At his age, he could reside in a CHSLD, ruminating on his old memories.
It’s quite the opposite.
At the age of 83, drummer Guy Thouin is still very active and not at all focused on the past. The concert he will give on May 20 in Victoriaville, with the Ensemble Infini, will be living and vibrant proof of this.
Guy Thuin? We see them scratching their heads. This name tells us something, but what? Well know, as a reminder, that the gentleman was a founding member of the groups Infonie and the Quatuor de jazz libre du Québec (QJLQ) at the end of the 1960s, the first milestones of an almost uninterrupted career, which still lasts today. today.
My gang at the time… are almost all dead. Me, I continue.
Guy Thouin
Sitting in the kitchen of his house in the Rosemont district, this pioneer of free jazz in Quebec has a burning eye and feverish legs. He wakes up. Go down to the cellar. Traced back. Go back down. Asks his companion, Marie. Go from one subject to another. His energy surprises and commands respect.
When asked how he manages to keep in shape, he shrugs.
“It’s not difficult,” he replies. It’s genetic. My mother died at 104, almost 105! I walk. I’m riding a bike. You just have to be careful not to overdo it. Beware of tendonitis. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY GUY THOUIN
Guy Thouin with Robert Charlebois, at the Olympia in Paris, in 1969
with young people
Drummer for Robert Charlebois during his wildest years, including during the cult Osstidsho and legendary performances at the Olympia in Paris, Thouin experienced the great years of effervescence freak Kebek with a K.
He lived in India in the mid-1970s “to find karma yoga” and learn the art of tablas. Accompanied Raôul Duguay and Pauline Julien during their period of glory. Been a sought after studio musician. Then the “new age” scene, with other trippers, like him, focused on Indian spirituality and philosophy.
But the free jazz has always been part of him. So much so that at the end of the 1990s, he reconnected with his first love by founding the heArt Ensemble (which would go through various incarnations), then the Nouveau Jazz libre du Québec.
Since then it is jam uninterrupted. From his basement, where he built a soundproof rehearsal room, Guy Thouin multiplies his encounters with the cream of the new generation of jazz musicians in Montreal, most of whom are less than half his age.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY GUY THOUIN
Guy Thouin just before leaving for India in January 1971
From Infonia to Infinity
These collaborations, centered on improvisation and free, gave birth to all kinds of original projects, which allowed him to stay at the forefront and keep his place at the center of the underground scene.
Of the lot, we will mention the vinyl lockdown, launched this spring (with saxophonist Aaron Leaney), the sessions From the Basement (with, among others, saxophonist Félix-Antoine Hamel) whose best moments are regularly “posted” on the Internet and, of course, the Ensemble Infini, which will be performing in a few days at the Festival international de musique contemporaine de Victoriaville.
For the record, this orchestra of nine musicians (including four tenor saxophones), coordinated by guitarist and trumpeter Raphaël Foisy-Couture and conducted by saxophonist Elyze Vennes-Deshaies, was set up in the fall of 2022 for a concert tribute to Infonie, given as part of the film’s release The unfinished Infonia, filmed in 1974.
For the drummer, a great way to link the past to the present… while questioning the future. “I have no idea where this project is going,” he says, smirking.
“The off from off »
Can we speak of a second wind? “No, because I never stopped,” he replies.
If we hear less about him, it is perhaps, quite simply, that his music is too radical to reach the general public. In almost 60 years of career, this emulator of the mad drummer Milford Graves has made few concessions, because of his fundamentally “anti-establishment” spirit and his “permanent desire for freedom” … even if it means remaining on the sidelines.
“I am the off of the off”, he summarizes, lucid.
The good news is that it’s not getting better. Armed with his surprising vitality and his patented drum kit (including a broken cymbal dating from the 1960s), Guy Thouin has no intention of softening up and even less of softening up.
“The more I do, the more demanding I am,” he says. The older I get, the less I compromise. »
It is not at 83, in fact, that one begins to conform. Especially when you have a background like his. A matter of principle. Free A day, free always…
Ensemble Infini, which will perform at the Festival international de musique contemporaine de Victoriaville, Saturday, May 20 at 3 p.m., at Salle F. Lemaire.