Contra Music Of Quebec

Sabin Jacques, Accordion, bones and foot percussion
Rachel Aucoin, Piano
Stuart Kenney, Upright bass and Banjo
André Brunet, Fiddle and Foot percussion
Eric Favreau, Fiddle
Claudine Arcand, Fiddle

Tidal Wave is a French-Canadian band based in Quebec. Its French name is “Raz de Marée”. The band specialises, as you would expect, in the rhythms and melodies of the region.

Claudine Arcand, a guest fiddle player with the band, was in Bristol, England, this last weekend, giving a workshop, and came to a session at the Nova Scotia pub. She mentioned how foot-tapping is often an integral part of the music they play, and was herself doing some intricate foot-tapping during her playing.

The second tune on track 5, “Reel à Céduile”, a flowing and fast reel, is an excellent one for would-be foot-tappers, being a mixture of 4/4, 3/4, 5/4, 3/8, and 5/8. BTW, just because the last bar in the A-part section is in 5/4 it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be in 5/4 in the repeat - in fact it is in 4/4. And in the B-part the final 3/8 bar changes to 5/8 in the repeat.

7 of the tunes on the CD are traditional, the others are copyright.

A tune book of the CD, transcribed by Claudine, is available.

The CD, GMM 2022, is published by Great Meadow Music, P.O. Box 4, Westmoreland, NH 03467
603-399-8361.
http://www.greatmeadowmusic.com

To buy this CD, visit http://www.tidalwavemusic.com
or contact (USA):
Stuart Kenney
55 Kately Hill Road
Leyden, MA 01301 (US)
(413) 773-1671
ou contactez (Qc / Canada):
Sabin Jacques / Rachel Aucoin
14913 boulevard Gouin ouest
Montreal, Qc, H9H 1B4 Canada
(514) 624-8068

The guest musicians on the CD appear in the following tracks:
André Brunet 3, 4, 6, 12
Eric Favreau 5, 7, 8, 9
Claudine Arcand 1, 2, 10, 11

I forget to mention that the tune book for the CD also gives the chords.

The title of this album is “Raz-de-Marée/Tidal Wave” eponymously so. The first album bears the name of the group in French and English.

A rip-roaring cracking humdinger of an album. One of my personal favorites.

I know all the album tracks, but my favorites are:
Track 2: La gueussinette, a lovely b minor waltz with gorgeous piano accompaniament
Track 10: Hommage à Philippe Brunneau/Reel De Beloeil/Hommage à Gille Laprise, starts out strong and keeps cranking up the energy.
Track 11: six-huit (6/8) des Rapides/de Lachine/de L’éclusier, a jig set written by the box player, Sabin Jacques, for one of his earlier groups, Les éclusiers de Lachine. It stretches up to a C# on the e-string in the B part of the second piece, but great tunes and killer energy. I love the G chord accompaniament to the D triad in the A part of the third piece. Gold, I tell you, gold!

Pardon my enthusiasm, but this stuff is top-notch.

From the performer’s website:
45 seconds in length…
http://www.tidalwavemusic.com/assets/gueussinette.mp3

Haunting.

This is pronounced something like “Gussie-net” - I point this out because English speakers tend to make “goosey” and “juicy” sounds when confronted with the French spelling.

The piece is also known as “Gussie’s tune”, Gussie being the uterine codename of my son. I composed it in early 2002, with more a lullaby in mind than a waltz.