Nigeria: Jowee Omicil at Jazzablanca: A “borderless” sound that connects Haiti, Africa and Hip-Hop

By Zuleihat Owuiye, Nigeria

On the stage of Jazzablanca this week, the sound of the saxophone met the rhythms of West Africa, American hip-hop, and Caribbean islands. Leading the mix was Canadian saxophonist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jowee Omicil, who performed tracks from his new album _sMiLes_ as part of a wider African tour.

For Omicil, the concert was more than a festival set. It was the latest stop in what he calls a “borderless auditory passport” — music designed to travel across cultures without losing its roots.

“It’s an album that’s somewhat borderless,” Omicil said ahead of the show. “The goal of _sMiLes_ was precisely to give people this borderless auditory passport. You hear the sound of Africa, the sound of America with hip-hop, and also the sound of the islands.

Jazzablanca, now in its annual summer run in Casablanca, is one of North Africa’s biggest music festivals. This year’s lineup mixes jazz purists with pop and rock headliners, drawing both dedicated fans and curious first-timers.

Omicil’s appearance fits the festival’s stated mission: to connect jazz with broader audiences through an eclectic program. He arrived in Morocco after earlier stops in Benin and Ghana, tracing a route that reflects his deep engagement with African musical traditions.

On stage, that engagement was audible. Horn lines borrowed from jazz improvisation sat alongside percussion patterns rooted in West African grooves. At moments, the band dropped into hip-hop inflected beats before lifting back into melodic passages that recalled the Caribbean.

The crowd responded to the movement between styles. For many in attendance, the performance illustrated how jazz, often described as an American art form, has long been in conversation with the African continent.

Released earlier this year, _sMiLes_ is conceived as a sonic journey. Omicil wrote and produced the project to reflect the places and people that have shaped him — born in Canada to Haitian parents, trained in jazz, and drawn for years to African music.

The album does not try to fuse everything into one sound. Instead, it moves. One track might lean into highlife guitar. Another might carry the swing of a jazz quartet. A third might layer in hip-hop drums.

“I love weaving in melodies and nods to different sounds, and letting the listener discover them,” Omicil said. “It’s not about labeling. It’s about feeling at home in different places at once.”

That approach was clear in Casablanca, where he moved between saxophone, flute, and vocals, often within the same song.

Trip to Ghana” began as a tribute to Malian icon Oumou Sangaré. Omicil originally wrote it with her voice in mind. The final version keeps that spirit, with rolling guitar patterns and call-and-response phrasing that echo Ghanaian highlife.

“I have so much admiration for the great figures of African music,” he said. “Writing for Oumou was a way to honor that lineage.”

He also performed “La lettre du Mali pour Jonathan,” a piece inspired by Mandinka musical traditions. The track builds around cyclical melodies and a steady rhythmic pulse, with Omicil’s saxophone tracing lines that feel both composed and improvised.

Beyond the saxophone, Omicil hinted at where he is heading next. He has been spending more time at the piano, working on solo material. A new solo piano album is in progress and expected next year.

“It’s a different kind of intimacy,” he said of the piano work. “With saxophone you’re always in dialogue with a band. With piano alone, it’s just you and the silence.

This year’s Jazzablanca edition continues through the month, with a program that pairs jazz acts with major international pop and rock names. Headliners include Robbie Williams, Mika, and the Scorpions — a mix that organizers say is intended to bring new audiences to jazz spaces.

For Omicil, that mix makes sense. “Jazz has always borrowed and shared,” he said. “If someone comes for a pop show and stays for a saxophone solo, that’s a win.”

Festival-goers in Casablanca seemed to agree. Between sets, groups discussed the connections they heard — a drum pattern that sounded like Accra, a horn line that felt like Port-au-Prince, a groove that could have come from New York.

Omicil’s career has been built on that in-between space. Classically trained but self-directed, he has played with jazz legends while also collaborating with hip-hop and R&B artists. He speaks often about music as a form of diplomacy.

The African tour has reinforced that idea for him. In Benin, he played to audiences familiar with Afrobeat and voodoo rhythms. In Ghana, he connected with highlife musicians. In Morocco, he found listeners open to Gnawa influences and jazz improvisation.

“Every place teaches you something,” he said. “Africa teaches you about rhythm as language. The islands teach you about melody as story. America teaches you about reinvention.”

He plans to return to the studio after the tour to finish the piano album, but says he will carry the lessons of this trip into the recordings.

As Jazzablanca continues, Omicil’s set will likely be remembered less for technical fireworks and more for its message: that music does not need a single origin story.