The Peru Gazette

Nicolas Babineau and Alexis Chartrand celebrate the release of their new CD with a live show at the Saranac Fire Hall on Friday, January 10, 2020 at 7:00 pm.  Titled “un beau p’tit son” (translation: “a beautiful little sound”), the album was developed and recorded during two residencies at Hill and Hollow Music during 2019. Their first recording “Gigues à deux faces” was nominated Best Traditional Album at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. 

The duo’s music is traditional French-Canadian with a contemporary spin. Both are fabulous fiddlers and Nicolas can also evoke an atmosphere with his sweet-pingy guitar, while Alexis underpins it all with spirited foot-percussion.  Crafting their own signature arrangements of old tunes is a way of paying homage to legendary artists of the past who have deeply influenced Francophone culture, while it is also a great opportunity for the duo to express some very personal musical ideas and carry their culture forward. Nicolas Babineau and Alexis Chartrand have performed throughout Québec, the Maritimes, and New England, as well as across Canada to Vancouver; and they have also toured in Poland and Sweden. 

A special feature, the renowned Québécois dancer-choreographer Mélissandre Tremblay-Bourassa offers additional virtuoso foot-percussion on several tracks of the new disk. She also joins the duo to dance live at the CD “Launch Party” performance January 10 in Saranac. Merging traditional step dancing with classical and contemporary  ballet, Mélissandre has developed a creative and aerial style of improvisation as a step-dancer for which she is especially appreciated. She has choreographed for and danced internationally with the Cirque du Soleil and was recently nominated for a Grand Prix Desjardins.   

Seating at the Saranac Fire Hall is club-style: six to eight chairs per table.  Requested donation of $20 includes refreshments.  For further info please telephone 518-293-7613, e-mail hillholl@hughes.net or visit www.hillandhollowmusic.org.

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

ALEXIS CHARTRAND is a fiddler from Montréal who has been active in the Québécois traditional music scene for several years. He is known for his energetic accompaniment of stepdancing and social dances. His interest in Québécois, Irish and Scottish fiddle styles inform his playing, along with his study of classical, contemporary, and baroque music. He frequently collaborates with dancers including baroque dancer Anne-Marie Gardette, traditional dancers and callers Pierre Chartrand and Mélissandre Tremblay-Bourassa, regularly performs in duo with guitarists such as Yann Falquet, Colin Savoie-Levac and Peter Senn. His performances have brought him around Québec, Canada, New England, and Europe. His research into the intersections between traditional and baroque violin styles has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. He has also given workshops on fiddle, traditional repertoire and traditional music history at CAMMAC, Festival de Violon Traditionnel de Sutton (QC), Carleton University (ON), and Boxwood Festival (NS).

NICOLAS BABINEAU discovered music at the age of 7, trying the unused violin of his grandfather. Accepted as a violin student at the Conservatory of Classical Music in Trois-Rivières, Nicolas continues to learn several instruments, including guitar, electric bass, mandolin, banjo and Irish bouzouki. Specializing in traditional Québécois music, Nicolas went to the United States, France, England and represented French Canada at the Canadian Pavilion at the Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. In 2017 he released an album titled Compos Trad in Local Flavor with the flutist and composer Jean Duval.

MÉLISSANDRE TREMBLAY-BOURASSA,  a Jeune Ballet du Québec graduate, has worked professionally as dancer, dance master, choreographer, dance caller, and entertainer since 2003. Her training in traditional arts began in 1997 with troupe Les Jeunes Sortilèges. Afterwards she was pupil of master-teachers Sandy Silva (La Bottine Souriante), Martine Billette, Pierre Chartrand, Michel Bordeleau, and Gérard Morin. An ever-present member of jam sessions and a solo improvisor in Celtic band Wallop the Spot, she has developed a creative and aerial style of improvisation as a step dancer.

From 2008 to 2011, as a specialist in Québec step dancing, she participated in the process of creation and casting for 1000 performances of Cirque du Soleil’s ZAIA production in Macau, China. This was an opportunity for her to develop her acting and entertainment skills, as well as discovering the basics of clown work. From 2003 to 2008, she has also danced for several dance companies such as Les Sortilèges danses du monde, Sans Temps Danse/Marie-Soleil Pilette, Ballet Ouest and Ballet Métropolitain, performing in Québec, Canada and France. Since 2007 she has been part of the traditional group Rapetipetam (step dancer and dance caller).

She has danced and created acts for the Just For Laughs festival, the Orientalys festival, Les Sortilèges, La Grande Rencontre, and the Biennale de gigue contemporaine. She is now part of Les Bordéliques danse et musique, a group she co-founded with musician Gabriel Girouard. This duet shows theatrical, clownish performances told through original music and percussive dance.