At the age of 17, Stéphane Guillaume entered the world of jazz, performing alongside Jean Bonal, Jacques Vidal and Ted Hawke... At the same time, he won 1st prize in classical saxophone at the Paris Conservatoire. His time in François Jeanneau's jazz class enabled him to meet and play with musicians such as Randy Weston, George Russell, Dave Liebman...
In September 1994, Laurent Cugny invited him to join the Orchestre National de Jazz, with whom he recorded three albums. This orchestra gave him the opportunity to meet Lucky Peterson, Tommy Smith, Maria Schneider and Enrico Rava...
In 1996, he produced the album "Miage", his first recording under his own name, but it was his sideman activities that predominated. He went on to perform in a variety of musical adventures: the "Y'aka Sax" quartet (1996-2002), David Patrois' quintet (1997-1999), Laurent Cugny's "Big-Band Lumière" (1997-2001), Patrice Caratini's "Jazz Ensemble" (1997-2003), Stéphane Huchard's quintet (1997-2003), Umberto Pagnini's "Cricca" (1998-2002), Gueorgui Kornazov's quintet (1998-2005), Frédéric Favarel's quintet (1999-2003), Claude Nougaro ("Embarquement Immédiat" tour 2000-2001), Pierre Bertrand and Nicolas Folmer's "Paris-Jazz Big-Band" (2000-2012), Didier Lockwood's "New Quartet" (2002-2007), Christian Escoudé's septet (2003-2006), Christophe Wallemme's quintet (2003-2007), Hervé Sellin's tentet (2005-2009), Vince Mendoza's « Blauklang Project » (2008), Carine Bonnefoy's « New Large Ensemble » (2009-2013), Frédéric Monino's « All the Way » quartet (2011-2013)…
In 2004, the release of the album "Soul Role" revived his leadership skills.
After forming a quartet with Frédéric Favarel (gt), Marc Buronfosse (cb) and Antoine Banville (bt), another project under his own name saw the light of day with the release of the album "Intra-Muros" in 2006.
In 2008, following a residency at the Opéra de Lyon, he came up with an entirely new idea: Stéphane's original quartet would dialogue with a Brass Band of seven brass players, all exceptional soloists. The arrangements and orchestrations created for the occasion were recorded in the studio in June 2008. These sessions are featured on the album "Windmills Chronicles", released in October 2009.
That same year, the Académie du Jazz awarded him the prestigious "Django Reinhart" prize for best French musician of the year, as well as the prize for best French record of the year for "Windmills Chronicles".
