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PHOTO: MATHIEU RIVARD
faculté de musique de l’Université York. Alors que le ténor québécois
poursuivait des études classiques rigoureuses, sa formation en jazz
ayant été acquise plutôt sur le tas, Underhill avait déjà vendu son âme
à la note bleue depuis belle lurette. « À cette époque, raconte-t-il en
entrevue téléphonique, j’avais déjà monté mes propres groupes,
j’écrivais un peu, mais on jouait surtout dans une veine assez free.
Pour payer mes études, je me suis mis à jouer dans la rue et je partageais
à ce moment-là un logement avec un autre saxophoniste, Mike
Murley. Un soir, je suis arrivé à la maison avec un sac plein de monnaie,
Mike revenait d’un mariage où il avait joué et se plaignait des
circonstances et de la paie. Quand il a vu mon sac, il m’a proposé de
se joindre à moi et il l’a fait le lendemain et ç’a été en quelque sorte
le coup d’envol des Shuffle Demons. »
Avec trois saxos, une contrebasse et une batterie, les cinq démons
gravirent rapidement les échelons de la scène locale, puis sillonnèrent
le pays pour ensuite se lancer à la conquête du monde. Un périple
fructueux de quinze ans s’ensuivit pour ces troubadours du jazz
moderne, leurs prestations enlevées gratifiant autant des spectateurs
des festivals de jazz que des badauds de fêtes foraines urbaines ou
rurales. Affublés de costumes aux couleurs bigarrées, misant sur une
présence scénique exubérante, s’attaquant à un répertoire de pièces
populaires et d’originaux dans un style free bop, ces larrons s’époumonnaient
joyeusement. En1998, Underhill décida de donner un
congé au groupe, choisissant alors de se consacrer à des projets plus
personnels, sans pour autant dissoudre sa bande; l’année dernière, les
Demons ont refait surface, avec un personnel légèrement différent de
la version originale, pour fêter les 25 ans de leur existence, chaque
spectacle incluant infailliblement leur grand tube : l’ancien indicatif
de la Soirée du hockey !
UN QUINTETTE PLEIN LA VUE ET PLEIN LES OREILLES
Enfant, Richard Underhill reçoit sa première piqûre de musique de sa
mère, mélomane friande d’opéra, qui lui paie ses premières leçons de
piano à sept ans. Adolescent, il découvre le saxophone de manière
inusitée, par des solos joués sur la trame sonore de la production musicale
Jesus Christ Superstar. Au piano, il réussit à identifier la tessiture
d’un ténor et exhorte sa mère à lui en acheter un. L’instrument ne lui
plaira pas cependant et son bocal (la pièce dans laquelle on installe le
bec) finira par casser à force de jouer dans des conditions atmosphériques
pas toujours des plus clémentes. Mais un jour, il troque sur un
coup de tête un soprano (qu’il détenait aussi à l’époque) pour un alto,
y trouvant alors sa voix instrumentale, sinon sa voie musicale.
Désormais saxophoniste alto, Underhill ajoute aussi un baryton à son
10 Mai 2010 May
Having always played “second fiddle” since the beginning of his
career, Leroux admits he has somewhat neglected creating his own
music. Of the nine tracks on his recording, he has contributed a single
piece. “For a multi-instrumentalist working in all genres, or a Mr. Sax-
Montreal, if you like, I’ve never really sat down to write music outside
my professional activities. I prefer to go to the country and relax, play
golf or do other sports, spend time with the family. But I’m starting to
compose a little, like the piece on my recording. It’s no symphony; it’s
more of an outline in my mind that will develop, but I’ve got to get
down and work on it more. When you’re a bandleader you’re obliged
to compose, because you really have to put together a repertoire: it’s
essential for getting grants or showing that you’re a complete musician.
When you spend time playing music of great composers like I
have, you acquire utmost respect for the work they do.”
DEMON ON THE LOOSE
If André Leroux is only
now breaking ground
on his own after years
of sideman duty, Richard
Underhill has a long history
as a bandleader, organizer
of tours and recording
sessions. A native of
Salmon Arm, B.C., the budding
musician arrived in the Queen
City in the early eighties to
study at York University. While
Leroux was undergoing rigorous
classical training and learning
jazz basically on the job, Richard
was a full-blooded jazzer by
then. “At that time,” he pointed
out,“I was already into bandleading, playing in a more free vein, even doing
a bit of writing. To put myself through school, I did a lot of busking. Back
then I was sharing an apartment with tenorman Mike Murley. One night, I
came home with a sack full of coins and Mike returned from a wedding gig
and was complaining about the lousy work and pay. When he saw my take,
he asked if he could come out and play with me the next day, which he did;
and that was basically how the Shuffle Demons started.”
With three saxes, a double bass and drums, the Demons would soon
make a splash on the local scene, then hit the road in Canada and eventually
the rest of the world. Throughout the fruitful 15-year journey that followed
for these modern jazz troubadours, their energetic performances
delighted audiences young and old, not only at jazz festivals but at all types
of popular events, urban and rural. Their outlandish-looking costumes and
exuberant stage presence rapidly became trademarks, and these rambunctious
revelers would blow their lungs out in a repertoire of pop tunes and
original pieces rendered in a free bop style. In 1998, Richard decided to take
a break and dedicate himself to personal projects, but the group was never
fully disbanded. The Demons resurfaced last year with only a slight change
of personnel to celebrate their 25 th year of existence, their shows often
topped off with their signature tune and surefire crowd-pleaser, the erstwhile
theme of Hockey Night in Canada!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Richard owes his love of music to his mother, an opera buff who signed him
up for piano lessons at age seven. In his teens, he discovered the saxophone
in a roundabout way: through the solos in the soundtrack of Jesus Christ
Superstar. After identifying the range of the tenor sax on the piano, he convinced
his mother to buy him one. But he never really liked his first horn, and
after having played it so much outdoors and in so many different weather
conditions, the neck broke one day. On a whim, Richard traded a soprano sax
he owned for an alto, a switch that enabled him to finally find his instrumental
voice and musical path. In the ensuing years, he added a baritone to
his arsenal, a 1920s antique that he rarely plays now, it too having suffered
from the accumulated wear and tear of climatic and travel hazards.
PHOTO: MARK McNEILLY