Interviews

Jeanne Rochette is an author, composer and performer of French chanson, as well as a modern jazz enthusiast, with a career spanning France and French-speaking America. Her albums include Elle sort (2010), Cachée (2016) and La malhonnête (2021), as well as this album recorded at Le Gesù in 2022 with the Orchestre National de Jazz de Montréal, this time featuring jazz instruments as well as traditional European classical instruments (harp, oboe, horn, etc.). The arrangements for this opus, released last October, were devised by regular ONJ collaborator Jean-Nicolas Trottier. Between her many Montreal-Paris shuttles, Jeanne Rochette talks with Alain Brunet about the classicism of her songwriting signature and how to adapt it to the context of a large jazz ensemble.

In the late 2010’s, Lubalin reached the highest summits of TikTok fame with his viral internet drama videos: 260 million views, 36 million likes and 3.4 million subscribers around the world. That huge web success led him to be invited on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Kelly Clarkson Show, in the U.S. All US magazines and music or entertainement press wrote or talked about him – Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, The Los Angeles Times, Vulture, Mashable, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, not to name commercial partnerships and also an important production and songwriting involvement with Charlotte Cardin’s recent recording work – double JUNO Award-winning 2023 album, 99 Nights.

After almost 6 years of web famee and ghost composing, Lubalin finally came on stage for a first time during the Marathon M for Montreal Festival, after which he launches a first complete album: haha, no worries. On this new release (December 6th) he explores the nature of human communication we have those days and does it with a “wry sense of humour and a gleeful disregard for convention”. A few days afterhis first live show, Lubalin met Alain Brunet for PAN M 360, here his this video interview.

After 7 years on the Quebec music scene, Quatuor Cobalt announces the release of its debut album, Reflets du temps. Comprising Guillaume Villeneuve and Diana Bayard (violins), Clément Bufferne (viola) and François Leclerc (cello), the Université de Montréal-trained quartet was taught by Annick Roussin, Yegor Dyachkov, Guillaume Sutre, Laura Andriani and the Quatuor Debussy. In Quebec, the Cobalt Quartet has performed at festivals such as the Festival International de Lanaudière, the Festival International du Domaine Forget and the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, as well as in major venues such as the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City and Place des Arts in Montreal. Characterized by its eclecticism, the quartet explores both early music on period instruments and the contemporary repertoire, and is committed to the dissemination of today’s repertoire.

The album launch was a good opportunity for our contributor Alexandre Villemaire to chat with Guillaume Villeneuve about this release, as well as the ensemble’s many other projects, including their program of Schubert’s complete string quartets and their forthcoming indoor concert on December 18 at Jeunesses Musicales du Canada’s Salle Joseph-Rouleau.

Concert tickets HERE

You can pre-record the first extract from Reflets du temps at the following address: https: //gfn-classics.lnk.to/H277-Allegretto

The entire album will be available in January 2025

Photo Credit : Annie Éthier

Video direction:
Director: Charles-William De Melo – De Melo Productions
Director of photography: Antoine Benhini
First AC: Mathilde Lytwynuk
Electro: Pascal Chaumont
Best boy: Adam Panyachack
Editing: Charles-William De Melo
Colorization: Olivier Séguin-Dang – Color Division
Executive producers: Gabriel Felcarek, Francis Choinière & Nicholas Choinière

With the special participation ofAnnabelle Marquis

Since she first came to our attention in the early 2000s, Emilie-Claire Barlow has been in osmosis with Quebec audiences, so much so that she left her native Toronto to settle in Quebec, first in Montreal and then in Quebec City, where she followed her heart and made her home in Limoilou. Émilie-Claire has been celebrating the holiday season for as long as anyone can remember, offering a special program each year, with quartet, string quartet and trio of backing singers, and drawing on her two Christmas albums – Winter Wonderland and Lumières d’hiver, an anthology of Christmas songs taken from the Great American Songbook, as well as original songs to add a special touch to all that comfort food! This year, Emilie-Claire Barlow performs in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and New York. Before the sleigh set off, the singer chatted with Alain Brunet about the holiday season.

December at Théâtre Outremont, Montreal, December 6 at Palais Montcalm, Quebec, December 14 at Koerner Hall, Toronto, 20 and 21 December at Birdland, New York. TICKETS HERE

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The Paramirabo (Montreal) and Thin Edge New Music Collective (Toronto) ensembles perform contemporary works by Nicole Lizée (Montreal), Yaz Lancaster (New York), the late Louis Andriessen (Utrecht), James O’Callaghan (Burnaby) and the late Julius Eastman (New York). The spokesperson for this vast Toronto-Montreal program is Toronto cellist Amahl Arulanandam, who spoke with Alain Brunet for this concert presented at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, this Friday, November 29, 7:30pm.

BILLETS ICI

Programme

Participants

We spoke with Nadia Hawa Baldé, aka Hawa B, back in April. That was the month of the sadder but better EP release, nominated at GAMIQ 2024 in the Soul/R&B category. This is followed by a solo album, better sad than sorry, officially launched this Friday, November 29 at Sotterranea. She’ll be doing the same in Quebec City on December 5 at Le Pantoum. Co-produced by HAWA B with Félix Petit (Les Louanges, Safia Nolin, Hubert Lenoir, FELP, Brown Family), better sad than sorry is the main chapter of a triptych on sadness – Sad in a Good Way (2022), sadder but better (2024).

Totally free-spirited and free-thinking, Hawa B doesn’t stay glued to Afro-descendant music, which she can quite rightly claim to be, she’s also interested in other electronic or instrumental avenues well beyond jazz, hip-hop or soul/R&B. Her exceptional voice is at the service of a magnificently mixed art, reflecting her experience as a Montreal artist born of diversity. She talks about it again with Alain Brunet for PAN M 360.

TICKETS HERE

Joyce N’Sana, CBC revelation for the 2021-22 season, launches Télama, her second album on the Productions Nuits d’Afrique label. Télama means “get up and walk” in Kikongo, her father’s language, which Joyce rediscovered during the making of this recording at the crossroads of Central Africa, blues, rock and funk. Keithy Antoine interviewed her for PAN M 360, on the eve of its launch on November 22.

Bria Salmena’s craft is not about stylistic purity style neither straight ahead music. From post-punk jouneys through alt-country getaways, she is where we may don’t expect her. Most of us knew her performing with Canadian experimental post-punk group FRIGS, which she co-founded with Duncan Hay Jennings. Both of them joined Orville Peck for a few years. During the pandemic Salmena and Jennings managed to recorded two very cool country / americana covers EPs. Those recordings were released on Sub Pop, as well as the Bria’s single called “Bending Over Backwards” which preceed a whole album planned for 2025. Coming in Montreal at L’Esco on Saturday November 23, Bria spoke a few minutes with Alain Brunet.

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As we all know, cumbia is THE dominant Latin American rhythm, also it is the progenitor of reggaeton and Nigerian / pan-African afrobeats. Born in Colombia, cumbia has evolved in all 3 Americas, including all major Canadian cities. Vancouver is no exception! Empanadas Ilegales are playing at the Mundial Montréal festival, so it’s a good opportunity to talk to one of the band members, drummer Daniel Ruiz. Alain Brunet caught up with him in the following video-conference.

INFOS & TICKETS HERE

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An international authority on Baroque and early music, as well as on a wide range of the classical repertoire, Bernard Labadie has enjoyed an international career since stepping down as principal conductor of Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec, which he founded. After miraculously surviving cancer in the middle of the previous decade, he resumed his duties as conductor and left the direction of the Québec ensembles. In particular, he holds the position of Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York, but maintains a strong link with his hometown and the ensembles he has brought into being. In this case, Bernard Labadie endeavors to explore further this essential work by the German composer who became a naturalized English citizen, and whose Messiah is part of the British and, for obvious reasons, North American tradition. All of which amply justifies this interview by Bernard Labadie with Alain Brunet, for PAN M 360.

Handel’s Messiah will be performed on December 12 and 13 in the Salle Raoul Jobin at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, and on December 14 at the Maison symphonique de Montréal.

  • Bernard Labadie, Chef
  • Liv Redpath, Soprano
  • Iestyn Davies, Countertenor
  • Andrew Haji, Tenor
  • William Thomas, Bass
  • Les Violons du Roy
  • La Chapelle de Québec, Chœur de chambre

TICKETS AND INFO HERE

As she prepares for her showcase at Petit Campus on November 20, the Haitian-born Montreal singer-songwriter is already buzzing from all the meetings and workshops she’s attended over the past few weeks. She doesn’t yet know what the spin-offs will be, but one thing’s for sure: she’s already grateful to be taking part. Our journalist Sandra Gasana spoke to her as she took part in the cocktail to launch this not-to-be-missed music event in Montreal.

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Mundial Montréal kicks off on Tuesday, November 19 and wraps up on the 22nd. Some thirty artists and groups from all over the world and from Canada’s cultural communities come together to present their music, roots and cross-fertilizations. Eli Levinson is the program coordinator and introduces us to all the artists. Anyone listening to this video will know EVERYTHING about Mundial Montréal 2024. Alain Brunet conducted this interview for PAN M 360.

TICKETS AND INFO HERE

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