Description
"I am a revolutionary first, a musician second. Instead of a machine gun, I have a trumpet," explained Yves Charbonneau, co-founder of the Montreal-based group Jazz Libre, in May of 1969.
Upbeat excitement resonated throughout Montreal and across the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec in the wake of the Quiet Revolution and in the immediate aftermath of Expo 67, the highlight of Canada's Centennial celebrations. Yet at the time, the city was also a hub of discordant politics, many of which were about the promises of various types of leftism and their intersection with nationalism. Cultural workers-individuals, groups, and their networks-participated actively in these debates, prompting new forms of communication, participation, and organization to catalyze all kinds of evocative solidarities.
In telling the story of Jazz Libre, Soundtrack to the Revolution reveals the meaningful role that the art of spontaneity played in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. It traces the path taken by Jazz Libre-a collective of improvisers who embraced free jazz to help legitimize the efforts of the Quebec left to situate its nationalist aspirations within global anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist movements. Charbonneau and his bandmates strongly believed that collective improvisation could inspire resistance and hope by fostering communication, collaboration, initiative, trust, and self-criticism-but also a disposition to take risks as well as a willingness to think creatively and make decisions on the spur of the moment. Their many initiatives (concert forums aimed at students and workers, a self-governing arts summer camp in Val-David, north of Montreal, a socialist commune in the Eastern Townships as well as an experimental cultural centre in Old Montreal) were all oriented toward the convergence of protest movements shaking Quebec. Jazz Libre's fate was, as a result, irreversibly tied to the leftist independence movement-a hodgepodge of groups in search of possible futures during these pivotal decades.
About the authors
Eric Fillion is director of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and assistant professor at the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada's Cultural Diplomacy. With Sean Mills and Désirée Rochat, he co-edited Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper He lives in Guelph, Ontario.
David Homel was born in Chicago in 1952 and left that city in 1970 for Paris, living in Europe the next few years on odd jobs and odder couches. He has published eight novels, from Electrical Storms in 1988 to The Teardown, which won the Paragraph Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction in 2019. He has also written young adult fiction with Marie-Louise Gay, directed documentary films, worked in TV production, been a literary translator, journalist, and creative writing teacher. He has translated four books for Linda Leith Publishing: Bitter Roase (2015), (2016), Nan Goldin: The Warrior Medusa (2017) and Taximan (2018). Lunging into the Underbrush is his first book of non-fiction. He lives in Montreal.
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