Olivier Temime

Born in Aix-en-Provence in 1974, Olivier Temime was largely self-taught before in 1996 earning the gold medal of Marseille’s jazz class. A tenor saxophonist, also active on soprano, Temime develops a language located between hard bop, soul jazz, free jazz and grooves nourished by rhythm and blues, with a dense, mobile playing style and a strong emphasis on improvisation. Identified as early as the 1990s, notably with the Jazz Futur 90 competition and the Tremplin de La Défense in 1997, he subsequently entered the circuits of jazz festivals and clubs in France and Europe. His career alternates solo projects and collective work, especially with The Volunteered Slaves, a group where band energy, funk pulse and open writing intersect. In his discography are Le Douze (1998), Saï Saï Saï (2003), Streetwise (2005), Breakfast in Babylon (2009), The Intruder (2010), Ripcord (2017), SpaceShipOne (2021) and Inner Songs (2023). Over the years, Temime has also played with musicians such as Emmanuel Bex, Billy Hart, Paco Séry, Cyril Atef or Stéphane Belmondo, in an aesthetic that links jazz tradition, freedom of phrasing and contemporary rhythmic explorations.