Music Reissues Weekly: 1001 Est Crémazie

It would have been hard to pick up a copy of the album credited to and titled 1001 Est Crémazie in 1975. Just 500 copies were pressed. It didn’t reach shops but was circulated amongst the musicians playing on it, their friends, families and fellow students at Montréal’s Collège André-Grasset, the school at which those on the album were pupils.

As is the way with these types of thing, the privately pressed album was found by collectors and became sought after. The album’s final track “Bright Moments” reappeared on a DJ-targeted bootleg single in 2000 and then on 2002’s grey-area France and Japan-issued Canadian Racer compilation, a collection of funky, jazzy and Latin-inclined tracks from Canada. Original pressings of the 1001 Est Crémazie album can cost anywhere between 300 and just-over 500 US dollars. Now, the only album on the Phono Grass label is reissued for the first time. Legally so.

The funky, jazzy and Latin slant of Canadian Racer points to how 1001 Est Crémazie is seen. Indeed, the promotional material accompanying the reissue says it’s a “super-rare high school jazz private pressing LP” and that the “album includes…the highly acclaimed ‘Bright Moments,’ with its drum and conga breakbeat, was quickly appropriated by DJs and hip-hop aficionados. ‘Le roi muffé’ occupies a similar sonic space to Bob Dorough’s ‘Three is the Magic Number,’ and is a highly-prized rarity by the likes of Madlib and MF Doom.” Fair enough. But the album is a more complex beast than this suggests.

1001 Est Crémazie opens with versions of “The Way we Were” and “The Sting” (i.e. Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” titled here as per its use as the theme to the film The Sting). Each is a straightforward, piano-centred interpretation. Nothing special. Next, in contrast, are “Mon ami qui fuit” and a cover of “Le picbois.” The latter is from the repertoire of the important Québec folk-rock band Beau Dommage. The former is written and sung by Daniel Maisonneuve, one of the line-up which recorded the album. Each is a slice of acoustic introspection. Side One ends with a wonderful chanson-style version of “Les gens de mon pays,” written by Québécois poet Gilles Vigneault. All three cuts are not at all in the jazz/groove vein. After these, Side Two kicks off with three cool, swinging instrumental takes of jazz chestnuts: versions of Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” “Coming Home Baby” (a hit when it had vocals by Mel Tormé) and Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” Then, to end, the collector/DJ magnets “Le roi muffé" and “Bright Moments.”

Evidently, the March 1975-recorded 1001 Est Crémazie is not wholly a jazz-groove-breakbeat extravaganza. Instead, it intriguingly blends what the students who made the album were interested in: the Québec province’s then-contemporary music and its heritage, jazz and standards. A mixed bag.

Those playing on the album attended Collège André-Grasset, a still-extant school located at 1001 Crémazie Boulevard East in Montréal. The album’s reissue is licensed from the school. Established in 1927, it was private and Canada’s first fee-paying day school. Up to this point, such high-end institutions were boarding only. The school’s remit was – and is – to prepare its students for university.

Of the 15-or-so participants in the album, barely any went on to a career in music. Pianist Benoît Sarrasin would work with Isabelle Boulay, Sylvie Tremblay and other regional stars. Bassist Pierre Lachance became Marie Denise Pelletier’s manager. The 1001 Est Crémazie album was a non sequitur, a high-school project which in the main didn’t pave the way for careers in music. Albeit, though, a non sequitur which really is worth hearing, This fascinating reissue is very welcome.

• Next week: The Hamburg Repertoire – overview of the cover versions The Beatles performed during their early series of German bookings 
  
• More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
• Kieron Tyler’s website

@kierontyler.bsky.social