by Jim Little
HELLO & GOODBYE

There were a number of closings and openings on the Montreal club scene in 1996: Cleo’s (formerly L’Extérieur) closed its doors in early summer, as did Bar Camera in December. However, to pick up the slack, Upstairs (1254 Mackay) was reborn under new management, while Jazzons (300 Ontario St. East), Jello Bar (151 Ontario Street East), and Café Boomers (297 Lakeshore Blvd. in Pointe Claire) opened. The non-profit art gallery ISART (263 St. Antoine Street West) began a Sunday night series, Come Sunday , as well as presenting a jazz art exhibition, Jazzimages, and an off-festival, Jazz Matinée, this past summer. L’Air du Temps (191 St. Paul St West in Old Montreal) and Biddles (2060 Aylmer Street) continued to offer regular jazz programming.

Jazz support groups came and went as well in 1996. The Montreal Jazz Grapevine, founded by Carol Robertson and Karen Evoy, suspended publication of the newsletter JazzVine with their May issue. On a more positive note, the rebirth of the Jazz Association of Montreal (JAM) was celebrated with an inaugural concert November 8 at the Université du Québec à Montreal. Some 475 people turned out to hear pianist Lorraine Desmarais, guitarist Sonny Greenwich and the quartet of bassist Normand Guilbeault and saxophonist Jean Derome.

FESTIVALS, SERIES& SPECIAL EVENTS

The granddaddy of festivals in Montreal, indeed in all of Canada for any type of festival is the Montreal International Jazz Festival . This past year’s 17th edition attracted record crowds. In 1996, in addition to the roster of international talent, many Montreal musicians were featured, and not just on outdoor stages. Bassists Michel Donatoand Alain Caronshared the eight-day Invitation series at the Monument National, where there was also a series called Jazz d’Ici, featuring Rémi Bolduc, Janis Steprans, Michael Gauthier, François Marcaurelle, François Bourassa, Lorraine Desmarais, Dave Turner with Nelson Symonds, James Gelfand and Jan Jarczyk.

The ISARTgallery (263 St.Antoine West) concurrently ran an afternoon off-festival, Jazz Matinée , that showcased Montreal talent: FACT(Frank Lozano, Aron Doyle, Claude Lavergne and Tommy Babin), the duo of Normand Guilbeault and Jean Derome, Christine Jensen, Charles Papasoff in a rare solo concert, Roddy Ellias, Frédéric Alarie with his group Basse Section, the Kelly Jefferson-Kelsley Grant Quintet, and the Marek Semeniuk Quartet.

For the third year in a row, La Tour qui jazzseries at the Olympic Tower, filled the post-festival void with a weekly series, featuring artists such as The Merlin Factor, Eval Manigat, Pierre Béluse, Isabelle Wolfman, Guy Thouin, Nelson Symonds, François Bourassa, Bernard Primeau and Dinah Vero.

Saison Jazz Montréal started off the new year with concerts at the Gesù Theatre by D.D. Jackson, the Pianissimo Trio of Jean-François Groulx, Jean Beaudet and Dinah Vero . In March, for the second year in a row, International Women’s Day was marked with a concert featuring Patricia Deslauriers, Rachel Z, Hilary Jones, Lorraine Desmarais, Francine Martel and Kim Richardson , among others. In May Steve Colemanperformed with his group Five Elements. Saison Jazz Montréal also inaugurated a new series, Série Cabaret with Michel Cusson, Basse Section, Helmut Lipskyand Sylvain Gagnon. In the fall, a similar series, Jazz Club, took place at the Lion d’Or. It featured Alain Caron, Dinah Vero, the Merlin Factor, Thomas Harris, Joel Miller and Francine Poitras. The fall lineup for Saison Jazz Montréalat the Gesù had T.S. Monk, John Scofield and Yannick Rieu.

In October, La Maison de la culture Frontenac was again the site of a week-long festival sponsored by the Radio Canada programme Jazz sur le vif, in which Sonny Greenwich, Harold Faustin, Jeri Brown, Jean Beaudet, Panache and Basse Sectionwere among those who performed.

One-off events included two shows at the Lion d’Or, one by the Caravan Society, in which a parade of bands performed their versions of the Juan Tizol tune and the CBC 60th anniversary concert, which featured Richard Parris, Oliver Jones and others performing vintage jazz.

On the musique actuelle scene, there were a number of festivals and special events, including musiques échange Québec-Belgiqueat l’Agora de la danse, which featured l’Ensemble Karel and Flammèches, among others; in March Musique à l’usinehad the Paradox Trio, René Lussier, Pierre Tanguay and John Oswald and in November François Houle with George Graewe, les Projectionistes, Oliver Lake and Diane Labrosse; the five-day long Carte Blanche à René Lussier; and the five-night run of Joane Hétu’s Castor et Compagnie both took place at Théâtre La Chapelle, which is fast becoming theactuelle venue in town. Just outside of Montreal, the 13th edition of the International Festival de musique actuelle de Victoriaville showcased Lee Pui Ming, Michel Ratté, Mario Schiano, Joane Hétu, Eugene Chadbourne, Louis Sclavis, Steve Coleman and the Metrics, Tim Brady, the Far East Side Band, Evan Parker, Elliott Sharp with Zeena Parkinsand others.

There were also a few visual arts exhibitions with a jazz theme: The Montreal International Jazz Festival had its own art gallery, with works by Yves Archambault, Miyuki Tanobe and Miles Davis. The ISART gallery (263 St. Antoine Street West) presented the jazzimages exhibition, made up of photography by Diane Dulude and Andrea Morrison, paintings by Marjorie Forsyth and drummer Pete Magadini, and mail art by Halifax writer Spike Taylor, Camera Lucida Image Centre (2071 St. Laurent Blvd.) showed the JazzArtPhoto exhibit by Denis Alix, Jean-François Leblanc and Linda Rutenberg and also ran a contest, which was won by Diane Moon.

RADIO

While Montreal still lacks jazz on commercial radio, the CBC and Radio Canada continued to provide quality programming despite budget cuts, and community/campus stations such as CIBL, CINQ, CISM and CKUT aired much jazz.

Late in the year, two jazz-friendly groups were in the lineup to apply for a new CRTC licence- CIBL (wanting a stronger signal) and François Marcaurelle, Michel Dupuis, and Richard Therrien made a proposal for a jazz station. It’s a long shot, but the city could use more jazz on the air.

AWARDS

A number of former and current Montreal jazz musicians won awards in the past year:

The Juno (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) for best mainstream jazz album went to trumpeter Ingrid Jensen for Vernal Fields(Enja). Three of the tunes on the CD, including the title track, were written by Ingrid Jensen’s sister Christine Jensen , a saxophonist who lives here in Montreal.

The jazz Félix in Quebec’s L’ADISQ awards went to former Montreal saxophonist Yannick Rieu for his CD What Is The Color Of Love?, which is on the local label Flash Rose.

Guitarist/composer René Lussier won this year’s Freddie Stone Award, a prize established in 1991 and named after the Canadian trumpeter who died in 1986. Lussier, the founder of the Ambiences Magnétiques label is a prolific player and writer who’s worked with the likes of Fred Frith, clarinettist Robert M. Lepage, and who leads his own groups, including La Boudine.

The Montreal International Jazz Festival offers a number of accolades. This year, the Miles Davis Award went to saxophonist Wayne Shorter, the Oscar Peterson Award went to guitarist Nelson Symonds , who later in the year was honoured by two separate benefits: one at the Spectrum in late November and another at Upstairs in early December. The Roy Patterson Quartet won the competition for best Canadian group. The SOCAN award for best jazz composition went to guitarist Éric St-Laurent (Life on Mars and the Shuffle Demons) for his tune Canals of Mars . St-Laurent’s group Life On Mars also won this summer’s competition in Vienne, France.

Again this year, quite a few former and current Montrealers won honours from the Toronto-based magazine, The Jazz Report:: Montreal-born pianist Oscar Peterson was named Jazz Musician of the Year; Montreal record company Justin Time was picked as Jazz Label of the Year; drummer Jim Hillman’s group The Merlin Factor was again chosen as Electric Group of the Year; Oliver Jones was honoured for his composition Len’s Den , which is the theme for Len Dobbin’s Wednesday morning radio programme Dobbin’s Den on CKUT 90.3 FM; former Montreal-based singer Densil Pinnock was chosen as male vocalist; Chelsea Bridge (which had former Montrealer Tena Palmer on vocals) was named vocal group of the year; Dave Turner was named best alto saxophonist; James Gelfand won best keyboardist; Sonny Greenwich , best guitarist; Alain Caron, best electric bassist; the Stephen Barry Band, Blues Group of the Year; and McGill University was honoured for the best post-secondary jazz programme.