Céline Bonacina does things slightly differently. One day, she decided to take up the baritone sax, an instrument that is not played as much as alto or tenor. The French artist originally made the decision because she wanted to play Bach’s cello suites at the right pitch. However, she liked the big sax so much that it soon became her trademark as she conquered stages everywhere, mainly with a number of big bands. She won various prizes along the way, including the Concours national de jazz de la Défense. But it was only on the island of Réunion that she started to see music as a way of life; which explains the title of her international debut, Way Of Life (2010). Bonacina has now released four albums as a bandleader. She recorded the latest, Crystal Rain (2016), with her Crystal Quartet, literally a cross-border group made up of international musicians.
