Alex Lefaivre is a bassist, composer and pedagogue based in Montreal. He is a founding member of the Parc X Trio, winners of the TD Grand Prize for Jazz at the Festival de Jazz de Montréal (2010) that have produced 7 recordings. He is also a founding member of Multiple Chord Music (MCM), a jazz label which has released over fifty recordings from local artists such as Gentiane MG & Frank Lozano, Benjamin Deschamps, Rachel Therrien, Rémi-Jean LeBlanc, Joel Miller, François Jalbert & Jérôme Beaulieu.
As a solo artist, he released YUL (2018). Taking its name from Montreal’s airport code, Alex takes the listener on a cinematic trip through the city, where dreamy, hazy summer vibes are intertwined with a gritty, metropolitan edge. It received critic al acclaim and has been described as a terrific amalgamation of modernity and tradition, deploying a mature and cohesive musical vision, performed by a quartet which displays a wide variety of textures with a enthralling and lilting vigor.
Alex is also a rising star as a media composer, scoring a variety of projects amongst which many are part of his home province’s comedy scene. His music can be heard on Mariana Mazza’s Maria, her full-length feature to be released in theatres August 21st 2021 as well as various web series featuring Rosalie Vaillancourt such as the upcoming Complètement Lycée (Winter 2022), Rosalie: La Comédie Musicale (Fall 2020) as well as Le Killing seasons 1 & 2.
He is currently a Technopedagogical counselor & Instructor at l’École de musique Vincent-d’Indy, in Montréal. As a sideman, he has shared the stage and recorded with a wealth of local artists such as Michelle Sweeney, Joel Miller, Aliocha, Klo Pelgag, Kalmunity as well as co-writing with artists such as Sonia Johnson.
On August 27th 2021, he will release his sophomore quartet album entitled Naufragés (“Castaways”), featuring Erik Hove on alto saxophone, Nicolas Ferron on guitar and Alain Bourgeois on drums.
About the new album
Naufragés (“Castaways”), the new album which will be released on August 27th 2021 is firmly rooted in jazz presents a mix of five original compositions as well as three covers that reflect Alex’s contemporary aesthetic and visceral tone. After many failed attempts at scheduling the recording due to the various strict lockdown measures brought upon by the COVID 19 pandemic, the group finally managed to get together at Montreal’s Studio Madame Wood on April 5th 2021. Recorded over the course of two spontaneous sets of music, the listener can feel the urgency and sheer joy erupting out of Alex and his bandmates Erik Hove, alto saxophone, Nicolas Ferron on guitar and Alain Bourgeois on drums. The session was recorded and mixed by Simon l’Espérance and was mastered by Alex himself.
Naufragés’ eclectic and cinematic contemporary jazz style features echoes of punk, disco, Film Noir and even reggae, which gives it a biting energy that oscillates freely between brute, rough textures and refined, graceful moments while leaving lots of room for the musicians to stretch.
It features three covers; Time of the Barracudas (Miles Davis, Gil Evans), a relatively obscure modal jazz standard; Immigrant Song by Led Zepplin, symbolisation the pure, raw energy of Rock & Roll and the theme song to Passe-Partout by Pierre F. Brault, a popular children’s TV show in Quebec which first aired in 1977 and is still going on today.
The album cover art was created by Les Microcosmes, the alter-ego of French-Canadian actress Daphnée Côté-Hallé. After meeting through a web series they had both been a part of on, Alex was captivated by her body of work as a visual artist. She suggested he use one of her latest works entitled Naufragés (“Castaways”) which perfectly embodied his feelings during the pandemic, with it’s long, secluded, drifting stretches followed by a celebratory yet slow return to back to firm ground.