In a city rich with jazz talent, bassist Alex Bellegarde is surely one of the best players around, constantly finding new types of projects and new musicians with which to extend the range of his
jazz vocabulary › Neil Brouillet. Montreal.com
Energetic player, composer and Grand Jazz Award winner at the Montreal Jazz Festival, 26th ed, Alex Bellegarde creates music drawn from a wealth of sources. He
heads a number of formations and participates in a range of projects: jazz, Latin
music and multidisciplinary. With several albums to his credit: Floating, Caminando, Quintet et Quartet "Live", One Fine Saturday he is also a guest
contributor to a wide array of other artists' recordings.
Latin
A much sought-after Latin bassist when local
Cuban players or latin stars from out of town
need the right sound, he has been called up to play with artists from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia and the US : Candido Camero, Viti Ruiz, Maelo Ruiz, Edwin Bonilla, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Sepulveda, Tony Vega, Willy Gonzales, Pedro Arroyo, Willy Torres, Chiquitin and Caridad Cruz.
His passion for Cuban music sparked in 2002 after meeting Cuban singer and composer Chiquitin, legendary for his contribution to traditional Cuban music. Chiquitin made a guest appearance on the album Alex Bellegarde, One Fine Saturday, VV Records. read on »
Jam Sessions
Bellegarde… a mainstay of Montréal's jazz scene › Sharon Cohen, Downbeat, NY
Tenacious and determined to keep the tradition alive, Alex Bellegarde hosts a dynamic weekly jam session that draws promising talents and renowned jazz musicians from near and far. Leading jam sessions at various clubs in Montreal for more than 20 years, his first experience at a jam session was down at Jazzons in the Quartier Latin district of Montreal in 97 with bassist Skip Bey leading. read on »
Pluridisciplinary
Master of free improvisation, Alex Bellegarde plays in a wealth of projects from theatre, film, poetry, and dance to multimedia. Some productions: Bass & Spoken word, Spontaneous Creation Module, Émergence Énergie, Mix Sessions/ Radical Libre (multimedia), Exit Sur Scène , Poetry for Three Americas (poetry), MRJ transmedia actuelle - Bravo film), Viva confusion by Hunt Hoe, Cornemuse by Larry Tremblay, Hamlet Machine by Heiner Müller (theatre) …to name a few! Invited to join Laurent Bortolotti's international project jazz é-tape (jazz, theatre & tap) in 2013, he has performed regularly with the company in Europe. read on »
more …
Born in Montreal, Alex grew up in Quebec's Eastern Townships, he played through with the award winning Ensemble Davignon and Massey Vanier Band. Interest in performance and theatre sparked from playing in the school's production of West Side Story.
By 97, he was back in town checking out Montreal's effevescent jazz scene and playing at many of the weekly jam sessions. Influenced greatly by bassist, the late Skip Bey, he was a member of the Vic Vogel Octet and played with Vogel's guest, saxophonist Jimmy Heath, at the Montreal Jazz Festival.
A frequent player in events such L'Off Festival de Jazz, Montreal's Jazz Fest as well festivals across Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, France and shortly Morocco, you can be sure to catch up with him most of the year at his Tuesday jam in Montreal.
I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by many enthusiastic people and to play with a wide range of exceptional musicians. During each session, I like to listen closely to our musical dialogues, absorb these 'spontaneous conversations', infuse my play with their positive energy and incorporate this in my music. › Alex Bellegarde
