“One thing that fascinates me: I began to imagine Bach having a beer at the tavern”, says composer and pianist Gentiane MG, who had arranged to meet us at the local café one rainy morning. . The image makes you smile, but it is very seriously the premise of Walls Made of Glassher third album recorded as a trio and released last Friday: there are these masterpieces so perfectly anchored in our existence, in our collective consciousness, that we forget, as she says, “that there is a human behind all that, and that captivates me”.
No need to know the career of the musician, passed from the Saguenay Music Conservatory (where she studied in the same cohort as the young conductor and founder of the Orchester de l’Agora Nicolas Ellis) to the master’s degree in jazz composition at McGill University, in recognition of his love of classical music. Just listen to this new album and appreciate the research behind its piano orchestrations or the complexity of its melodies to recognize in it the pupil of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, but also of Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Chopin.
A finished work
“Think of the Preludes of Chopin, takes Gentiane as an example. This music, we forget that a human wrote it. It seems like it’s always existed, it’s so perfect — well, not necessarily perfect, but it seems, listening to it, that you can’t change anything, not even a single note. These parts are exactly as they should be. It made me think: could I, me, remove or add something to my compositions? If yes, it means that the work is not finished. »
Walls Made of Glass is, in other words, the most accomplished of his discography. between his previous wonderland (2019) and this fresh album, Gentiane MG has reconnected with the classical and modern music that fascinates her. It jumps to the ears, on the previous one, his accomplices Levi Dover on bass and Louis-Vincent Hamel on drums supported the swing of jazz, the pianist sneaking his harmonic ideas through their carnal playing. On Walls Made of Glass, the rhythm section holds back on purpose, but the work of Dover and Hamel gains in lyricism. On this album, she refined the writing, “the piano orchestrations, I went looking for textures close to those of classical music, but I also wanted the musicians to let themselves go” in the compositions.
Gentiane today holds another musical discourse, made possible by the long months of introspection, even isolation, that we have experienced. “It was extremely inspiring for me, the pandemic, she assures. It gave more meaning to the music because that’s what I want to do by composing, to create meaning, life. And music was even more essential to my life, since there was only that to do […]. I think there’s something stuck with this album, in the sense that I had time to write it. This is also the first time that I could take so much time just to compose. I have the impression of having lived this music” which, by becoming less dense than on his first albums, seems to him more luminous.
A musical liberation
“More inspired too, perhaps? she wonders. You know, when you follow a musical training, you always have this little voice that follows you and says to you: “You should do it like that or like that…” I feel like I’ve freed myself from it . In fact, I feel like focusing on creating for so long has allowed me to tamp down that little voice to express myself as best I can through music. That’s what I hear on the album, a liberation” between jazz and contemporary music, between improvisation and composition.
However, adds Gentiane, “at some point, once created, once recorded, continuing to make sense of music means sharing it” on stage. Opening for jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant a few months ago, during the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Gentiane MG revealed to the public part of Walls Made of Glass. Her fall will be made of reunions: Saturday evening in the hall of the Saguenay Music Conservatory, where she rehearsed so much, then in Quebec (at the Arquemuse school) on Sunday, before a series of concerts in Canada, then a jump in Paris on October 20, hoping to return to play in Mexico City soon.
“Over there, the room is crowded, people are curious. They show an incredible welcome for things they don’t know, something that we would benefit from developing here. Especially since I believe that the public is much more open-minded than we think — on TV and on the radio, we don’t show local artists that much” who make music from creation, whether jazz, modern or somewhere in between. “It’s all in how you present it. »
Walls Made of Glass by Gentiane MG is released on the TPRRecords label.