Sebastian
Gille
Biography
There is an incredible feeling of suspense in the room, a power emanating from this saxophonist’s performance, demonstrated by the meticulous care with which he makes every single note his own. A sound resonant of virtually unrestrained emotional intensity, which invites the audience to hear the warmth of his breath, his sensitivity and vulnerability, as well as his desire to transcend boundaries. A cross between Albert Ayler and Lester Young, capturing a sensibility that is radical yet simultaneously timidly beseeching in an unmistakably individual form. This is how Stefan Hentz and „Die Welt“ describes saxophonist Sebastian Gille.
SEBASTIAN GILLE, born on February 1, 1983, in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, comes from a musical family and began playing the saxophone at the age of 14.
In 2004, at the age of 21, he moved to Hamburg, where he studied saxophone as part of the jazz and jazz-related music program at the University of Music and Theater. In the years that followed, Gille was awarded the solo prize of the Oscar und Vera Ritter- Foundation (2005), a scholarship by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (2007-2010), the Dr. E. A. Langner Jazz Award (2007), the Jazz Advancement Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Culture Forum (2007), an art scholarship by the Claussen-Simon Foundation (2014) and the Hamburg Jazz Prize (2015). In 2018 Sebastian Gille was also awarded the SWR Jazz Prize for his outstanding artistic merits.
During his career, Sebastian Gille has worked with a number of renowned artists, including Abdullah Ibrahim, Al Jarreau, Norma Winston, David Liebman, Steve Swallow, Bob Brookmeyer, Richie Beirach, Jim Black, Lionel Loueke, Jozef Dumoulin, Maria Schneider, Randy Brecker,
Adam Nussbaum, Joe Sample, Steve Gadd, João Bosco, Nguyên Lê, Tom Rainey, Michael Gibbs, Gary Husband, Christof Lauer, Patrice Heral,
Nils Wogram, Herb Geller, John Schröder, Steve Gray, Ben Perowski, Wolfgang Schlüter,
Dieter Glawischnig, Rolf Kühn, Wolfgang
Haffner, Vladislav Sendecki, Gene
Calderazzo, Claus Stötter, Kalle Kalima,
the NDR Big Band a.o..
Sebastian Gille has toured extensively abroad, for example in Russia, China, Canada, England, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Austria Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland and Moldova.
His unmistakable command of the tenor saxophone has already been immortalized on over 40 recordings. Since the release of his debut album “Anthem” in November 2011, he has been highly lauded by the music press and described as one of the “most expressive saxophonists of our time”. The Jazz Podium even considers him to be one of the indisputably greatest woodwind players on the planet.
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„Gille is undoubtedly one of the greatest woodwind players on this planet.“ Thorsten Hingst, Jazzpodium
„One of the most expressive saxophonists of our time.“ Überjazz
„Gille is neither an exhibitionist nor a show-off; on the contrary, he embodies the proverb of still waters running deep. His sound exudes warmth, authority, mystery. But the man with the unassuming aura has proven time and time again that he is capable of reinventing himself, since his saxophone exudes an expressiveness under which the little man twists and turns, as though the music held a hypnotic power over him, as opposed to him creating the music himself.“ Tom R. Schulz,
Hamburger Abendblatt
„There is an incredible feeling of suspense in the room, a power emanating from this saxophonist’s performance, demonstrated by the meticulous care with which he makes every single note his own. A sound resonant of virtually unrestrained emotional intensity, which invites the audience to hear the warmth of his breath, his sensitivity and vulnerability, as well as his desire to transcend boundaries. A cross between Albert Ayler and Lester Young, capturing a sensibility that is radical yet simultaneously timidly beseeching in an unmistakably individual form.“ Die Welt
„The music Sebastian Gille produces on his tenor saxophone borders on an unbridled emotional intensity. It sounded as if a thousand souls were wrapped up in his horn.“ Sonic
Gille is an exceptional and completely unique saxophone player, who is able to produce almost unearthly tones, which sound sometimes like violin or flute, and considering he is playing the tenor, this is absolutely amazing. His manner of slowing the tempo almost to a standstill is also extremely effective and creates enormous amounts of tension in the music, in spite of the fact that it is almost minimalistic. Adam Baruch
„Saxophonist Sebastian Gille is demonstrating the sound of the Future." Tom R. Schulz, Hamburger Abendblatt
„Gille’s sound is a kaleidoscopically shifting mélange of inner colors and states of mind, which are unmistakably his own. How his music resonates with the audience is not necessarily analogous to what it puts forth.“ Jazzthetik
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