An Odyssey Through Québécois' Progressive Music

 

As for Hamadryad and Visible Wind well,all I got to say is that I just love them.And lets not forget Man Made who released a great jazz-rock fusion album in the early 70's.The album's sleeve has to be the sleaziest I have ever seen!

 

And Milkweed,a good sympho prog band.And Mashmakhan who would fit in as proto prog.

And Sounds of Ynspiration who'd fit that category well to.

 

 

I wouldn',t mind seeing him on PA at all...

Is first six albums are filled with jazz-rock fusion of the highest caliber.Dick Morrissey of IF as well as Snatana's drummer guested on some of his albums.The album Gist of a Gemeni features the side long piece ''War suite''....

 

I think he's featured on proggnosis.

 

A lot of stuff went by and skipped the prog radar in the 70's and there were lots in Québec;SOME Jacques Michel,SOME Beau Dommage,Claude Dubois,Man Made,Sinners,Zak,Mashmakhan,Dillinger,Offenbach,Sex(no joke!),Séguin....

 

All we need to d is open our minds and ....ears!

 

That's why I said SOME.....not all.

 

Wondeur Brass biography
Wondeur Brass is the first musical (Justine being their second and Les Poules their third) project by Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse and Danielle Roger. A particularity of this band is that it was composed of nine members, all women. It is probably Hétu / Labrosse / Roger?s most important. Under that name, they recorded three albums and two of them have been re-issued. Parano (never re-issued) in 1982, rAVIr in 1985 and Simoneda, reine des esclaves in 1988. At this period, they had already toured in Europe. Their first time on this other continent was in 1984, at the international congress ?Women & Music? in Paris. They would return to that congress every year until 1990. They also toured in Switzerland, in Germany, in Yougoslavia, in Belgium and in the United Kingdom.
They brought a new vision to the eighties poplar music. Their music conserved a simple, sometimes rudimentary and even almost homemade. They didn?t fear improvisation and experimentation, though.

Biography written by Gabriel Rivest (Tsevir Leirbag)

 

Samples: http://www.actuellecd.com/en/bio/wondeurbrass_/

PA Artist page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5119

 

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Justine biography
Justine is an avant-garde band that was founded in Montréal (Québec), Canada. It is the second musical project of Joane Hétu, Diane Labrosse and Danielle Roger (the first being Wondeur Brass and the third, Les Poules). They recorded two albums in the nineties, (Suite) and Languages fantastiques. At that period, they already toured in Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Yougoslavia and United Kingdom) and in the United States of America with their first band, Wondeur Brass, wich I consider the most important band of the "trilogy".

Biography written by Gabriel Rivest (Tsevir Leirbag)

 

Samples: http://www.actuellecd.com/fr/bio/justine_/

PA Artist page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5096

 

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Believe it or not Gino Vanelli has a degree in composition from McGill University and is also an accomplished jazz drummer. His Dad was a big band singer and his mother sang professionally as well. As much as I like his  jazzy pop songs You Gotta Move, I just Wanna Stop ( even saw him once ! ) I really think we would be clutching at straws to include him here. Really. He is still going with various projects and the last I heard he was living somewhere in Holland. 

But Frank was a god when we were kids. Saw him many times. The Canadian Hendrix. I think if we're going to include Hendrix here then there's really no excuse for not  including Frank. But then again, playing the devil's advocate, I consider many of the additions here questionable including Hendrix so I guess that rules out Frank. Frank is in a world of his own really with his groovin cool music anyway Anyone who's interested, most of his albums can be streamed from  www.mahoganyrush.com.

I guess his 2000 album Eye Of The Storm can be considered a bit proggy but there are no keyboards  ! 

Conventum will be my next presentation, they're in my top five favorite bands from Québec.

I know it's in Folk-Prog here but I see it more as Avant, personally.