Article

Jean Beaudet

Published Online July 8, 2007

Last Edited December 14, 2013

Jean (Bernard) Beaudet. Pianist, composer, b Ottawa 1 Jun 1950. His father, Rémi, was a professional violinist during the 1930s in Detroit. His mother, the mezzo-soprano Louise Bray, sang in Ottawa and Montreal. Beaudet began playing piano at 10.

Beaudet, Jean

Jean (Bernard) Beaudet. Pianist, composer, b Ottawa 1 Jun 1950. His father, Rémi, was a professional violinist during the 1930s in Detroit. His mother, the mezzo-soprano Louise Bray, sang in Ottawa and Montreal. Beaudet began playing piano at 10. After performing locally in R&B, jazz and studio groups and studying 1970-3 with Frederick Karam, Eldon Rathburn, Douglas Voice, and John Whitelaw at the University of Ottawa, he moved to Montreal in 1979. There he has worked exclusively in jazz, both as a leader and sideman - eg, with Denny Christianson, Robert Leriche, Guy Nadon, Leo Perron, and Nelson Symonds. He toured in Europe with Leriche in 1983.

Beaudet has appeared in several settings at the FIJM: trio (1982), solo (1985, 1989), quartet (1983, 1986, 1988) and nonet (1987). He was featured in the NFB's Crossroads - Three Jazz Pianists, made at the 1987 FIJM. His quartet 1986-9 with Yannick Rieu (tenor saxophone), Normand Guilbeault (bass) and Michel Ratté (drums) was one of leading Canadian contemporary jazz groups of the day and appeared at many festivals (eg, Ottawa in 1986, Jazz City and Vancouver in 1987, Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville in 1989) and in Montpellier, France (1988). Beaudet also toured Western Canada in 1989 and New Zealand and Australia in 1990 as a member of the Jane Bunnett Quintet.

His recordings include Danses (1979, Cadence CAD-1006), a co-operative effort with Leriche, Claude Simard (bass) and Mathieu Léger (drums), and Jean Beaudet Quartet (1987, Justin Time JTR-8407). His composition Téléphone appears on both LPs; other recorded Beaudet pieces include Si j'avais su, Parsifal and En 747. Whether in bebop settings or the freer context of his own groups, Beaudet's solos are typically hard and unyielding in their touch and emotional temperament, and turbulently rhythmic in their forward motion, reflecting a personalization of the piano jazz tradition rooted in the style of Bud Powell, etc.