Céline Bonacina is a French saxophonist and composer, born in Belfort on July 23, 1975, who is known above all as a baritone saxophone soloist and bandleader. She came from a family of musicians and began saxophone lessons in childhood, taking the classical course at the conservatoires of Belfort, Besançon and Paris; she later earned a state teaching certificate in saxophone and a state diploma in jazz. From 1996 to 1998 she played baritone saxophone in several Paris big bands, and she then spent seven years on the island of La Réunion, teaching saxophone at the conservatoire in Saint-Denis and playing at festivals around the Indian Ocean. French Wikipedia adds that she played there in the reggae group Natty Dread, and English Wikipedia says the rhythms of the island shaped her later writing.

Her first record under her own name, Vue d'en Haut, was recorded in July 2005 at the Jacaranda Music studio on La Réunion with the keyboardist Didier Makaga, the double bassist Lionel Guillemin and the drummer Hary Ratsimbazafy, and was released that year. After returning to metropolitan France she formed the Céline Bonacina Trio, which won the group prize at the Concours national de jazz de La Défense in 2007 and the Tremplin Rezzo at Jazz à Vienne in 2009. That led to the German label ACT: Way of Life (ACT, 2010), recorded in Lausanne in February 2010 with the electric bassist Nicolas Garnier and Ratsimbazafy and with the guitarist Nguyên Lê as guest on four tracks, and the trio played the JazzFest Berlin in November 2010. In 2012 she was one of the soloists on The ACT Jubilee Concert, recorded on February 5, 2012 at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, where she plays baritone saxophone on six pieces with a band led by the trombonist Nils Landgren that includes the bassist Lars Danielsson, the guitarist Nguyên Lê, the pianists Michael Wollny and Leszek Możdżer, and the drummer Wolfgang Haffner.

Open Heart (ACT, 2013), again produced by Nguyên Lê, was recorded in Paris in March 2012 with the electric bassist Kevin Reveyrand and Ratsimbazafy, the singer Himiko Paganotti, the vibraphonist Pascal Schumacher and the percussionist Mino Cinelu, and on Discogs she is credited as composer of eight of its twelve tracks. For the sextet that toured the record she added the singer Leïla Martial, the vibraphonist Illya Amar and the percussionist Nicolas Leroy, and English Wikipedia says the band played Jazz à Vienne and Jazz in Marciac. French Wikipedia also records her selection for the Take Five Europe programme in 2012 and a Talent Jazz Adami award in 2013. In April 2013 she recorded Voix croisées with the bassist Didier Levallet's quintet (Frémeaux & Associés), and in 2017 she is the baritone saxophonist on Julien Lourau's Julien Lourau & The Groove Retrievers.

With the Crystal Quartet she turned to a more acoustic line-up: Crystal Rain (Cristal Records, 2016), recorded in Meudon in August 2015 with the British pianist Gwilym Simcock, the double bassist Chris Jennings and the drummer Asaf Sirkis. German Wikipedia says DownBeat's critics' poll named her a Rising Star in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and the quartet won the audience prize of the BMW Welt Jazz Award in Munich in 2019. Fly Fly (Cristal, 2019), recorded in May 2019, has Jennings, the drummer and singer Jean-Luc Di Fraya and, on six of its tracks, the guitarist Pierre Durand, with a mix by Nguyên Lê. In 2021 she reissued Vue d'en Haut with a re-recorded drum part, and she plays in the organist Rhoda Scott's Lady All Stars, whose album was released on Baco Records in 2022.

Jump! (Cristal, September 15, 2023) is a quartet record with the pianist and keyboardist Rachel Eckroth, Jennings and the drummer John Hadfield, and it earned her a nomination in the instrumental artist category of the 22nd Victoires du Jazz in 2024, a category won that year by the pianist Pierre de Bethmann. On June 28, 2025 she played the music of Jump! at JazzBaltica with the pianist Julian Caetano, Jennings and the drummer Stéphane Galland, in a concert filmed for ZDF. In September 2026 she is the baritone saxophonist of Solaxis (Inside Air), a saxophone-led record by the alto saxophonist Lisa Cat-Berro with Sophie Alour on tenor, Géraldine Laurent on alto, Camille Maussion on soprano and a bass and drums rhythm section. She also teaches saxophone at the conservatoire in Alençon, according to her Selmer artist page.

Bonacina's records are placed in jazz by French and English Wikipedia, ACT and Discogs, which tags Way of Life as contemporary jazz, Open Heart as fusion and Crystal Rain as post-bop; her own site calls today's jazz, as she plays it, an energetic, festive and sensitive music "en fusion". What sets her apart is the instrument and the role she gives it: in his All About Jazz review of Open Heart (February 6, 2013), Bruce Lindsay praised her for making the baritone saxophone a lead voice rather than a background rhythm instrument, with a dark, rich low register and a sweeter upper one, and he found her at home in funk, up-tempo and ballad settings. She also plays soprano and alto, and she sings and plays percussion such as the kayamb, a Réunion rattle, on some of her records. The years in La Réunion left a mark in her rhythms and in titles and voices, but her bands are jazz groups built around her own compositions, with guests such as Nguyên Lê, Mino Cinelu and Pascal Schumacher, and she is not a maloya or traditional-music artist. Her sideman work, from Nils Landgren's Funk Unit and Julien Lourau's funk and Latin band to Didier Levallet's quintet and Rhoda Scott's all-star group, stays inside the same jazz and jazz-funk world.