Remy Le Boeuf Quartet

Saxophonist and composer, Remy Le Boeuf envisions his approach to composition and improvisation as never veering far from the roots of language.  Le Boeuf’s music is rooted in the jazz tradition and overlaps into the modern classical realm drawing on various additional influences from Aaron Copland to Bjork.  Le Boeuf has worked with a range of collaborators including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, HAIM, JACK Quartet, Knower, Linda Oh, and his own twin brother Pascal, with whom he co-leads the Grammy-nominated ensemble, Le Boeuf Brothers.

Le Boeuf’s latest release for jazz orchestra, Assembly of Shadows (2019), brings together haunting cinematic textures and melody-driven themes.  Aside from being the name of the project, “Assembly of Shadows” is a 30-minute suite in 5 movements. It follows the story of a child who runs away into a nearby forest, gets lost, and falls asleep. When she wakes, all the shadows of the trees come alive and dance with her. They guide her home as the moon sets and she wakes up in her own bed, wondering if it was all a dream. The full album will be released on SoundSpore Records on November 1, 2019.

Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle for its “radiant, uncluttered beauty,” Le Boeuf’s prior release, Light as a Word (2019), is an unfettered artistic vision of profound musical empathy.  Released May 2019 on the Outside in Music label, the album features many of Le Boeuf’s long-time collaborators including Walter Smith III, Aaron Parks, Charles Altura, Matt Brewer, and Peter Kronreif.

Le Boeuf often employs literary elements to fuel his compositions as in his recent collaborative album imaginist (2016)—a collaboration between Le Boeuf Brothers and JACK Quartet.  The term "imaginist" refers to the early 20th century Russian poetry movement characterized by sequences of arresting images and long chains of metaphors.  Imaginist is structured to unfold like a book – complete with a prologue and epilogue. 

Past Le Boeuf Brothers projects include House Without A Door (2009) "an impressively self-assured new album, which reaches for the gleaming cosmopolitanism of our present era" (New York Times); In Praise of Shadows (2011), which "deftly blends elements of electronica with touches of indie rock and sophisticated jazz writing on this genre-defying project" (JazzTimes); and Remixed an "open-minded and masterfully crafted precursor of things to come" (All About Jazz) featuring remix collaborations with David Binney, Knower, Tim Lefebvre, and others.

 After receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music in 2009, Le Boeuf has gone on to receive commissions and awards from SFJAZZ, Chamber Music America, The Jerome Foundation, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Copland House, Copland Fund, National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, American Composers Forum, New York Youth Symphony, Keio University, BMI, and the ASCAP Foundation. Le Boeuf was born and in Santa Cruz, CA and currently resides is a Brooklyn, NY.