feature photo: Randy Cole
Yannick Rieu has been consistently critically praised and awarded since the late 80s as a saxophonist of the highest order, but widespread notice of the kind contemporaries like Joe Lovano and Chris Potter received has somehow eluded the québécois. However, there’s no denying he’s got the chops and artful expression to hang with those guys.
And for the uninitiated, his upcoming long player Qui Qu’en Grogne would make a nice entry point. That’s because he chose to perform in the classic jazz quartet of saxophone, piano, standup bass and drums. He calls his backing band the ‘Génération Quartet’ because it’s a mixture of performers from his generation (Rieu; Guy Boisvert, bass) and a younger one (Gentiane Michaud-Gagnon, piano; Louis-Vincent Hamel, drums).
Yannick Rieu believes that the mixture of “different points of views, different perspectives” keeps the music fresh yet experienced. As all eight songs were penned by Rieu, this is also a showcase for his prowess as a composer, where he is mining the fertile ground of post-bop and modern jazz like the veteran jazzman that he is.
“Time Is, Life Was,” presented in the video premiering above, certainly speaks to both of those aspects. A gorgeous jazz ballad with a timeless quality, the band treats it with the reverence it commands with reserved accompaniment from Michaud-Gagnon and Hamel. Rieu’s sensitive, breathy delivery from his tenor sax brackets a sublime bass aside from Boisvert.
Qui Qu’en Grogne by the Yannick Rieu Génération Quartet will be released on April 29, 2022 from Yari Productions.
- James Brandon Lewis Quartet – ‘Abstraction Is Deliverance’ (2025) - May 27, 2025
- Soft Machine – ‘Drop’ (1971, 2025 remaster) - May 21, 2025
- Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons – ‘Live In Philadelphia’ (2025) - May 19, 2025
