Don Billiez (South of France)

Composer, saxophonist of Catalan French/Spanish origin Don Billiez has conducted, for the last decade, a career as a solo artist, as they say… the terms career and solo aren’t in fact too appropriate, because he is partial to sharing and considers that music isn’t a job, but rather a state of being- a state of creating community between musicians and the public…  a way of being, of living and behaving as a social griot with artistic responsibilities and duties…  Why not?  Before these ten well-spent years in the service of his productions, albums and various live appearances, he had other lives…  That of a dawning teenage which started with an essential encounter: that with Nino Ferrer, who opened the doors to his band to him, when he was but 18 years old.  Then there was Africa, which pushed him onto his journey of initiation on the shores of World Music as part of the Touré Kunda group, then a period of time when he was a key sideman from Paul Personne to Bashung, but that was during his past lives…

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