Well, it appears they parted
L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus as friends, if the "merci" offered up to five previous bandmembers on the CD package is any indication. Bandleader/composer/trombonist Claude St-Jean views 2011's
L'Âge du Cuivre, the hyper-energetic brass band's fifth CD, as "a little different" but the changes come in the personnel more than anything else. French horn player Joël Brouillette, saxophonist Yves Turgeon, tubaist Philippe Legault, and drummer Martin Auguste are newcomers to the lineup, while saxophonist Marc Villiard returns after his
OPP debut on 2007's Projet 9. Those thanked for their previous service to St-Jean's vision of brass band futurism include three musicians -- drummer Rémi Leclerc, sousaphonist Jean Sabourin, and saxophonist Jean-Denis Levasseur -- who were there from the group's debut recording of T'Auras Pas Ta Pomme in 1996 through Projet 9; the only
OPP member on the first CD still present on
L'Âge du Cuivre is St-Jean himself. (Baritone saxophonist Roberto Murray and trumpeter Maxime St-Pierre have been been supporting St-Jean since 1998's Maison Douce Maison, and it's good to still have them around here.) Yet
OPP -- thanks of course to their leader -- have remained consistent, bursting with both exuberance and creativity as a sextet on their first three discs, expanding to a nonet on Projet 9, and now pared back a bit to an eight-piece for this welcome return. After a four-year absence and despite the newcomers on board, St-Jean and
OPP have clearly not lost their form.
First off, dispense with any concerns about the rhythm section on
L'Âge du Cuivre, with Legault and Auguste every bit equal to predecessors Sabourin and Leclerc as a crisp and deep groove machine, abetted by Murray, whose timbral addition to Legault's deep tones at times suggests there's a bass instrument of the stringed variety being plucked, even an overdriven electric one. But no, despite scattered electronic looping around the edges, this is the sound of a drummer plus seven men blowing into mouthpieces, even if your brain tells you more is happening. Opener "Suspense en Suspend" begins relatively low-key and even dirge-like, but the drummerless intro is merely a feint before the band hits you with track after track of jabs to the head -- with the occasional break to pick yourself up off the floor. Try to remain stationary as St-Jean reveals that his modus operandi remains fully intact: tight multi-layered ensemble arrangements, hooks leading to more hooks, key changes that push the music higher, bridges offering only momentary respite, and compact solos that breathe fire across the top of everything.
OPP rock and swing, but, as always, are not hidebound by tradition. Ever the bandleader rather than solo star, St-Jean ably steps out on the trombone only occasionally, including a brief showcase on "À Vos Risques et Périls," whose coda achieves a certain stateliness as it shifts into a ceremonial march-like cadence and the players draw from classicism as easily as avant funk. ~ Dave Lynch