Directed by Dan Gailey
Remy Le Boeuf is a four-time Grammy-nominated composer and saxophonist, whose music is rooted in the jazz tradition and overlaps into contemporary classical and indie-rock realms. Le Boeuf is also the founder and director of the jazz orchestra Assembly of Shadows, as well as the chief conductor of the Nordkraft Big Band in Denmark. He has worked with a range of collaborators, including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Linda Oh, HAIM, JACK Quartet, Dayna Stephens, Prefuse 73 and his identical twin brother Pascal, with whom he co-leads the experimental quintet Le Boeuf Brothers.
With his debut jazz orchestra release, Assembly of Shadows (2019), Le Boeuf established himself as a unique voice with a penchant for cinematic majesty and melody-driven themes. Hailed by The New York Times for his music’s “overwhelming beauty,” he quickly earned two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Arrangement the following year. In 2021, he released a complementary sequel, Architecture of Storms (2021), showcasing his acrobatic saxophone playing while exploring the diversity of his emotions and influences. His sophomore album garnered two additional Grammy nominations for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album and Best Arrangement, Instrumental or a Capella. Le Boeuf has released several additional albums as a leader of smaller projects including his solo album and book, Vignettes II (2023), and his quintet album, Light as a Word (2019). He is also co-leader of five albums with Le Boeuf Brothers. Le Boeuf’s latest jazz orchestra release, Heartland Radio, was released on March 15, 2024.
He will perform with the KU Jazz Ensemble I led by Dan Gailey, director of Jazz Studies. The program has received 31 DownBeat Student Music Awards, including Jazz Ensemble I’s 2023, 2021, 2019 and 2015 awards in the Graduate Division for Best College Big Band in the United States or Canada, and their Outstanding Performance Awards in the same division in 2022 and 2017.
In April 2022, the band was one of 10 college jazz ensembles invited by Wynton Marsalis to compete in the Rudin Jazz Championship at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, where they were selected as one of five finalists for the evening concert. The ensemble also performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City with internationally acclaimed vocalist Deborah Brown in 2016 and toured Europe with Brown in 2018, performing 10 shows in 13 days, including appearances at three of the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals: the Montreux Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz and the Jazz À Vienne Festival. The band will return to Europe in July 2024, with performances at Umbria Jazz and the San Sebastian (Spain) Jazz Festival, among others.
Jazz Ensemble I has had the distinction of performing with such noted guest artists as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Clark Terry, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Anat Cohen, Sean Jones, Kneebody, Michael Dease, Renee Rosnes, Steve Wilson, Vincent Gardner, Camila Meza, Tia Fuller, Dave Douglas, Louie Bellson, Jeff Coffin, Tim Ries, Peter Erskine, Vince Mendoza, Conrad Herwig, Bob Sheppard, Gary Foster, Steve Houghton, Bob Mintzer, Bobby Shew, Carl Fontana, Dick Oatts, Frank Mantooth, Ingrid Jensen, Jon Hendricks, Pete Christlieb and many others.
