Du jazz plein la vue

One Night with Blue Note
DVD Blue Note Records 7243 5 60008 0 2

La renaissance de l'étiquette Blue Note en 1985 passa pour l'un des événements marquants du jazz américain des vingt dernières années. Pour marquer ce retour d'une étiquette qui vivotait depuis une bonne décennie, un concert marathon de quatre heures se déroula le 22 février au Town Hall de New York. Sous la férule du président de la division classique et jazz de EMI, Bruce Lundvall, aidé de Michael Cuscana, 29 musiciens étaient au rendez-vous. S'y retrouvaient entre autres : Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Art Blakey et Jackie McLean, parmi les anciens; Stanley Jordan, Benny Wallace et Michel Petrucciani parmi les nouveaux. Dans les mois qui suivirent, un coffret de quatre microsillons parut, suivi de disques compacts puis d'un vidéo dont la qualité visuelle et sonore laissait à désirer. Près de vingt ans plus tard, on peut revoir près de la moitié de ce concert, merveilleusement reproduit sur le présent DVD. Disponible autant en disque simple que dans un coffret double, dont le second disque est en réalité un compact audio contenant huit des 15 plages de la partie vidéo, ce document est le résultat d'un magnifique travail de restauration de l'image (d'ailleurs décrit dans les notes du livret). La soirée fut belle, il va sans dire, mais compte tenu du nombre de disparus depuis, une dimension inévitable de nostalgie vient empreindre le tout. Pour ceux qui auraient les microsillons originaux, ne vous en départez pas, car ceux-ci contiennent douze pièces absentes de cette réédition.

Le mois prochain : La série « Jazz Legends » de Storyville

Jazz

Effendi Records: Five Years and Well on its Way
Lenore Alford

With 45 releases in their catalogue, a steadily growing national and international reputation, and a pair of noteworthy distinctions, including a Juno Award, Carole Thérrien and Alain Bédard of Effendi Records have a lot to celebrate in their first five years of operation. Launched in 1999 with a mission to promote original local jazz, the company's purpose has always been to provide greater exposure to talented Canadian artists who were overlooked by the already existing independent labels. "Alain and I had a lot of friends who had received government grants for recording, but it was hard to find labels and distribution deals for their projects," explains Carole. "And if they did find a label, there were often too many people involved in the whole process, meaning that the musicians weren't getting a big enough cut in the end. We wanted to change that." And so Effendi Records came into being.

Carole Thérrien and Alain Bédard are musicians in their own right, Thérrien a vocalist, and Bédard a double bass player. Thus the business side of their new project proved to be a steep learning curve, with the first year and a half necessitating practical adjustments to their brainchild. "At the beginning, we wanted the musicians to have control of the distribution of their own product, and we hoped they would all be very involved in the company. But we found that some artists are business minded, whereas others only focus on their art. So we had to re-evaluate a few things to make it fair for ourselves," Thérrien says.

Guitarist Greg Amirault, pianist and composer Yves Léveillée, and the co-op quartet Fact were the first entries on the upstart label. Since then, the roster has grown considerably to include such Montreal-based luminaries as saxophonists Yannick Rieu, Christine Jensen, Joel Miller and Jean-Pierre Zanella, as well as pianist Steve Amirault (Greg's brother). In 2002, Effendi first received national attention following a Juno Award attributed to the François Bourassa Quartet for its Live album, and further international acclaim with the "Choc de l'année" rating granted by the French magazine Jazzman for the disc Music of Konitz / The François Théberge 5 featuring Lee. Thérrien recounts the making of the Konitz/Théberge recording with great enthusiasm: "At the beginning Lee didn't think he wanted to play very much on the album, but when he heard François's ideas, he changed his mind. So on the eve of the recording, François burnt the midnight oil reworking the arrangements, and the whole thing was done in only four hours, two takes for each track."

Of late, Effendi has been making important inroads in Japan, adding on another customer to its growing distribution network across North America and Europe. Also new this year is the "Effendi Jazz Lab," a project pooling the talents of its current roster of composers and players. This eight-piece band is in the midst of a province-wide tour and will also head out to jazz festivals across Canada this summer. Aron Doyle, trumpeter with the group, explains how the project is unique: "Normally, after you make a jazz recording, that's pretty much it. But this way, we perform our material many times, and we get tighter and more confident every time we hit. So it's really creating something special."

The creation of something special--that has been Effendi Records's achievement to date. With its original vision still intact, it's a sure thing that this label has plenty more ideas in store.