Last Sunday, trumpeter and buglist Rachel Therrien was at the Grammy gala in Los Angeles, responding to the invitation of Arturo O’Farrill, leader of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra of which Rachel has been a member since 2018 and who has made a stir , for two hours, the bonzes of the music industry immediately after the ceremony.
The day before, she played at the Moulinet in Terrebonne, with her five musicians, most of Mi Hogar vol. 1, which means My house, his new project. Shift guaranteed!
In addition, on December 17, the snowblower joined the house band from the prestigious American late night show Saturday Night Live at the invitation of Lenny Pickett, saxophonist and musical director of the renowned ensemble. All thanks to his New York contacts, his frequent visits and his base in Brooklyn. “I fund my projects by playing with other artists,” she reveals. By her own admission, she doesn’t get the recognition she deserves, but these two events tend to prove just the opposite!
These days, it is the nomination of The Ostara Project, a collective of pan-Canadian jazz musicians of which she is a member, who is in the running for the Juno awards presented on March 13th.
Mi Hogar vol. 1the Afro-Latin project
The seven pieces concocted by the 20 Latin musicians with restless blood, in addition to Mélissa Lavergne and her oozing percussions, all invited to the sessions in Montreal, Toronto and New York, are subtle and surprisingly vigorous. “It’s the first time I’ve incorporated jazz and classical into my recordings,” says Rachel Therrien, nose in her suitcase before leaving for Los Angeles.
Capricho Arabic sets the tone for the first notes. The arrangements of the musician on a classical piece by the Spanish guitarist Francisco Tárrega are of a tenfold virility, with some escapes of danzón. “I love the sound of the classical guitar and I wanted to challenge myself to arrange the piece in Latin jazz, which was able to highlight [le bassiste québécois] Alex Bellegarde, my sidekick since adolescence. »
It remains in very Latin patterns. “It’s the music that makes me the happiest to play on a stage! My compositions are mainly focused on melody and percussion. And then I add the meat in the middle [rires].
“With the flugelhorn, it’s the same sound texture, the same register of notes as on the trumpet, but the sound is much rounder, wider”, adds the one who masters the consummate art of staging obvious compositions. .
For me, the trumpet is the instrument that comes closest to the voice: it is an amplifier of what we blow with our muscles and our sound box. These are the same breathing techniques as when singing.
Rachel Therrien, trumpeter
In added value, Venezuelan pianist Gabriel Chakarji lets loose on Mojo in the pure tradition of the mythical Irakere and other Cuban legends. “It took me five albums before I made the record I always wanted to make,” she admits. Mi Hogar vol. 1 is my sixth, but with the feel of the first. It is the independent New York label Outside In Music that publishes it.
Cuba, land of mixtures and encounters
Rachel Therrien studied in Cuba in 2008 at the Higher Institute of Art, in Havana. “I arrived there with a lot of lack of confidence,” admits the 35-year-old musician, who spent her childhood in Rimouski and was part of a drum and bugle corps group during her youth. “I was about to give up music. Some people told me that I had no future. We talk about Latin machismo, but in truth, it is in North America that I have been closed the most doors. »
With less burning visions, but with an equally dense romanticism, with the feline dexterity of his approach, we savor his clever arrangements on Moment’s Notice by John Coltrane and Con Alma by Dizzy Gillespie. The latter opened the doors to Western musicians in Fidel’s country.
I have always felt good in this community which welcomes me with open arms. Everything that is born in music and collaborations in Cuba always remains a bit hybrid.
Rachel Therrien, trumpeter
On April 19, she will land in Paris at the Sunset Jazz Club to rub shoulders with French musicians, then at the end of July, the unmissable Jazz in Marciac will meet on her route, still in France, in order to pass on their knowledge during workshops.
With a career always in motion in the turns, she shows surprising consistency, in addition to leading almost three careers at the same time. You will have to hold on to follow it.
Album launch Wednesday, March 15, O Patro Vys, 8 p.m.
latin jazz
Mi Hogar Vol. 1
Rachel Therrien
Outside In Music