Sylvain Leroux

Sylvain Leroux grew up in Montreal where he studied classical flute at Vincent d’Indy; and improvisation and composition in New York at the Creative Music Studio where he attended classes by luminaries Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and manymore. A pioneer of African Jazz, he is a foremost player of the Fula flute, the traditional flute from Guinea. As bandleader, he brought traditional West African music to Zankel Hall with his Fula Flute Ensemble. His 2002 CD “Fula Flute,” achieved cult status and stimulated worldwide interest. He was noted in performances and recordings with Adam Rudolph, Karl Berger, Hassan Hakmoun, and many West African stars and was selected for many years as Rising Flute Star by Downbeat magazine critics. As a flute maker, he invented and patented the “qromatica” which led him to initiate “l’ecole fula flute,” a music literacy project in Guinea that has produced many excellent flutists, re-energizing an endangered tradition.

Sylvain Leroux: Quatuor Creole

Read "Quatuor Creole" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
August 7, 2012

Flautist Sylvain Leroux's debut, Quatuor Créole, is an enchanting mélange of Guinean sounds, French influences and jazz inflections. In that aspect it is essentially Creole, but not necessary a work of New Orleanian or Haitian folkloric music. Leroux plays the tambin, a West African reed flute, and a dozon ngoni, a lute from the same region--often alternating between the two on the same track. This is heard on the bluesy, hypnotic and griot (jeli)-style “Gambalou." Elsewhere, Leroux ...

Album Review

SoSaLa: Nu World Trash

Read "Nu World Trash" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 18, 2012

SoSaLa is the brainchild of vocalist, saxophonist, music activist and native Iranian Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, who fuses Persian influences with Western instrumentation amid indigenous platforms, summoning the Middle Eastern contingent. A well-travelled musician, Ladjevardi immerses his craft into quite a few projects and multifaceted ensemble-based frameworks. He resides in New York City, and as the story goes, blasted his horn in front of the United Nations as a means for supporting the Green Movement in Iran. “Vatan Kojai?" ...

"Sylvain Leroux is a master of the Fula flute." – Robert Dick

About SL's "Quatuor Creole" (2012 album):

"...a perfect contemporary music release for those in pursuit of sounds beyond jazz..." – Dustin Garlitz, Jazz Talent

"...Leroux is an interesting cat... Pace, playing and instrumentation flow gentle as a river in the afternoon sun." – Thurston Hunger, KFJC FM

"... quite a treat for the ears and a worthy addition to the canon of the world-jazz subgenre." – Hrayr Attarian, AllAboutJazz.com