Think Big

Made up of Raphaël Quenehen on saxophone, Ben LaMar Gay on trumpet & Thibault Cellier on double bass from the collective Les Vibrants Défricheurs and Mike Reed, drummer and composer, hyper-activist on the Chicago’s scene and member of the AACM plus Ben Lamar Gay, his long-time partner, trumpetist and multi-instrumentalist coming from the same galaxy, this quartet is a furiously lively field for experimentation and involvement. The music is thought as a patchwork of musical pictures, a post-modern and contemporary look at jazz story – as an emancipatory artistic language. Compositions will be brought by the four musicians and improvisation will be the joyful link between those pieces.

25/06/2023 | Hungry Brain | 2319 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL | 9pm CST
1 set Think Big (Mike Reed, Ben Lamar Gay, Thibault Cellier, Raphaël Quenehen), 2nd set Thibault Cellier & Raphaël Quenehen with Jason Stein 

26/06/2023 | Elastic Hearts “Anagram Series” | 3429 West Diversey Avenue, Chicago, IL | 8pm CST
Anagram Series with Thibault Cellier & Raphaël Quenehen

28/06/2023 | Cafe Mustache | 2313 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 | 9pm CST
Thibault Cellier & Raphaël Quenehen with Fred Jackson and Hunter Diamond 

30/06/2023 | Comfort Station | 2579 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60647  | 7:30pm CST
Thibault Cellier & Raphaël Quenehen with Tomeka Reid and Josh Berman 

01/07/2023 | Constellation |  3111 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL | 9pm CST
Think Big new version (Mike Reed, Ben Lamar Gay, Thibault Cellier, Raphaël Quenehen)

Think Big was supported for its creation by the Jazz & New Music fund, a program of Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, in partnership with the French Embassy in the United States with support from the French Ministry of Culture, Institut français, SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique) and the CNM (Centre National de la Musique). The residency and tour in Chicago is supported by the French Institute and Normandy Region and the CNM.