Yannick Rieu Spectrum was founded by composer and saxophonist Yannick Rieu on June 2007 in Montreal. This large ensemble provides a nice opportunity for him to break out of the Jazz quartet context and re-nvent the sound that has earned him a place as one of Canada's most promising talents.

Yannick Rieu Spectrum brings the musicians who come from different horizon like Jazz, rock songs, but they have same passion on music and improvisation. Yannick Rieu Spectrum includes following artists, by some of Montreal's major talents, like Jean-Sebastien Williams/guitar, Remi-Jean Leblanc/bass, Samuel Joly/drums and Yannick Rieu \saxophone soprano and composition.

Yannick Rieu Spectrum has received the recording grants from Canada Arts Council and Musicaction. Yannick Rieu Spectrum 2009 Chinese tour from May 20 to June 16 is supported by Musicaction of Canada.

The first album (CD+DVD) of this group will be released by Justin Time in May 2009.

Band Members

Yannick Rieu (Saxophone)

Composer, tenor and soprano saxophonist Yannick Rieu is one of the finest musicians in any genre of music - to have emerged from Quebec, and one who¡¯s also enjoyed an international career for many years.

As early as 1988, Down Beat, the American bible of jazz, ranked him amongst the 20 most promising sax players in the world alongside Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano and Courtney Pine.

Yannick Rieu has toured extensively Qu¨¦bec and the rest of Canada, as well as France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, China and Brazil. He has played with Paul Bley, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Jon Hendricks and Bill Carrothers.

Yannick Rieu received the 2006 "Oscar Peterson Award" of Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Personality of the Week in 2006 of Radio Canada and La Presse for the quality of his art and his outstanding contribution to the evolution of jazz in Canada.

In 2007, Rieu completed his eighth disc Saint-Gervais released by Justin Time. This new recording, captured live in Paris last December, 2006.

Jean-Sebastien Williams (Guitar)

Guitarist Jean-Sebastien Williams is interested in various genres of music, including rock, Jazz, folk music and so forth. His fifteen-year performance on stage still maintains a strong artistic sense of novelty and uniqueness.

He often performs with famous musicians of different music genres in Canada, including Dumas, Daniel Belanger, Yannick Rieu and Daniel Thouin.

Remi-Jean LeBlanc (Bass)

Born in Moncton, New-Brunswick, R¨¦mi-Jean started playing music in public at the age of 14. He quickly became very interested by jazz and improvisation, which led him to pursue academic studies in Montreal. After completing his undergraduate music degree at age 21, he was soon able to acquire recognition in the Montreal music scene by performing with many experienced musicians. R¨¦mi-Jean has now established himself as a prolific bassplayer and has recently been noticed as composer and leader of his own projects. He will release his first album in 2009.

Samuel Joly (Drums)

As a talented drummer, Samuel has attended performances together with a number of famous Jazz musicians in Canada. 2007 was an important year for him. He followed Rieu to attend two tours, worked with different bands and participated in the recording of Francois Bourassa¡¯s new album Rasstones, which won him a great deal of acclaim.