Founded by composer and trumpeter Jacques Kuba Séguin “to celebrate jazz and instrumental music”, the Montreal Odd Sound festival will offer around ten concerts starting this evening, until its grand finale on April 30, a date recognized by UNESCO since 2012 as International Jazz Day. In the spotlight of this third edition, the Quebec record label Effendi Records, born 25 years ago thanks to the work of composer and bassist Alain Bédard and his colleagues.
After the opening concert, offered this evening at the Gesù by the National Jazz Orchestra and its American guest Donny McCaslin, the artists associated with Effendi Records will take the stage one after the other: François Bourassa on April 14, the Jazzlab Orchestra on the 17th, the Auguste Quartet, conducted by Alain Bédard, and, finally, the concert on 25e Effendi’s birthday at the Lion d’Or with the cream of local jazz, Félix Stüssi and the SuperNova project, the essential Bourassa, Kuba Séguin, the revelation of jazz piano Gentiane MG and a few others, followed by the session of final improvisation.
The label played, and still plays after a quarter of a century, an essential role in the influence of Quebec jazz by publishing albums by local musicians, if not by giving a helping hand to others with distribution or organization. of tours. Effendi is also the image of an elusive Quebec jazz sound, modern and versatile, “from the repertoire to contemporary jazz,” says Alain Bédard. “The market for jazz is not huge in Quebec, so you have to make do and learn to play all kinds of styles. If the label had been created in France or the United States, we would not have the same approach. »
« Alex Dutilh, host at Radio France [l’émission Open jazz] and critic, has already told me: “It’s interesting, you make a more lyrical jazz than what we do in France.” In this sense, [notre son] is perhaps closer to that of Italian jazz than French. »
The aesthetic versatility of Quebec jazz makes it difficult to affix a label or an intrinsic personality, agrees Alain Bédard, who nevertheless notes a characteristic specific to the record company that he still manages today: “At Effendi, we make creative music, that is to say, I like musicians to offer their own compositions” rather than revisiting standards. “Afterwards, it’s certain that in terms of sound, we don’t have our own studio like people [de la légendaire étiquette américaine] Blue Note at the time, but we found our own way of doing things, and our visual identity, impressionist and modern since the release, in 1999, of Effendi’s very first album, Common signalby composer and pianist Yves Léveillé.
25 years ago, the local scene was not devoid of production and publishing structures for jazz albums (Justin Time Records, founded in Montreal in 1983, Lost Chart, now defunct), but they did not could not accommodate all the projects. At that time, Alain Bédard was in charge of the small concert hall at Saint-Sulpice, rue Saint-Denis, who invited players from the jazz scene to perform there: “Musicians confided to me that they encountered difficulties in producing their albums. I was asked: “Why don’t you leave one label ?” Originally, Effendi was a collective of around ten musicians who set it up, but once [le tout] launched, I found myself managing the structure alone with Carole » Therrien, soprano, who was launching her album Oracle in 2003.
In 25 years, Effendi Records has launched more than 170 albums and organized nearly 125 tours, here and in Europe, garnering nearly 90 distinctions (Félix, Juno, Opus Prize from the Conseil québécois de la musique, etc.). The record company published the first albums of saxophonist Christine Jensen (Collage2000), by pianist and keyboardist Daniel Thouin (Organic2001), by saxophonist Rémi Bolduc (Renaissance2001) and pianist and teacher Rafael Zaldivar (Life Directions2010), among others.
The greatest commercial success of this label, which exists primarily to serve the scene? A tribute album to André Gagnon, entitled Lullaby for Philou, bringing together, among others, Oliver Jones, Julie Lamontagne, Lorraine Desmarais, Coral Egan and François Bourassa. And for the record, this man we see on the album cover, photographed from behind, bent over the keyboard of a grand piano, happens to be Maurin Auxéméry, director of programming for the International Festival jazz band from Montreal (and the Francos) since 2022, who formerly worked for Effendi Records.
The Odd Sound festival will run until April 30.