The rhythm wizard weaves a multicultural web in favor of a benevolent world.
Virtuoso and eclectic percussionist, he travels the world and its music. Working with some of the world’s finest musicians, he likes to draw parallels with the world of cuisine and flavors.
“Music is like cooking, and I like to put my personal touch to it without following a pre-established recipe. For example, mixing African rhythms with oriental melodies, incorporating a touch of Brazilian inspiration and sprinkling the whole thing with carefully chosen spices.”
All these ingredients come from an open, unprejudiced intercultural world. This approach, which encourages dialogue, encounters and improvisation, is omnipresent throughout his career.
“Each of my travels has been an opportunity to discover new playing techniques, new rhythms and instruments, and to immerse myself in encounters and collaborations with outstanding artists from elsewhere. It’s by drawing from this source that I’ve developed a hybrid technique that blends styles.”
The technological openness of music has enabled him to add electronic sound processing to all this, opening up an ocean of rhythmic and melodic possibilities. Everything is percussion: the body, water, a saucepan, a plastic bag…
As in cooking, these flavors delight the taste buds and create new sensations.
MUSICIAN: the man his peers call “The Sorcerer” plays an instrumental set of hybrid percussions and drums augmented by electronic processing.
COMPOSER: He writes music for film, television and dance performances.
TEACHING: His teaching work continues this open-minded approach, with Master Classes, Drum Circles and seminars focusing on rhythm, improvisation and electronic sound processing.
Always attentive to new proposals, his inventiveness feeds his participation in each new project.
“He puts his energy and vivacity into play to seek melody in sounds and rhythms.” Sylvain Siclier / Le MONDE
“Energy, groove, swing. Rhythm wizard Xavier Desandre Navarre sets the AmphiOpéra ablaze with his ethnic, recycled and technological percussion.” TELERAMA
“In his musical universe, the East meets the West, the North flirts with the South, the poles merge and dissolve in the tropics like an initiatory journey.” L. Eskenazi / Jazz MAGAZINE
The quartet’s new CD “IN PULSE 2” out January 31, 2020 (Cristal Records/ Sony Digital)
Emil Spanyi / Piano
Stephane Guillaume / Saxophone & Clarinet Bass
Stephane Kerecki / Double bass
Xavier Desandre Navarre / Percussions