Skip to main content

Maverick Ad

Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Cover Stories
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Legacy Awards
  • Past Covers
  • Weekly Archive
Ottawa Composer Huguette Lavigne Throws Back in the Key of “Piano Retro”

Breadcrumb

  • Home
  • Ottawa Composer Huguette Lavigne Throws Back in the Key of “Piano Retro”
Huguette Lavigne
Fri Jul 09, 2021
Cashbox Canada

Innovative and prolific composer Huguette Lavigne is throwing back and taking you along for a jazzed-up, improvisational ride to “Piano Retro”.

Check out “Piano Retro” on YouTube here:

The Ottawa-based pianist calls this new release from her latest album Five O’Clock Somewhere “old-school piano jazz… An easy going, smooth flowing, just plain cool jazzy piece and good for the soul.”

She then sets the throwback scene featuring an old-time jazz club player that she imagines performing the song. “Some guy sits down in a smoky room at a large black grand and plays around with jazzy swirls, runs and melodic twists,” Lavigne describes. “He doesn’t take it too seriously, and it all ends with his notes slipping down a long glissando and the bubbles on his brain disappear.”

With the song’s sly, intriguing flourishes, and free flowing form, one can imagine Lavigne’s own whimsical smile as she allowed her muse to guide her fingers in the creation of this piece. Following her fingers and colouring outside the lines is how Lavigne has composed all of her 40-plus pieces over five albums, all released in the last five years.

“There is something about breaking the rules that can be terribly satisfying,” she notes. “My fingers sometimes go where they want to on the keyboard and at times I sort of have to take them back home or rein them in.”

That’s also exactly where the video for “Piano Retro” focuses as well with Lavigne’s fingers dancing on the keys and musical notes swirling in tandem. The video is now available on Lavigne’s YouTube channel.

Along with the improvisational jazz leanings of “Piano Retro,” all of Lavigne’s songs on Five O’Clock Somewhere are diverse in tone and mood. From the sombre “Requiem,” an ode to our current global pandemic, to the playful, fun movement of “As It Goes” to the slow, summer’s day on a boat drift of of “Aux Airs De L’eau,” all nine songs on the album vary greatly in theme. They’re perhaps an extension of Lavigne’s Franco Ontarian, Québecois, and English Canadian upbringing and her wide ranging musical influences of Neoclassicism, Neo-Romanticism, Minimalism, Jazz, Folk and Classical music from India.

“There has always been something alluring about the pieces I studied, loved and discovered over the years,” recalls Lavigne. “They are valuable, inspired specimens of the universal landscape we have all inherited and that we live in today. The fabric of that music inspires me to this day.”

It’s safe, and exciting, to say that no two of Huguette Lavigne’s performances would be exactly the same. You wouldn’t see sheet music or traditional charts as Lavigne relies instead on shorthand of her own to facilitate recall for performances. Finished compositions are eventually stored entirely in her head and fingers and once they’re recorded, Lavigne moves on to creating the next piece.

“Somehow and unexpectedly, a style, theme, mood, emotion or vision is released from the deep recesses of memory,” she explains. “It’s a place where the subjective is stored and it surprises me when it lets something loose. Then, I either capture it, or let it go.”

Huguette Lavigne’s delightful “Piano Retro” is ready for all ears to capture now!

For more on Huguette Lavigne visit:
pianonotesottawa.ca/
facebook.com/huguette.lavigne.545
twitter.com/LavigneGandhi
open.spotify.com/album/4mTKHemWfFl3vc00fiwudt?highlight=spotify:track:2YvPjchmqVuUNlh1PjT03i

Features
Music
Huguette Lavigne
Month: Jul 2021
John Fogerty “Weeping In The Promised Land” Jul 16
Vacation? What Is That? Jul 09
Ottawa Composer Huguette Lavigne Throws Back in the Key of “Piano Retro” Jul 09
Rabbi, Author & Musician Gary Zweig’s Kiddush Club Release Music to Get… Jul 09
BTW-Brittany Howard, 401 WST, Finny McConnell, Bill Heffernan, SOJA, Hannah… Jul 09
Murray McLauchlan Hourglass Jul 09
Record Producer Taabu Joins Forces with Kenyan Singer Yviona for “Pigana” Jul 02
What Do You Have To Offer? Jul 02
BTW - Lorde, Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band, Taylor Abrahamse, Pink, Royal Wood… Jul 02
Indie Week and indie101 Announce FREE Summer /Sessions with Rick Barker July… Jul 02
Month: Jun 2021
BTW This Week-Robin Cisek, SaintVicious, Patrick Watson, Mike Boguski, Caty… Jun 25
The Music Industry Screwed Me! Jun 25
Joni Mitchell Celebrates 50 Years of “Blue” Jun 25
BTW-Felix Cartal/KRoy, Billie Ellish, The Hello Darlings, Lara Hope & The… Jun 18
Paul Sanderson - A Lawyer, A Laureate, A Poet and a Musician Jun 18
Ed Sheeran Confirms Official Return with the Release of New Single “Bad Habits” Jun 18
Understanding the ”No Filter” World Jun 18
BTW-Alicia Toner, Adequate, Moist, Maitreya, iskwē /Tom Wilson, Suzie… Jun 11
How To Make the Most Out of a Showcase Festival Jun 11
Peter Frampton Forgets the Words Jun 11

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • …
  • Page 30
  • Page 31
  • Page 32
  • Page 33
  • Current page 34
  • Page 35
  • Page 36
  • Page 37
  • Page 38
  • …
  • Next page Next ›
  • Last page Last »

CEO/PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF
SANDY GRAHAM

email:sandygrahamemg@gmail.com 

Canadian Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Don Graham
email: dongrahamwriter@gmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Lisa Hartt
email: lisahartt87@hotmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada 
Michael Williams
email: greydread@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

International Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Malin Osth
email: malin@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Jonas Tancred
email: jonas@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - USA
Rob Durkee 
email: rockster2746@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Developer/Technical Support
Chris Wardman

email: info@chriswardman.com
website: chriswardman.com

Cashbox Cover Design and Graphic Artist
Jain McMillan

email: jainmcmillan@gmail.com

Contributing Photographer 
Tracey Savein - South Paw Productions
southpawproductions@rogers.com

 

 

 

Footer menu

  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Archive
  • Issue Archive
  • Past Covers