Jultrane discovered Đà Nẵng, the port city on Vietnam’s central coast, in 2025 and felt an immediate bond with the place. The tune he has named after it pays tribute to the whole country, setting the bustle of its streets, the sea and the surrounding mountains to warm, upbeat jazz.

“Đà Nẵng” is the first single from Confirmation, the French-Senegalese tenor saxophonist’s fourth album, due on 13 November. He wrote its compositions across Asia, Africa and French Polynesia, drawing on the people he met along the way, and at 38 describes the record as the start of a new chapter. His regular band plays on it, with Cyril Galamini on trombone and arrangements, Renaud Gensane on trumpet and flugelhorn, Fred d’Oelsnitz on piano and Gabriel Pierre on double bass, joined by guests Christian Altehülshorst on trumpet and Baptiste Herbin on alto saxophone. The album launches at Le Duc des Lombards in Paris on 30 November, with a second date in Saint-Raphaël on 11 December.

Born Julien Ndiaye, he started on the recorder at four and the alto saxophone at seven, then studied jazz in Embrun, Nice and Cannes, where he took his jazz saxophone diploma in 2013 with the jury’s unanimous congratulations. His stage name joins the start of his first name to “Trane”, after the trains he has loved since childhood and his idol John Coltrane. Coltrane runs through his previous two albums on the French label Jazz Family: Jultrane Plays John (2025) and Miles & John, The Century Birthday, released this spring for the centenaries of Coltrane and Miles Davis. For “Đà Nẵng” he turned to another giant of that era, modelling the drums on those of Art Blakey.

Listen to “Đà Nẵng” HERE