Laurent Doumont

LAURENT DOUMONT is a saxophone player, singer & songwriter from Brussels with a natural inclination for soul and jazz. In the 90’s he took part in Michel Hatzigeorgiou’s tribute to Jaco Pastorius. Around that time, Laurent began a career as a free lance musician, playing in several funk and jazz bands, including some gigs with Fred Wesley.

In 1999, in order to improve his musical skills and culture, he moved to New York, where he took some classes with Chris Potter. He eventually spent two years there, playing and hanging out in jam sessions. When he came back, he played with Boney M, The Gibson Brothers and George Mc Crae during the Disco Night Fever tour. Together with Olivier Bodson and Alain Palizeul, he seized that opportunity to found a horn section which became one the most sought after in Belgium and abroad. Later, a few concerts with Percy Sledge and a musical meeting with James Brown would top their résumé.

Laurent is proud to have been a member of Daniel Romeo’s band from 1999 to 2008, playing the saxophone, writing horns parts, song lyrics and occasionally singing.

From 2003 to 2005 he took part in the Improsessions , an improvised interactive music show based on standard songs played in different styles with improvised lyrics.

Laurent Doumont is now co-leading and playing in The Heavy Muffulettas, a rejoicing New Orleans band with bluesman Marc Lelangue and drummer Patrick Dorcean.

As a matter of fact, the most important part of Laurent Doumont’s work takes place as a leader. He has been leading his own band since 1998, in various formations from quartet to septet featuring musicians such as Daniel Romeo, Adrien Verderame, Patrick Deltenre, Vincent Bruyninckx, Bert Gielen, Bilou Doneux and Oti Van der Werf, joined later by Pali and Olivier, his fellow blowers.

His first album  Soul Quintet was released in 2001.

In 2012, he released his second personal album  Papa Soul Talkin’, produced by Daniel Romeo, featuring Vincent Bruyninckx, Sal La Rocca, Lionel Beuvens and many great guests. In this record, Laurent reveals his various skills as a musician, singer, songwriter and arranger.

Laurent enjoys singing and playing French, Italian and American standards  with Patrick Deltenre (g) and Victor Foulon (db)in his Trio V.O.

He sometimes returns to the alto saxophone to play some rooty soul jazz in his organ quintet Alligator Boogaloo, a tribute to Lou Donaldson.

With his latest album, l’Americano, Laurent looks into his Sicilian descent through 12 great Italian standards form the 1950’s & 60’s, joyfully adapted in a soul-jazz and pop spirit. L’Americano, co-produced with Nicolas Fiszman and featuring Vincent Bruyninckx (k), Lorenzo Di Maio (g), Sam Gerstmans (b) and Adrien Verderame (d) among others, is out since March 21st 2019.

More recently, he invited Lorenzo Di Maio (g), Cédric Raymond (b) and Lionel Beuvens (ds) to gather around the Meanwhile project, a jazz quartet  in which they play a repertoire of Laurent’s brand new compositions.

Gear

Laurent Doumont is happy to play Francois Louis mouthpieces, ligatures and reeds.