MUSICIANS

Artistic director and composer for the DND, DNT & DNQ (collectively The Metropolitan Jazz Company) Noseworthy is a musician with a very personal artistic spirit and voice earning the notice and respect of his peers. His musical units and performance projects have involved some of the most creative musicians in Montreal and Toronto including Jan Jarczyk, Rémi Bolduc, Jean Derome, Kirk MacDonald, Ivanhoe Jolicoeur, Frédéric Alarie, Michel Donato, Normand Guilbeault, Keiran Overs, Don Thompson, Michel Lambert, Paul Léger and Pierre Tanguay, and his compositions have been featured on CBC-Two's Jazz Beat & CBC-One's Musicraft. He has studied at Concordia and McGill Universities with guitarists Sam Balderman, Gary Schwartz & Greg Clayton and composers Jan Jarczyk, Allan Crossman & Bret Zvacek, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts Summer Jazz Workshops under the artistic direction of Dave Holland and Steve Coleman. He has received recognition & support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts Council. Influenced by the music of such diverse artists as Sonny Greenwich, Jim Hall, Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery, John Abercrombie, John McLaughlin and Ralph Towner, Noseworthy has received critical praise, and "continues to build on his reputation for musical excellence" (FIJM). Originally from St. John's, Noseworthy moved to Montreal in 1985 to pursue his music and develop his creativity.

Alarie amazes you by the colour, depth and audacity of his work. Musician, composer, soloist, he's always extending the limits both of his own expression and of jazz. He has worked regularly with Dan Noseworthy, Bernard Primeau, Loraine Desmarais and Yannick Rieu, performed with American musicians Ray Anderson, Sonny Fortune and Art Johnson, and leads three of his own groups: the Frédéric Alarie Trio, the Basse Section and the Frédéric Alarie Quartet. In addition to recordings as sideman, he has released four of his own CD's thus far: "Vision", "Basse Section", "Live à Vienne" and "Moon Bass". His debut disc "Vision", as well as two other discs on which he has collaborated, have received nominations and trophies from l'ADISQ. In 1997, Saison Jazz Montreal named him "Discovery of the Year". A much-in-demand bassist, Alarie has performed in many editions of the Montreal International Jazz Festival and leads a very active career which has earned him both local and international recognition. Influenced by Jimmy Garrison, Ray Brown, Scott LaFaro and Ron Carter, Alarie is himself an inspired innovator capable of remarkable improvisations, with a prodigious mastering of his instrument.

Guilbeault is well known both for his associations with Jean Beaudet, Yannick Rieu, Nelson Symonds, Bernard Primeau and other jazz men, as well as being a formidable bandleader in his own right. The Normand Guilbeault Ensemble received the 1994 Prix de Jazz du Maurier at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, has released three CDs thus far: "Dualismus" (Red Toucan Records, 1994), "Basso Continuo" and "Homage à Mingus" with invited artist Jean Derome (Justin Time Records 1995/96), and was declared by The Jazz Report Magazine to be the Best Acoustic Group of 1997. Since 1995 he has collaborated in the musical milieus of jazz, musique actuelle, film, theatre and dance with René Lussier, Robert Marcel Lepage, Michel F. Coté, Pierre St-Jak, Jean Derome, Tom Walsh and Dan Noseworthy. In 1998, he debuted his most recent project "Riel Plaidoyer Musical" at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, bringing together thirteen of the most creative musicians in Montreal and two narrators. With the support of the Canada Council, it was recorded live in Montreal at the Lion d'Or and released as the double CD set "RIEL Plaidoyer Musical/Musical Plea" [Ambiances Magnétiques AM 073 2CD 1999]. He has also appeared on 16 other CD's. Guilbeault was, and remains, one of the chief instigators, programmers and organizers of the OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal, which presented its first edition in 2000.

Influenced by Billy Higgins, Paul Motian and Ed Blackwell, Tanguay is a well-known, accomplished, and much-in-demand percussionist-composer within the musical milieus of jazz, musique actuelle, dance, film and theatre. He has studied African music and rhythms on the Comores Islands, and tablas and Indian music with the master drummer Anand Kumar in Bénarès and Paris. He has collaborated with Nana Vasconcellos, John Surman, Fred Frith and René Lussier, and recorded over 60 CD's. Continuing a musical association with Dan Noseworthy & The Metropolitan Jazz Company since 1990, Tanguay is also currently involved with numerous other artists and groups including Jean Derome et Les Dangereux Zhoms, Evidence, Strada, Karen Young, Jean Vanasse, Jean-François Groulx, Normand Guilbeault, Eric Longsworth, Daniel Mille, Pierre Cartier, Tom Walsh, Lisle Ellis, Richard Desjardins, Charles Papasoff, Diane Labrosse, Fred Fortin, Lucie Grégoire, Don Preston and Barre Phillips.

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