Career
Over the course of his career Omicil has played with a number of prominent musicians such as Branford Marsalis, Richard Bona, Kenny Garrett, Marcus Miller, Pharoah Sanders, Wyclef Jean, Harold Faustin, André 3000, Saul Williams among others. In July 2018 Omicil served as master of ceremonies at a tribute concert celebrating Quincy Jones' 85th birthday at Montreux, Switzerland. Omicil appears in the Damien Chazelle-created Netflix show The Eddy. During the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 Omicil released a solo album, LeKture, and Y Pati, a duet with the American Hollywood pianist Randy Kerber, whom he met on the set of the series The Eddy. Y Pati was released in December 2020. Also, the "Big In Jazz Collective" was born with the release in July 2021 of the Album Global. At the end of 2020 Jowee returned to the studio with brothers Louis and François Moutin. They recorded M.O.M, which was released in September 2021 on Laborie Jazz Records.
In 2023, Omicil released Spiritual Healing: Bwa Kayiman Freedom Suite a free jazz album inspired by an 18th-century Vodou ceremony held in the woods of Bois Caïman that helped give rise to the Haitian Revolution. When no label would release it, he founded BasH! Village Records, proving authenticity transforms obstacles into triumphs. The suite went on to become one of the year's most celebrated releases, praised by The Guardian, BBC, Jazzwise, Jazzthing among many others.
Later, he released sMiLes, his eleventh album, on 11 November 2025. The album, accompanied by Omicil's podcast The PoDBasH! over 11 months, features 11 tracks plus a bonus piece and includes a collaboration with Canadian-Haitian vocalist Dominique Fils-Aimé. sMiLes continues Omicil's exploration of jazz, free improvisation, hip hop, Haitian roots, and, as Gilles Peterson describes, his BasH! Energy Music. “sMiLes” got selected among the finalists for France's “Prix Joséphine,” an award that celebrates genre-defying, diverse and creative music, and earned wide acclaim in international publications like like Rolling Stone, Die Zeit, Downbeat Magazine, FIP, France Inter/Radio France, Jazz Times, L'Humanité and many more.
Two more albums follow in 2026: “OM,” a blueprint of Afro-Caribbean jazz duet with Francisco Mela, and “Chi Va PiaNo,” a solo piano album he himself has long been longing to release.
Aside from music, Jowee Omicil expresses his artistry on screen, appearing in Damien Chazelle's Netflix series “The Eddy,” and portraying Sammy Davis Jr. in “Mr. Aznavour” alongside Tahar Rahim.
As a mentor at the Montreux Academy, he passed his knowledge on to the next generation of talented musicians. He later founded his own BasH! AkademY, a nomadic school with no fixed home, through which he now encourages students and audiences toward self-expression.
