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‹ Alex Bellegarde and his quartet deliver audacious jazz
compositions. Solos, harmonic tangents and textures and collective improvisation become a
colorful musical complicity. Raw energy! › L'OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal
Recorded live at Montreal's Off Jazz Festival with Michael Wanner
on piano, Jonathan Lindhorst on sax and Alain Mercure on drums Alex's pieces head towards the
progressive with intense grooves and abstract sounds, rooted in Latin and swing. Active
on the club and festival scene the quartet has performed at 2003 FIJM Les Nuits de
Montreal as well as Toronto's 2004 Distillery Jazz Festival.
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'Live' CHN-03-333: 2003
Recorded live in concert at the
2003 Montreal L'OFF Festival de Jazz.
Sound engineer…Jacques Laurin
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‹‹ I have just received a truly
awesome album of modern improvised music that I feel is worth writing about here called Alex
Bellegarde Quartet Live. It features Alain Mercure on drums, Michael Wanner on piano,
Jonathan Lindhorst on saxophone, and Alex on double bass. I have mixed Alex live at the
Distillery and am aware of what he is capable of but this disc blows the socks right
off.
In particular this tune Wachoo Suite. The introduction is remarkably elegant thanks to the
sensitive touch of Michael Wanner. On top of Alex and Alain comes Lindhorst with a very
innocent response to Michael making you feel almost childlike. As Alain picks up in intensity
they progress from a bluesy sound to something more chaotic, escalating on a journey of
breakaway chord changes right to Alain’s drum solo.
A sneaky break from the intro into something almost black magic. Very very subtle but so much
control that the right hand unleashes some not-so innocent cowbell and cymbal accents to
transport you in fear to the capoira courtyard. Kind of dangerous. And then to Alex’s
borderline baroque outro theme that shyly dissolves into a swing with Lindhorst all the while
a broken and sultry expressionist.
This song is less of a song and more like a script to a film. A staggeringly incredible
composition and performance to say the absolute least. Live at Focaccia, L’OFF Festival
de Jazz de Montreal, 2003. When you add to this Alex’s contribution to cutting edge
spot theatre, multimedia, and experimental music in Montreal and Toronto I think you have a
world class innovator. ›› Luke Gilliam
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