8pm Friday Feb 20

The Nouveau Jazz Libre de Québec (NJLQ) CD release

at the Western Front

303 8 AVE E, Vancouver

NJLQ features two mainstays of Montréal’s avant garde creative music scene, Guy Thouin, a founding member of the Quatour de Jazz Libre du Quebec in the 1960's (drums) and Bryan Highbloom (tenor sax), and Vancouver’s Raymon Torchinsky (alto sax). All three were members of the Atelier de Musique Experimentale in Montréal in the 1970's. Join them for the West Coast launch of “En Direct du Suoni per il Popolo.”

$20 /10  General
 Students   
(member discount 5$)

Follow this link for various materials on the recording, including the cover, liner notes (English version), reviews, photos, etc.

about the NJLQ trio:

Guy Thouin is a veteran of the Montreal avant-garde creative music and jazz scene. One of the founding members (and last surviving member) of the original Jazz Libre de Quebec (formed in 1967), Thouin has had an exciting and varied career as a drummer including spending seven years in India studying tabla music. Bryan Highbloom and Raymon Torchinsky are two of the original members of Montreal’s Atelier de Musique Experimentale (1973-78), and has been a music therapist at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital for the last 30 years. Bryan has produced and run an annual jazz festival at the hospital for the last 15 years, bringing international and local musicians performing at the Montreal Jazz Festival to the hospital to play for the patients and staff.

The Atelier de Musique Experimentale was an organization comprised of Montreal musicians dedicated to fostering the development of new music, bridging the worlds of free jazz and experimental improvisation that were emerging at that time. It was founded by Raymond Gervais (a conceptual artist interested in the relationship between art and sound - he's still at it). The Atelier was active between 1972 and 1976 and included (among others) Yves Bouliane, Jean Derome, Tristan Honsinger, Robert Leriche and Robert Lepage. The Atelier focused on presenting performances by its members and also organized concerts by visiting soloists (such as Steve Lacy, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, etc.). 

Learn more about Bryan Highbloom (one of the members of the trio) and his involvelement with the Jewish General Hospital Jazz Festival. 

Watch a video taken at the NJLQ record release party in Montreal in May, 2014.