This article was originally published at All About Jazz in December 2001.

Belgian alto saxophonist Stephane Mercier tolerates no boundaries. "I listened to some cheesy things when I was young—I don't mind. If I like something, I just put it," he proclaims about his approach to music. A new talent in the jazz world, Mercier just released his first album, Flor De Luna, this year on Fresh Sound Records. Already, Mercier displays maturity as a songwriter and conceptualist. His horn style juxtaposes an angular attack with cool school elements. From his formative musical experiences to his debut album and subsequent projects, Mercie's musicianship has reflected an unfettered attitude and openness to all tastes.

Early Influences

"It was, like, '81, so in 1981 you had saxophone all over on radio and television. It was the new instrument, like, fashionable instrument... I picked it up for that... I was eleven, you know. I wanted to be hip," confesses Mercier of his impetus to play the alto saxophone. The youthful desire to be cool aside, more substantive influences—early exposure to music at home, the nature of Belgian musical culture, and extensive higher education—also shaped Mercie's trajectory as a jazz horn-player.

Mercier benefited from a musically inclined family. Through his father, a journalist and lyric writer for national radio and TV in Belgium, he had access to a lot of different music. Moreover, his dad's occupation provided him some early tastes of the studio world. But it was from his mother that his eagerness to learn music and practice received encouragement. "She always thought I was an artist or whatever, so pushed me in that direction," says Mercier of his mother. While alto saxophone is his main ax today, the drums were his first instrument. As a youth, he played drums for seven years. Not surprisingly, this early concentration on percussion has ramifications on Mercie's horn playing now. He explains, "I usually get along with drummers because we play off each other. Remember: I was a drummer to start with. Usually drummers know they can play with me rhythms." Interestingly, family consensus also contributed to Mercier's choice of saxophone: "My brother was a guitarist, so, and my sister was playing the piano, actually. And then it would be complete if I would play a blowing instrument, you know. So we kind of decided together, as a family thing."

Growing up in Brussels, Belgium, by default Mercier listened to a lot of French singers and English pop—U2, Simple Minds, Level 42. Mercier elucidates that "in Belgium there is no musical culture. The folk music is too old and not played anymore. So we have basic French chansons, which I was totally a fan. I listened to a lot of French singers like Jacques Brel. (He's Belgian actually, Jacques Brel is. He's not French.) Francis Cabrel. Anyway I was listening a lot to that. And then English pop as well." Mercier didn't really begin to listen to jazz until around age 14 when his classical saxophone instructor reluctantly provided him with a list of sanctioned swing masters—Ellington,