Veteran composer and pianist François Bourassa took advantage of the pandemic to launch his first solo album in 2021, the excellent The impact of silence. Now that the Conovarian nightmare is behind us, the jazzman once again brings together his quartet — André Leroux (saxophones, flute), Guy Boisvert (double bass) and the young Guillaume Pilote (drums) — for Swirl, an album of six new compositions recorded live at Studio Piccolo last summer. An album liveconceived in optimal recording conditions, in the spontaneity of the rich conversations between the leader and his accomplice Leroux (who demonstrates the extent of his register over the long Prologue, almost a suite in three movements). Swing Keys (in the elegant excerpt 15, Notre-Dame-de-Lorettefor example), expected detours towards contemporary music (in the superb Room 58), on the composition side, it’s robust, nourishing, as always with Bourassa. Album launch concert on July 7 at the Dièse Onze, on the bill at the FIJM.
Click here for an excerpt
To see in video