Created in 1978 and presented every four years, the Route du rhum is a solo sailing race between Saint-Malo, in Brittany, and Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe. The last edition — won by Frenchman Charles Caudrelier, who broke a record with his transatlantic crossing of 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds — ended on November 16. Around the time when the Montreal octet Jazzlab Orchestra was to make its own crossing in the Caribbean archipelago, a tour postponed precisely so as not to pass in the shadow of the main masts of the 138 participating boats which monopolize all the attention there- down.
Alain Bédard, composer, bassist, leader of the Jazzlab and founder of the Effendi label, doesn’t mind, firstly because he admits to being a rum lover himself (a refined man!), then because instead, the orchestra will go there in January, to give six concerts and two masterclasses. The anecdote covers a year 2022 made up of postponed parts for the Jazzlab Orchestra, which will present for the first time at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec, then on December 10 at the Outremont theater in Montreal, the original material of LOGUSLABUSMUZIKUSalbum released a year ago.
“In fact, we played it once already in Quebec, but it was during the pandemic, so we could only receive about twenty people in the room. It looked pretty empty, says Alain Bédard. Then, we had a concert scheduled at Outremont on the 1er April, but four musicians fell ill. I had to hire four new musicians at the last minute, so we hadn’t played the repertoire from the new album. »
Part postponed, this time with the full orchestra: Mario Allard, Annie Dominique and Claire Devlin (saxophones), Jacques Kuba Seguin (trumpet), Thomas Morelli-Bernard (trombone), Félix Stussi (piano), Michel Lambert (drums) and Bedard (bass). The band is well established, having just returned from a European tour and then a detour to Western Canada. And, yes, “it feels good to be back on the road, after two years of pandemic”, breathes Alain Bédard, who took advantage of the forced break to compose (under his pen name, Auguste Le Prez) the material for LOGUSLABUSMUZIKUS.
“I composed during the pandemic, like everyone else. It’s the only thing we could do, says Bédard. For the Jazzlab, I had already composed a few pieces, but never a complete repertoire. It was gratifying, and it was also a challenge for me since I wrote a lot for small formations, like the Auguste Quartet, but it was a first for me to write for the Jazzlab. Not easy. I would even say that it’s more difficult to write for eight musicians than for one. big band. In an octet, each musician is in high demand, whereas in a big band, we write for sections of musicians. Each musician must give his maximum. The risk of errors is greater and the music needs to be well written so that each instrument exploits its melodic possibilities. Then I did a lot of research to write counterpoints. »
These last weeks spent on the stages have allowed the octet to put Bédard’s rich repertoire into its own hands, and even to develop it on stage, as the European public has seen. Happy coincidence, on November 3, something like a small Quebec jazz festival took place in Paris: while the Jazzlab Orchestra was playing in the basement of the Sunside-Sunset club, in the 1er district, Yannick Rieu and his Generation Quartet heated the floorboards on the ground floor.
“We didn’t even know it when we booked the dates we were playing at the same time, and it was full! rejoices Alain Bédard. It’s been a long time since I had experienced such a special evening. We attracted lots of journalists and musicians, we stretched it out until three in the morning. ” Still remembers the colleague Franck Bergerot, of the Jazz Magazinewho reported on the event in a nice text (“Le Québec rue des Lombards with Alain Bédard and Yannick Rieu”, November 4, 2022).
The album LOGUSLABUSMUZIKUS is available on the Effendi label. The Jazzlab Orchestra will perform on December 8 at the Palais Montcalm and on December 10 at the Outremont theatre.