Born Joseph Omicil, Jr. on December 1, 1977, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the jazz multi-instrumentalist is better known by his stage name, Jowee Omicil. At the age of 15, his father enrolled him in music school and, after choosing to study on piano, he was convinced to learn to play the alto-saxophone instead. Three years later, he was given a scholarship to Boston, Massachusetts’ Berklee College of Music, majoring in Music Education. He then studied at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, where he began to catch the attention of others in the jazz community. Eventually, Jowee Omicil also learned to play the soprano and bass clarinet, the piccolo flute, trumpet, electric bass, and other instruments. He began to play with many high-profile artists including Marcus Miller, Branford Marsalis, Wyclef Jean, Kenny Garrett, and many others. Jowee Omicil’s recording career as a bandleader began in 2006 with Let’s Do This, which was followed by acclaimed albums such as Roots and Grooves (2009), Naked (2014), and Let’s Bash! (2017). His reputation grew internationally and, in 2018, he served as the master of ceremonies at an 85th birthday tribute to Quincy Jones in Montreux, Switzerland. He also began collaborating on recordings by artists such as Kyle Eastwood, Kazy Lambist, GUTS, Ibrahim Maalouf, Anissa Altmayer, Sopico, and others. His solo career continued with albums such as Love Matters! (2018), Y Pati featuring pianist Randy Kerber (2020), M. O. M. featuring drummer Louis Moutin and bassist François Moutin (2021), and LeKture (2023). Jowee Omicil has also worked on several soundtracks including the documentary Ayiti Toma, The Land of the Living (2013) and the Netflix show The Eddy (2020). He became a member of the Big In Jazz Collective and released the album Global in 2021. Jowee Omicil released the critically acclaimed 2024 album SpiriTuaL HeaLinG: Bwa KaYimaN FreeDoM SuiTe, which was inspired by a group of enslaved Haitians who held secret Vodou ceremonies that planted the seeds for the Haitian Revolution in 1791. Based in Paris, he collaborated with drummer Arnaud Dolmen and bassist Michel Alibo on Poets of Forest (2025), followed later that same year by sMiLes, featuring Ludovic Louis, Malika Zarra and Dominique Fils-Aimé.
