Ville Emard Blues Band -

Ville Emard Blues Band was a Québécois jazz-rock/funk big band that self-issued the album Minute! Ville Émard Blues Band s’en vient / Is Coming in 1973, followed by a 1974 live double-album and a 1975 eponymous studio album on self-press Funkébec. The band maintained a revolving-door lineup that included members of Contraction, Harmonium, and Toubabou.

Members: Rawn Bankley (guitar, vocals, 1972-75), Marcel Beauchamp (piano, guitar, clavinet, 1972-75), Lise Cousineau (vocals, tambourine, 1972-75), Denis Farmer (drums, 1972-75), Michel Dion (bass, 1972-75), Bill Gagnon (bass, 1972-75), Roger Gougeon (flugelhorn, tambourine, 1972-75), Marcel Huot (drums, timbales, harmonica, 1972-75), Robert Lachapelle (piano, keyboards, 1972-75), Yves Laferrière (bass, 1972-75), Gilles Massé (guitar, 1972-75), Carlyle Miller (alto saxophone, flute, vocals, 1972-75), Rénald Montemiglio (tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, flute, tambourine, 1972-75) Pierre Nadeau (piano, organ, clavinet, 1972-75), Yvan Ouellet (piano, 1972-75), Christiane Robichaud (vocals, tambourine, 1972-75), Michel Robidoux (guitar, 1972-75), Sharon Ryan (vocals, 1972-75), Christian St-Roch (drums, organ, vocals, 1972-75), Estelle Ste-Croix (piano, vocals, 1972-75), Michel Seguin (congas, timbales, djembe, 1972-75), Robert Stanley (guitar, 1972-75), Richard “Moose” Tellier (guitar, 1972-75), Serge Vallières (guitar, 1972-75), Roger Walls (trumpet, 1972-75)

Background

Ville Émard Blues Band formed on May 18, 1972, in Montréal when bassist and studio owner Roland “Bill” Gagnon assembled a large musician cooperative around his studio in the Ville-Émard district. The project drew singers, horn players, guitarists, keyboardists, drummers, and multiple bassists from the Montréal studio, theatre, television, and chanson circuits. Its main prehistory ran through Gagnon’s studio network, Franck Dervieux’s Dimension M, Contraction, Jean-Pierre Ferland, and the Robert Charlebois stage band.

Gagnon was born on April 7, 1944, in Montréal. He played bass, cello, and keyboards and worked with Michel Conte, Louise Forestier, Renée Claude, Des Cyniques, Yvon Deschamps, Claude Dubois, and Robert Charlebois before Ville Émard Blues Band.

Drummer Christian St-Roch moved from Les Baronets and the Jean-Pierre Ferland band into Dimension M, Contraction, and Charlebois’s band. Guitarist Michel Robidoux played for L’Ostidshow, wrote music for Ferland’s Jaune, and worked in the Dervieux–Contraction circle. Bassist Yves Laferrière worked with Ferland, Pauline Julien, Monique Leyrac, and Renée Claude before Contraction and VEBB. Keyboardist Pierre Nadeau and singer Lise Cousineau also linked the cooperative to Contraction.

Ville Émard Blues Band played its first show several months after formation at Parc de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montréal. Radio-Canada booked the group for Décibels, the variety program hosted by Claude Dubois, and further radio, television, and stage work followed through Montréal and the Québec circuit. Barclay issued the 1973 single “Yama Nekh” (b/w “S’asseoir dans les champs”), credited to Ville Émard Blues Band with Lise Cousineau.

Minute! Ville Émard Blues Band s’en vient / Is Coming

Ville Émard Blues Band released their privately pressed debut album, Minute! Ville Émard Blues Band s’en vient / Is Coming, in 1973 on VEBB.

Minute documents the Montreal collective across French and English titles, with extended pieces, blues titles, percussion passages, and concert-form medleys. The personnel base connects the album to a rotating ensemble of singers, bassists, drummers, guitarists, keyboardists, horn players, and percussionists led within the Ville Émard circle.

“Soumis – Octobre au mois de mai” drives through massed brass, twin-guitar action, and Cousineau’s front-line lead. “Konkey Donkey” hammers a low-end and hand-percussion cycle while brass, clavinet, and guitar break into extended solo crossfire. “Yama Nekh” centers Cousineau’s lead on a Senegalese-sourced song form.

A1. “Soumis – Octobre Au Mois De Mai” [Submitted – October in the Month of May]
A2. “You And Your Mother (Ville Emard Stew)”
A3. “Rawn’s Blues”
A4. “Blow – Poiros Nevroses” [Blow – Neurotic Poirots]

B1. “Konkey Donkey”
B2. “Ste-Melanie Blues”
B3. “Drums Solo”
B4. “Yama Nekh”

Minute! Ville Émard Blues Band s’en vient / Is Coming appeared in a white sleeve stamped with the album title, the band name, and the English phrase “Is Coming.”

Barclay issued “Yama Nekh” as a 1973 single by Lise Cousineau and Ville Emard Blues Band. “S’asseoir dans les champs” [To Sit in the Fields] appeared on the B-side.

Live à Montréal

Ville Émard Blues Band released the double live album Live à Montréal, in 1974 on Funkébec.

Live documents the cooperative at full concert scale, with three bassists, three drummers, four singers, six guitarists, four horns, and a five-player keyboard pool. The credits retain the Gagnon, St-Roch, Robidoux, Laferrière, Nadeau, and Cousineau axis with percussionist Michel Séguin as the key added name.

“Soumis / Octobre (Au mois de mai)” barrels through massed brass, twin-guitar action, and Cousineau’s front-line lead. “Ville Émard Blues” trades interlocked lead phrases over a rolling low-end line. “That Ain’t No Way to Be” bumps through a tight, head-nodding ensemble churn. “Ode à une belle inconnue” lingers around concert-piano figures and broad orchestral shading. “Konky Donky” hammers a steady bass-and-hand-percussion cycle while brass, clavinet, and guitar break into extended solo crossfire.

“Indian Giver God” strums through a sparse acoustic song form. “City Music” thickens the strummed approach with full-band backing. “Poivrots Névrosés” erupts in free-blown ensemble agitation. “Strangle / Solos de Batteries” coils around a long jam and threads Cousineau’s mantra-style chant through the middle stretch. “Yama Nekh” centers Cousineau’s lead on a Senegalese-sourced song form.

A1. “Soumis” [Submitted] (1:50 + 0:45 intro) – Séguin, B. Gagnon, V.E.B.B.
A2. “Octobre (Au Mois De Mai)” [October (In the Month of May)] (6:12) – Cousineau, R. Mitchell, C. Levac
A3. “Ville Emard Blues” (3:42) – B. Gagnon
A4. “Comme Par Magie” [As If by Magic] (6:00) – St-Roch, Cousineau
A5. “That Ain’t No Way To Be” (6:00) – B. Gagnon, Vallières, Huot, Miller

B1. “Ste-Mélanie Blues” (4:04) – Laferrière, Lachapelle, Robichaud, Georges-Hébert Germain
B2. “Ode (À Une Belle Inconnue)” [Ode (To a Beautiful Unknown Woman)] (6:10) – Nadeau
B3. “Make Some Music” (3:53) – St-Roch, V.E.B.B.
B4. “Kondy Donky” (9:01) – Séguin, B. Gagnon, Beauchamp

C1. “Pixieland” (3:27) – Laferrière, Lachapelle, Robichaud, Stanley
C2. “Indian Giver God” (4:49) – Bankley
C3. “City Music” (4:45) – Bankley
C4. “Poirots Nevroses” [Neurotic Poirots] (6:35) – B. Gagnon

D1. “Strangle / Solos de Batteries” [Strangle / Drum Solos] (12:09) – Miller, St-Roch, Farmer, Huot
D2. “Yama Nekh” (10:39) – trad; arrangement by Séguin; French text by Cousineau
D3. “You And Your Mother” (8:37) – Robidoux, Miller, V.E.B.B.

Bill Gagnon and Ville Émard Blues Band produced Live à Montréal. Lyle Fain recorded the concert for Labo Fédco Audio, and Chuck Gray and Quentin Meek mixed the album at Studio Six in Montreal.

Michel Séguin designed the sleeve, which places a blue band-logo shape on the front cover and blue-tinted live photographs across the inside spread. Gilles Lévesque and Danielle Arsenault supplied the photographs.

Funkébec issued “Yama Nekh” as a 1974 single by Lise Cousineau and Ville Emard Blues Band. “Va t’en vite” [Go Away Quickly] appeared on the B-side.

Ville Emard

Ville Émard Blues Band released the studio album Ville Emard in 1975 on Funkébec.

The album condenses the collective’s large-band format into ten studio cuts. Ville Emard contains four Bill Gagnon titles or co-writes, two Estelle Ste-Croix titles, one Rawn Bankley title, and single pieces by Carlyle Miller, Christian St-Roch, and the Vallières–Dion–Huot team. Yvan Ouellet and R. Duguay wrote “Le Chemin.”

“La Poutine à ma tante Anna” snaps through a compact, hard-cut electric ensemble run. “In Our Loneliness” floats on light piano and Ryan’s placed lead. “Affaire C.S.R. vs Marlyle Killer & Stobert Ranley” cuts to a denser band drive and a sharp guitar break. “Walter’s Van” prowls through a dark, after-hours ensemble figure. “Guess Who’s Coming to Jam” reels through a fiery instrumental jam, with piano runs and runaway low-end figures.

A1. “La Poutine A Ma Tante Anna” [Aunt Anna’s Poutine] (2:39) – Vallières, Dion, Huot
A2. “In Our Loneliness” (3:28) – Ste-Croix
A3. “Affaire C.S.R. vs Marlyle Killer & Stobert Ranley” [C.S.R. Case vs. Marlyle Killer & Stobert Ranley] (4:14) – St-Roch
A4. “Where’s Your Money” (4:36) – Miller
A5. “Walter’s Van” (6:24) – B. Gagnon

B1. “La Machine Infernale” [The Infernal Machine] (5:44) – B. Gagnon
B2. “Le Chemin” [The Path] (2:45) – Ouellet, R. Duguay
B3. “Sleepy Teepy” (1:24) – Bankley
B4. “Secret Pour Pierre-Antoine” [Secret for Pierre-Antoine] (3:49) – Ste-Croix
B5. “Guess Who’s Coming To Jam” (6:43) – B. Gagnon

Bill Gagnon produced Ville Emard at Recording Studio Six in Montreal with Quentin Meek recording and mixing. Ville Émard Blues Band arranged the album, and Éditions Co-Op Ville Emard handled the publishing.

The sleeve uses a cartoon street-and-waterfront scene with marching brass, percussion, reeds, keyboards, bass, stage gear, and the band logo.

Discography: