LE VENT DU NORD
Mesdames et Messieurs!
Borealis 194
There are very few genres as infectiously joyous as Québeçois music. In fact, it’s so full of joie de vivre that studio recordings can make the tunes sound oddly antiseptic. So what better way to hear one of Québec’s finest, Le Vent du Nord, than live? Mesdames et Messieurs! is a baker’s dozen that’s mostly culled from previous releases, but even if you own the backlist you’ll probably prefer the concert spontaneity and energy to the polished studio work. It also incorporates guest musicians and former band members to make an already heady mix even richer. This 2008 performance was sponsored by Radio-Canada as a tribute to the late Denis Fréchette, one of the mainstays of La Bottine Souriante and an old friend of Le Vent du Nord. La Bottine changed the way the world thought of Québeçois music, mixing it with jazz, a brass rhythm section, and anything else that caught its fancy.
Mesdames et Messieurs!
Borealis 194
There are very few genres as infectiously joyous as Québeçois music. In fact, it’s so full of joie de vivre that studio recordings can make the tunes sound oddly antiseptic. So what better way to hear one of Québec’s finest, Le Vent du Nord, than live? Mesdames et Messieurs! is a baker’s dozen that’s mostly culled from previous releases, but even if you own the backlist you’ll probably prefer the concert spontaneity and energy to the polished studio work. It also incorporates guest musicians and former band members to make an already heady mix even richer. This 2008 performance was sponsored by Radio-Canada as a tribute to the late Denis Fréchette, one of the mainstays of La Bottine Souriante and an old friend of Le Vent du Nord. La Bottine changed the way the world thought of Québeçois music, mixing it with jazz, a brass rhythm section, and anything else that caught its fancy.
Le Vent du Nord doesn’t stretch boundaries the way Fréchette did, but this isn’t a band your Québeçois grand pére would recognize either. It’s often dance music, to be sure, but done with sophistication that’s miles beyond what is necessary merely to set feet in motion. “L’heure bleu” opens to Nicolas Boulerice’s tinkling piano that gives us a few contemplative minutes before Réjean Brunet’s accordion and Oliver Demers’s fiddle burst in, and everything gets jiggy. By the time the set finishes it has the clopping force of a dancing horse. It’s a technique they repeat on “Les amants du Saint-Laurent,” and one of several pieces whose mood shifts dramatically. Check out “La veillée chez Poirier,” which could be the soundtrack for a caper film if it weren’t for its sexy accordion bridge. Each member of the quartet—which also includes guitarist Simon Beaudry—is a fine singer in his own right, so when they harmonize, magic happens. “Cré mardi” is a tongue-twisting zipper song with a mummers’ feel to it; “Vive l’amour” is lusty and loud, full of yips, exhortations, and yelps; and “Le bon buveur” is a clinic on how to mesh voices. This CD will have you smiling from start to finish and if your foot stops tapping at any moment, reach for the defibrillator.--LV
Alas, most Le Vent du Nord YouTube offerings are terrible in quality. Here's a promo that's probably the best of the lot, though it's a studio recording of "Vive l'amour."
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