Original Gros Bonnet (OGB to his friends) released a triptych last autumn: Le vide, la peur, l’éclair, les ondes, recordings at the confluence of contemporary acoustic and electric jazz and various digital styles, starting with hip-hop.
The whole thing can be crudely summed up as hip-hop-jazz, which might attract more new fans at the Jazz Festival than at the Francos, where audiences are more sensitive to song forms than complex harmonies and rhythms. But that doesn’t take anything away from OGB, whose appeal was tangible this past Saturday at the Scène Desjardins. François “Franky Fade” Marceau was the MC, an eloquent poet surrounded by Arnaud Castonguay, tenor sax and flute, Vincent Favreau, keyboards, Louis René, drums, Vincent B. Boulianne, bass. Boulianne, bass – all top-notch jazz musicians, obviously well educated. I personally have a soft spot for the drummer, who is, frankly, very good.
The culture of these musicians is certainly eclectic, but it is primarily based on modern jazz and the groove jazz that hip-hop has been drinking since the boom-bap years of the 90s, with a few lulls and a revival with the Kendrick era that began more or less a decade ago.
To grasp the subtleties of the new OGB cycle, the listening conditions of an outdoor stage at the Francos are probably not the best (volume a little too low, audience only partially inclined to savor the solos, collective performances and poetry of François. But it was a great intro for fans of franglophone rap-jazz, who will be able to enjoy even more relevant performances from this excellent Montreal band.
Before the next meeting in the flesh, I heartily recommend listening to the complete material of OGB’s recent triptych on Bandcamp.
