Omicil, Jowee
Spiritual Healing: Bwa Kayiman Freedom Suite (2lp)
Joseph Omicil, Jr, a.k.a. Jowee Omicil, is a Haitian-Canadian jazz musician. He has worked in the past with artists such as Roy Hargrove, Pharoah Sanders, Tony Allen, Kenny Garrett, Jacob Desvarieux, Glen Ballard, Harold Faustin, Michel Martell, etc. He hosted Quincy Jones' 85th birthday celebration at Montreux Festival. He also starred in the Netflix series 'The Eddy,' produced by Damien Chazelle, and 'Le Temps D'Aimer,' directed by Katell Quillévéré (Cannes Festival 2023). The Bois-Caïman ceremony was Haiti's first major collective uprising against slavery. On his album, 'SpiriTuaL HeaLinG: Bwa KaYimaN FreeDoM SuiTe,' Jowee performs his ancestors' revolution in his own way. Jowee brought together all his inner tubes - soprano, alto, tenor, wood, clarinets, piccolo lute, cornet - that blow, that make wind, that rumble. This record is an incantation, a therapy, it cleanses the world by drawing on the fantasized memory of the Haitian revolution. There are Freedom Suites by Sonny Rollins, Max Roach and others. Prayer music, music to break the chains in your head and on your wrists, music of black power and white magic. For Jowee, a kid from Montréal, son of a Haitian pastor, who sang Jesus in all the tones, and then Michael Jackson, and then 2Pac, who learned jazz from Ornette Coleman, the ceremony necessarily has the taste of free. This record is a healing hour-long improvisation.