ALEX BELLEGARDE LAUNCHES DEBUT CD, ONE FINE SATURDAY

“Intelligent without being ponderous, Swinging without being slight, You, listener, are in for a treat!” (Vic Vogel)

Bassist Alex Bellegarde has been a busy guy lately, hosting the Monday night Vv Records jam sessions and putting together a debut CD, One Fine Saturday. The disc features 12 Bellegarde compositions, performed by himself and a vanguard of young Montreal area artists: Alex McMahon on piano, the 19-year-old wunderkind from Trois Rivieres; tenor sax man Frede Simard, and Alain Mercure at the drum kit. It’s a fine live acoustic album recorded at Studio Stereo Son with veteran engineer Paul-Emile Mongeau at the mixing board, showcasing Alex’s mainstream roots as well as a progressive bent. The sessions thus captured a versatile quartet in full flight with a wealth of themes ranging from ballads to bop.

Some of that jam session savvy serves as a funky overture for the album on the opening title track. Alex keeps the cool burning with Al’s Blues before taking things up-tempo with The Way, a modal nod of the head to master’s like ‘Trane and Tyner. Brown’s Groove showcases the group’s improv versatility in a 7/4-6/4-5/4-time sig before settling into the spicy salsa pocket of Chiqui, which happens to feature the special guest singer/percussionist it was named for, Bellegarde’s label mate Chiquitin. We take a breather with the lazy slow swing of Vibes, the first of two ballads in the set.

This is a group that isn’t afraid to take risks either, as you’ll hear on the explorative vehicle of Mike’s Tune. We get back on the straight ahead with the tongue-in-cheek title Another Rhythm, a feelgood bop that recalls the energies of Sonny Rollins before things get tougher with I-f-4.

Let’s roll the credits with a nice ballad piece called Many Ways, you can almost hear Bellegarde say, and voila, mission accomplished. Back to the top, anyone?