Biography
Montréal trombonist, composer, and bandleader Claude St-Jean launched Les Projectionnistes in 1996 after gaining recognition primarily through his leadership of the rollicking alternative brass band L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus. Retaining the propulsive momentum and memorable charts that defined L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus, the new group took on a harder-edged character by incorporating electric rock energy, supplied chiefly by Miriodor guitarist Bernard Falaise, already an emerging figure in Montréal's avant music community. Soon after forming, Les Projectionnistes began presenting St-Jean's original pieces as live accompaniment to silent films and slides; Cinématheque Québecoise subsequently invited the ensemble to supply spontaneous improvisations for classic silent films during the Rencontres de Musique Actuelle series at Montréal's Usine C Theatre. The band then brought these live music and silent film presentations to the Montréal and Toronto Jazz Festivals in 1997. Two distinct bodies of material emerged: early compositions alongside pieces generated through the group's improvisational work with films by directors such as Fritz Lang, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamps. That contrast appears clearly on the band's first Ambiances Magnétiques release, Copie Zéro, issued in 1999, which consists chiefly of four- to seven-minute tracks written mostly by St-Jean that blend brass band traditions, avant-jazz, and hard rock approaches, together with one live 11-and-one-half-minute piece captured at Usine C in 1997 while the musicians improvised to Fernand Léger's 1924 surrealist film. Throughout the late '90s and early 2000s, Les Projectionnistes sustained a steady schedule of performances. In fall 2001 the group toured a fresh program of St-Jean works titled Naive Music and Other Paradoxes, appearing at venues across Canada and in Ann Arbor, MI. An expanded lineup assembled for this project, augmenting the core quintet of St-Jean, Falaise, drummer Rémi Leclerc, saxophonist/flutist Pierre Labbé, and bassist Tommy Babin with sousaphonist Jean Sabourin and saxophonist Roberto Murray, both drawn from L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus, to realize St-Jean's latest compositional work.
Albums
