Impérial Quartet

Damien Sabatier: alto and sopranino saxophones
Hugues Mayot: tenor saxophone
Joachim Florent: double bass
Antonin Leymarie: drums

The driving forces behind the ensemble are the two saxophonists Damien Sabatier and Gérald Chevillon, who also founded Impérial Quartet in 2010. At the jaZZanti concert, however, Chevillon will be replaced by the outstanding saxophonist Hugues Mayot, who performs, among others, with the French National Jazz Orchestra.

On their fifth album, Imperial Quartet continues to explore the folk traditions of Central Europe and the regions shaped by the Danube. As a cultural thread, the river symbolizes cycles, encounters, and the blending of Eastern and Western cultures.

The quartet draws from vernacular traditions—Balkan, Hungarian, Romani, and klezmer music—highlighting their emotional depth and rhythmic richness. Modality, asymmetrical time signatures, and virtuosity intertwine in a free musical language nourished by improvisation. Melodies are reshaped, fused, and reimagined with intention in a contemporary form.

Functioning as a true laboratory for experimental work with sound and rhythm, the ensemble composes and arranges collectively in search of an organic sonic palette. Alternating between introspective softness and powerful bursts of energy, Dunav Magika is a poetic and magical sonic journey in which jazz enters into dialogue with the living memory of European cultures.

Photo: Istvan Meszaros

Soul Diaspora, Impérial Quartet
https://youtu.be/atNvGQz1OR4

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki, Svenska Kulturfonden and The Finnish Music Foundation.