Apr 02 2006

J-B

Hello everyone,

I am presently in Brussels, Belgium. We have two days off from the tour and we just arrived after a 14-hour bus ride from Cannes. Needless to say, the two days off are quite welcome. It was nice to spend some time in the south of France (Perpignan, Montpellier, Nice, and Cannes) and the concerts were great.

The other night we were on stage and I was thinking to myself as I listened to J-B play his bass, that he is truly an amazing bass player. We are so fortunate to play with a talent like that. Did you ever wonder how I came to meet him ? The story is a good one. My best friend’s wife’s brother (!) is a car mechanic and he owns a garage in Montreal. This mechanic was at one time a musician so as a result, many musicians bring their cars to him because they know and trust him. One day I was getting an oil change done on my car at his garage and J-B was there too, getting an oil change done on his car. We introduced ourselves and we talked a little bit about what we do in music. I explained that I worked with Corneille and he told me that he played some jazz gigs around town and that he was also touring with Michel Pagliaro – a Québec rocker. After our cars were ready, we exchanged email addresses and phone numbers. He gave me the address to his website and I visited it when I got home. I sent him an email telling him that I liked his bass playing and that I hoped to play with him in the future. Anyway, about 6 months go by and one day I made an appointment for another oil change. As I pull into the garage, who is there getting his car repaired ? Yep, JB ! I couldn’t believe it. What are the chances ? I thought to myself, “this must be fate”. So we talked again and agreed that it would be nice to play with each other one day. About a month after that, I received a call from Dany Roy, who is an amazing saxophone player in Montréal (and the musical director of Garou) who wanted to hire me for a jazz gig at an art gallery. When I show up on the gig, guess who’s playing bass ? J-B once again ! We finally got our chance to play together. The gig was great and we got along very well musically. I told him at the end of the gig that if I ever needed a bass player for Corneille, I would use him. One day the time came to find a new bass player with Corneille and I recommended him. The audition lasted about 2 minutes. Once Corneille heard the way J-B played he said “you’ve got the gig”. The rest is history. You can see J-B’s site at http://www.jbcarbou.com

In other news, I did an interview for a guitar magazine called Guitare Xtrem. That should be out soon. I’ll keep you posted.

I am have also put up a few new photos on the site. I have included a photo of Fred Papin, our administrator on the tour and of Roseline Leclair who is the assistant to René. Both of these people work very hard to make sure that the musicians are well taken care of at all times.

See you soon,

Andy

P.S. In my iPod: Donald Fagen – The Nightfly, Donald Fagen – Morph The Cat, Donald Fagen – Kamakiriad, Michael Jackson – Dangerous, Donny Hathaway – Live, Steely Dan - Aja, Diana Krall - All For You, Joe Henderson - Porgy And Bess, George Benson - The Cooker, George Benson - It’s Uptown