Xavier Belin / Baptiste Poulin – Crossing

Born from the encounter between saxophonist Baptiste Poulin and pianist Xavier Belin, Crossing is a duo influenced by many legendary duos such as Kenny Barron and Stan Getz, Lee Konitz and Martial Solal, or Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman. Through a varied repertoire composed of standards and various creations, Crossing takes us on a musical journey where interaction, listening, and creativity are at the heart of their playing.
Crossing can be translated as a crossing, that of two roads or even two ideas. The result of a crossing is always something new. Crossing is the meeting between Xavier's highly syncopated, motivating, and stable playing and Baptiste's virtuoso, lyrical, and moving playing. The crossing between the warm timbre of the saxophone and the round and percussive timbre of the piano. The blending between the verdant memories of the Burgundy countryside and the flowery and luminous landscapes of Martinique. Winner of both the Audience Award and the Jury Award at the 2019 Golden Jazz Trophy (co-organized by Golden Eyes and Jazz En Nord), Xavier Belin is undoubtedly one of the most promising young French pianists. Top of the 2014 class of the International Music Educator of Paris (and also a graduate of the capital's Pôle Supérieur de Musique), he formed Pitakpi in 2018, a quartet strongly reminiscent of so-called "Afro-descendant" music.
Baptiste, for his part, is a young composer and performer whose reputation first rose in his native Mâconnais, before joining the Pôle Supérieur de Musique de Paris (directed by Jean-Charles Richard), where he formed a friendship with Xavier. Now collaborating with leading figures in French jazz (Franck Tortiller, Pierre de Bethmann, Éric Prost), he participated in Fred Morin's ONJ, and created the hip-hop/New Orleans Take Off Brass Band.