François Bourassa

François Bourassa—now with ten albums of original music under his belt—has become an ambassador for Canada’s thriving jazz community at an international level. A paragon of both consistency and evolution, he continues to seek out new challenges for himself, his colleagues, and his growing community of listeners. On April 16, 2021, Bourassa finally released his first solo piano album L’Impact du silence, recorded at La Buissonne in the southeast of France. On July 7, 2023, he will release « Swirl », a new live album by the François Bourassa Quartet recorded in 2022 at Studio Piccolo in Montreal (QC)

Bourassa’s talent was initially recognized by the Festival international de jazz de Montréal in 1985, kickstarting his trio’s recording and performing career throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In 1996, Bourassa’s trio joined forces with André Leroux, a saxophonist and flutist who is equally at home with a contemporary saxophone quartet as with a jazz orchestra as the featured soloist. Bourassa’s eponymous quartet has been a staple of Montreal’s artistic landscape for 25 years. The band features founding bassist Guy Boisvert, longtime saxophonist André Leroux, and Guillaume Pilote as the most recent addition in Bourassa’s mentorship of young drummers. Their 2001 Live album recorded at Toronto’s Top O’ the Senator received a Juno award. In celebration of his compositional output, Bourassa was also the recipient of SOCAN’s Hagood Hardy Award in 2011. Number 9 (2017) chronicles his discography while also providing a subtle namecheck to the Beatles’ psychedelic oeuvre “Revolution #9” and The White Album. One highlight of the album, “Carla und Karlheinz” salutes two more of Bourassa’s guiding influences: Carla Bley (to whom he paid tribute at the Festival international de jazz de Montréal with the Orchestre national de Jazz) and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Number 9 was heralded as one of the best Canadian jazz albums of 2017 (Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen) and praised by Bley herself and Steve Swallow as a “wondrous piece of work.” Over the past decades, the quartet has garnered multiple Félix and Opus awards for their recordings and live performances, respectively.

Alongside his quartet, Bourassa’s artistic projects included a trio with multi‑instrumentalist Jean Derome and percussionist Pierre Tanguay, both pillars of Quebec’s improvised music community; a collaboration with the prolific Myra Melford, artistic residencies in New York and Paris; and a growing list of orchestral commissions, chamber music works, and ballet scores. Other active collaborations include En Trois Couleurs with fellow pianist/composer Yves Léveillé and percussionist Marie‑Josée Simard for whom he also composed musical works for vibraphone, marimba, and symphony orchestra; the award-winning Re: Bill Evans with legendary bassist Michel Donato, saxophonist Frank Lozano, and Tanguay; various formations with tenor saxophonist Yannick Rieu, and a tribute to Dave Brubeck led by renowned saxophonist and educator Rémi Bolduc.

Born in Montreal in 1959, Bourassa was initially captivated by the electric guitar and the blues rock of Johnny Winter and Jimi Hendrix. Keyboard‑centric progressive rock was the catalyst to return to the piano at the age of 17. Through the gateway of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever, Bourassa worked his way backwards through the jazz tradition. After completing a degree in composition at McGill University, Bourassa pursued a master’s at the New England Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Fred Hersch and George Russell, among other professors. Bourassa has also spent years as a teacher and clinician (McGill, UQAM, University of Montreal).