“Piano Man 3”: the return of Christian Marc Gendron to piano bars

With Piano Man 3, Christian Marc Gendron returns to his roots and takes us with him to the American piano bars where he used to play 20 years ago.

On the occasion of his premiere, Thursday evening, at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal, he revisited his great musical successes, but also those of great artists who shaped him, such as David Foster, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Michael Bublé and, of course, his undisputed idol Elton John.

He also wanted to pay tribute, in this last chapter of the trilogy Piano Man, to Quebec crooners such as Raymond Berthiaume (Never forget), Fernand Gignac (Let’s dance the mambo) and Claude Blanchard (What remains of our loves).

Surprise guests

On stage, Christian Marc Gendron has fun, dances and laughs with his audience. He invites him to get up and waddle or to completely let go of his crazy. And to the men who were dragged to his concert by their wives, he dedicated the theme song of hockey night to them, to console them.

To pay homage to French crooners, the virtuoso presented some imitations of his repertoire, put together with the aim of collecting more tips in the piano bars or on the cruise ships on which he performed in the past. His interpretation of Patrick Bruel on the play Place of great men was certainly the most successful, but those of Garou and Mario Pelchat were a great success with the spectators.

At the halfway point, the piano man, who has long been a pianist-accompanist for other artists, including Shania Twain, France D’Amour and Roch Voisine, was joined by his wife, Manon Séguin. Together, they notably sang Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel, but he also left him the floor for the interpretation of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. A solemn moment which allowed the public to see all the dimensions and the power of the singer’s voice, but also to wonder why no one turned around during her blind audition, during the eighth season of The voice^, in 2020.

Christian Marc Gendron ended his presentation with a song that came up every evening in the piano bars, but above all that all Americans knew by heart; in other words an “untouchable” for Quebecers, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel. “I’ve never touched this song. It’s my favorite Billy Joel song, so I worked on it a lot,” he said before setting off.

The musician, also a songwriter, was accompanied on stage by a brass group, a drummer, a guitarist and his friend and bassist Frédéric Beauséjour, with whom he conceived the show and with whom he performed as a duo. Under the chimneysby Richard Séguin.

The show Piano Man 3 will be presented at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal on February 17 and 18, then at the Salle Albert-Rousseau in Quebec City on February 20 and May 11.

Additional ones have been added for mid-September. More details here.