Live 5 (Double CD) by Alain Caron

Here he has finally found the right balance between sampling and live musicians, between performance and pure emotion, between traditional jazz and urban. CARON seeks to initiate the public at large to this fun new refreshing point of view, he likes to call.

¨ELECTRO-FUSION-JAZZ¨

Alain Caron certainly has not lost his touch; he’s as virtuosic, technically magical, and passionate about his music as ever. But this latest release is as much a showcase for CARON the writer and orchestrator as it is CARON the player. This double CD, in large part, features material from his last studio offering ¨5¨ released in 2003. But it also features such classics like

¨ Slam the Clown ¨ taken from Rhythm & Jazz. ¨ D-Code ¨ taken from the album PLAY and

¨ Baby Step ¨, from the album Call Me AL. As both the artist and architect, CARON manages to give his band a solid foundation for them to expand on. He joins forces with long time friend and colleague Jean St-Jacques on keyboards and Malletkat. Alain and Jean go back to the 1st days of UZEB where Jean was the original drummer. Then as fate would have it, he re-joined UZEB years later but this time as their keyboard player. Jean absolutely wows you on the Malletkat. CARON surrounds himself with a new generation of young musicians for this show. David Bellemare on Sax. Simon Langlois on drums and Francois Blouin on keys. These musicians are all players in there own right but are part of a new wave of jazz musicians that also have great respect and understanding for the NEW thing.

Your biggest challenge will be to sit still while you listen.

BIO

Canadian bassist Alain Caron discovered very early on the music which would become his life’s passion - Jazz. In the early 70s, barely in his teens, he moved to Montreal and quickly started playing jazz clubs around the city. The self-taught musician then journeyed south to attend Berkley College of Music and was introduced to some outstanding young musicians, co-students, as well as, seasoned well established professional jazzman. Soon performing nightly, in the Boston area, with David Kikovsky, Tom Harrell, Sal Nestico, Frank Tiberi, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Moses, to name a few. In 1977, in a chance meeting, Alain was introduced to the Michel Cusson Group. They emerged in the early 1980s with Quebecois fusion group UZEB. The group went on to achieve great stature and respect amongst it's piers.

( Recognised by ¨ Down Beat magazine ¨ as one of the best electric jazz bands of the decade, the group received nine Felix Awards - Best Jazz Album (1983-84-86-87-90-91), Best Group (1984-89), and Most Recognised Artist Abroad (1990), a Gemini Award For Best Original Score (1989), a SOCAN Award, and the Oscar Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award (1991). )

In 1992, he produced the first of his 5 solo albums to date ¨Le Band¨. ¨Rythym And Jazz¨ followed in 1995, ¨Play¨ was released in 1997 ¨Call Me Al¨ followed in 2000. Along the way, recording numerous albums with friends. ¨5¨ was released in 2003,

( American magazine ¨Bass Player¨ ranked Alain Caron fourth among its Top 10 bassists in 1996.

Bass Player magazine ranked Alain Caron's "Play" album one of the ten best bass albums of the decade.

Voted best "Master Bassist" by French magazine Guitariste in both "French" and "International" categories.

Felix award best album of the year Alain Caron / Le Band. (1993-2000) Voted "Best electric bass player" by Canadian magazine The Jazz Report for 8 years running. (1996) Appeared on the front cover of Bass Player Magazine (US) “June Issue”. Recieved the Hagood Hardy award, in the category, original jazz music / instrumental, presented at the SOCAN Gala in 1999. 2001 Felix nominee in the category “best album of the year” at the ADISQ GALA for “CALL ME AL”. (2003) The Festi-Jazz International de Rimouski awards him the “Héron d’or”. The ¨Hagood Hardy award¨, in the category, original jazz music / instrumental, presented at the SOCAN Gala, novembre 25th 2003. 2005 JUNO nominee in the category best "CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR" for the album ”5”. (2006) All about jazz, USA (Caron puts the music front and center). )

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