Composer and pianist François Bourassa leads one of Canada’s most active recording and touring jazz ensembles which will soon celebrate its 25th birthday. A trio for 15 years, François, Guy Boisvert (on bass) and Yves Boisvert (on drums) were joined in 1998 by the celebrated saxman André Leroux. Upon Yves’s subsequent departure, drummer Greg Ritchie (Halifax/New York) joined the group for all tours and new recordings. West African percussionist Aboulaye Koné joined the group on the last album, thus bringing a “world” flavour to François’ compositions: the same line up will perform on the upcoming “Rasstones” which will come out in Autumn 2007 on Effendi Records. Francois’ career has had major impetus from two events: a 6-month residency in New York City which brought out a desire to play as much as he possibly could; and winning the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s new talent competition in 1985, which led to the start of his recording career.

Since then, the band has recorded six albums and has toured festivals, clubs and cultural centres around the world, including in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Korea, China, Japan, Mexico, and Russia, as well as numerous trips across Canada. Francois’ and his musicians have opened for luminaries such as Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Holland, Abbey Lincoln, Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Shorter and Dave Brubeck. Some of his biggest musical heroes are John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Herbie Nichols, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Boubacar Traoré, and Canadian Oscar Peterson, of course. “Keep on doing that s___ that you’re doing.” Wayne Shorter said to the guys after they opened for him on a Western Canadian tour.

François Bourassa’s own compositions are featured on five critically acclaimed recordings, Reflet 1 (1986), Jeune Vieux Jeune (1993), Cactus (1998), Live (2001)– all of which were nominated for a Félix, the Quebec music industry (ADISQ) award – and Indefinite Time (2003) the 2004 FELIX winner. Echo (1996) received major distribution in North America and Japan. Live (Effendi Records), recorded at Toronto’s Top of the Senator, won the 2002 Juno for Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year. His latest recording, Indefinite Time (2003, Effendi) also won an OPUS award in Jazz/World music. In France it received a coveted Choc! in Jazzman Magazine; and US critics were unanimous that it was time this artist’s music was known south of the border.

Mark Miller, of Canada’s Globe and Mail, has commended François for “not playing the usual standards”. In fact, he has composed several commissioned pieces, including work for Effendi Records’ JazzLab, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, and the Dominican Fathers (“Jazz Mass”), and for classical ensembles Amati and that of percussionist Marie-Josée Simard. Over the years, François and his group have received numerous composing, touring and recording grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec. Recently he has recorded and performed with well-known Quebec jazz artists Yannick Rieu, Alain Caron, Jean Derome and Pierre Tanguay, and singer Jeanne Rochette.

As a youth François Bourassa studied piano and composition (and also explored blues guitar). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in performance with “Distinction and Honours in Composition” from McGill University and a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music with Academic Honours and Distinction in Performance, where he studied with George Russell, one of modern jazz’s leading composers, and pianist Fred Hersch, known as a superior soloist and interpreter of ballads. François is a two-time recipient of the Official IAJE Award for Outstanding service to Jazz Education. François teaches at l’Université du Québec à Montréal and at the Cégep de Drummondville (Québec). In addition, he has given workshops and clinics in France and Canada and fulfilled a residency at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec.