Biography

At the age of 17, Stéphane Guillaume entered the world of jazz, performing alongside Jean Bonal, Jacques Vidal and Ted Hawke, among others. At the same time, he won 1st prize in classical saxophone at the Paris Conservatoire. His time in François Jeanneau's jazz class gave him the opportunity to meet and play with musicians such as Randy Weston, George Russell and Dave Liebman.

In September 1994, Laurent Cugny invited him to join the Orchestre National de Jazz, with whom he recorded three albums. This orchestra gave him the opportunity to meet Lucky Peterson, Tommy Smith, Maria Schneider and Enrico Rava...

In 1996, he produced the album "Miage", his first attempt at recording under his own name, but it was obviously his sideman activities that predominated. He went on to perform in a variety of musical ventures: the "Y'aka Sax" quartet (1996-2002), David Patrois' quintet (1997-1999), Laurent Cugny's "Big-Band Lumière" (1997-2001), Patrice Caratini's "Jazz Ensemble" (1997-2003), Stéphane Huchard's quintet (1997-2003), Umberto Pagnini's "Cricca" (1998-2002), Gueorgui Kornazov's quintet (1998-2005), Frédéric Favarel's quintet (1999-2003), Claude Nougaro ("Embarquement Immédiat" tour 2000-2001), Pierre Bertrand and Nicolas Folmer's Paris Jazz Big Band (2000-2012), Didier Lockwood's New Quartet (2002-2007), Christian Escoudé's septet (2003-2006), Christophe Wallemme's quintet (2003-2007), Hervé Sellin's tentet (2005-2009), Vince Mendoza's Blauklang Project (2008), Carine Bonnefoy's New Large Ensemble (2009-2013), Frédéric Monino's All the Way quartet (2011-2013)...

In 2004, the release of the album Soul Role revived his leadership skills.

After forming a quartet with Frédéric Favarel (gt), Marc Buronfosse (cb) and Antoine Banville (bt), another project under his own name saw the light of day with the release of the album 'Intra-Muros' in 2006.

In 2008, following a residency at the Opéra de Lyon, he came up with a completely new idea: Stéphane's original quartet would be joined by a Brass Band of seven brass players, all exceptional soloists. The arrangements and orchestrations put together for the occasion were recorded in the studio in June 2008. These sessions are featured on the album Windmills Chronicles, released in October 2009.

That same year, the Académie du Jazz awarded him the prestigious 'Django Reinhart' prize for best French musician of the year, as well as the prize for best French record of the year for 'Windmills Chronicles'.

In 2013, Stéphane turned his attention back to his quartet with the release of a new album, 'Pewter Session', celebrating the band's ten years of working together.

In the period that followed, in the company of drummer Stéphane Huchard, they both worked on setting up the duo 'Steph by Steph', an original blend of acoustic and electronic material, as well as a trio, the 'Cultisongs Trio' (with double bassist Thomas Bramerie) focusing exclusively on Broadway standards... album 'Off-Off Broadway', out in January 2019.

Stéphane's next musical venture will be to combine his world with that of chamber music, in a unique formation featuring two classical musicians, Stanboulian Sedef Erçetin (cello) and Athenian Maria Papapetropoulou (piano), as well as Antoine Banville (percussion), a rhythmician who has been a regular contributor to Stéphane's work for several years. A beautiful album will be released during Spring 2024.

He continues to perform with André Charlier & Benoît Sourisse's 'Multiquarium', Xavier Desandre's 'In-Pulse 4tet' and Jean-Marie Machado's 'Danzas' orchestra. He is a member of the group SHIJIN (with Laurent David, Ivo Neame & Stéphane Galland)

Stéphane Guillaume has also performed with Phil Abraham, Franck Agulhon, Georges Arvanitas, Frank Avitabile, Jean Bardy, Jim Beard, Michel Benita, Marc Berthoumieux, Pierre de Bethmann, Emmanuel Bex, Terence Blanchard, Jeff Boudraut, Pierre Boussaguet, André Ceccarelli and Rémy Chaudagne, Jean-Christophe Cholet, Jean-Pierre Como, Denis Croisonnier, Christophe Dal Sasso, Barbara Dennerlein, Dominique Di Piazza, Jean-Marie Ecay, Thierry Eliez, Peter Erskine, Antonio Farao, Hadrien Ferraud, Edouart Ferlet, Daniele Ferretti, Zool Fleisher, Roberto Fonseca, Frank Gambale, Meddy Gerville, Edsel Gomez, Pierre-Alain Goualch, Girardo di Guisto, Antoine Hervé, Daniel Humair, Jean-Marc Jafet, Quincy Jones, Sheila Jordan, Olivier Ker Ourio, Wayne Krantz, Thierry Lang, Sara Lazarus, N'guyen Lê, Michel Legrand, Didier Levallet, David Linx, Olivier Louvel, Sylvain Luc, Philippe Mace, Robin McKell, Richard Manetti, Marcia Maria, Bill Mobley, François & Louis Moutin, Linus Olsson, Steve Potts, Mike Reinhardt, Manuel Rocheman, Romane, Aldo Romano, Alma Rosa, Yoshco Seffer, Ben Sidran, Pierre-Yves Sorin, Mike Stern, Jacky Terrasson, Denis Tchangou, Toots Thielmans, Frank Tortiller, Baptiste Trotignon, Nelson Veras, Nicolas Viccaro, Rémi Vignolo, Florian Weber, Louis Winsberg...

As a sideman, his name appears on over a hundred albums.

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