 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
Artist: La Bottine Souriante
Category: Americas, Listeners Award
The name means 'The Smiling Boot' which may seem odd at first. It's really necessary to see La Bottine Souriante on stage to catch the full significance of this phrase, but a short listen to any of their albums will give you some idea. You'll hearing a stamping sound on most of the more
upbeat tracks...
Multi-instrumentalist Michel Bordeleau keeps up the frantic foot-tapping action that provides this nine-piece French Canadian band with some of their most distinctive rhythms. And of course the origin of their puzzling monicker. He may do this while singing and playing guitar or mandolin, bringing an almost rock 'n' roll energy to their shows.
The band started out on the QuΓ©bec music scene in 1976 and soon gained a cult following for their irreverent lyrics full of double entendre, and an enthusiastic modernising approach to traditional QuΓ©bΓ©cois roots music. In the beginning they were a trio which then expanded to a five piece. They eventually reached their present incarnation as a 'contradanse band with horns' through the addition of four brass players. This initially caused controversy among purist members of their fan base, though these days its difficult to see how that could have been.
Canadian folk tunes have a mixture of roots in Irish, Scottish and French music, but this band don't stop there. There are dashes of salsa, jazz, rock and even funk in their sound, which has been heartily embraced by world music audiences across the globe.
La Bottine Souriante find a devoted following wherever they go. Audiences go wild for their lively reels powered by fiddle, accordion, bass, and piano as well as the trombones, trumpet and sax. They have an eccentric, perhaps even slightly crazy presence which seems to be the perfect catalyst to get people who might otherwise be frightened of making fools of themselves up on their
feet and dancing.
They released their eleventh album 'Cordial' in September this year - on their own label as usual - and it continues their inspired madness with the usual flair.
Biography by Jon Lusk, November 2001
Visit
 Back to Awards home
Back to nominations |
|
|
