018, he took part in a tour of Argentina with percussionist Minino Garay's Quartet, and was part of the first edition of the DiVino Festival International Music in San Rafaël de Mendoza with Jacky Terrasson, Pierre Bertrand, Stéphane Belmondo... In April 2019, he took part in a tour of Mexico with saxophonist Pierre Bertrand's group "Caja Negra". A regular in Paris clubs, he can be seen playing with Rick Margitza, Nicolas Folmer, Thomas Bramerie, Jon Boutellier, Pierrick Pédron, Eric Séva, Line Kruse, Riccardo Del Fra, Stéphane Guillaume, the Zoot Collectif, Guilhem Flouzat... among others.