Ville Émard Blues Band was a Canadian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band from

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, which played a significant role in the development of francophone

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

in the early 1970s."Ville Émard Blues Band"
''

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'', February 7, 2006. They were most noted for receiving a

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

nomination for Most Promising Group at the

Juno Awards of 1975 The Juno Awards of 1975, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 24 March 1975 in Toronto at a ceremony in the Canadian National Exhibition. Paul Anka was host for the ceremonies, which were broadca ...

. Despite their name, the band was not a straight

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

band, but incorporated a diverse mix of rock,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and world music influences. A rotating collective featuring anywhere between seven and 25 members at any given performance, the band was led by bass guitarist Bill (Roland) Gagnon and included singers Lise Cousineau and Estelle Sainte-Croix, pianist Pierre Nadeau, percussionists Denis Farmer, Michel Séguin and Christian St-Roch, saxophonists Carlyle Miller and Renald Montemeglio, and guitarists Rawn Bankley and Robert Stanley. Almost all of the members were simultaneously members of other bands, such as

Harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

and Contraction, or session players for solo artists, including

Robert Charlebois Robert Charlebois, OC, OQ (born June 25, 1944) is a Québecois author, composer, musician, performer and actor. Charlebois was born in Montreal, Quebec. Among his best known songs are ''Lindberg'' (the duo with Louise Forestier in particular) ...

Claude Dubois Claude André Dubois (born 24 April 1947) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Dubois was an early star of the Francophone musical '' Starmania''. He was a vocalist in the Canadian famine relief song "Tears Are Not Enough" and was nominated Most P ...

, Franck Dervieux and

Renée Claude Renée Claude (born Renée Bélanger; July 3, 1939 – May 12, 2020) was a Canadian actress and singer Denise Ménard, Suzanne Thomas and Benoît L'Herbier"Renée Claude" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', January 20, 2010. who was known as an inter ...

History

The band independently released the demo recording ''Minute! Ville Emard Blues Band S'en Vient Is Coming'' in 1973, before releasing two albums, ''Live à Montréal'' (1974) and ''Ville Émard'' (1975) on the Funkébec record label. They undertook a 30-city tour of Quebec in 1974, as well as playing a show on the

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. The band did not continue past 1975, although the two Funkébec albums were rereleased in 1979 as the double album compilation ''2 Disques incluant 2 oeuvres inédites''. A new compilation, ''Complete VEBB Au Complet 1973-1975'', was reissued in 2004 on the ProgQuébec record label. The band performed a number of reunion shows in this era, with new members including Kathleen Sergerie,"Kathleen vise un retour sur disque"

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, March 6, 2017. and a 2007 performance in Montreal was released by ProgQuébec in 2009 as the live album ''Live au Festival des musiques progressives de Montréal 2007''.

Discography

*''Minute! Ville Emard Blues Band S'en Vient Is Coming'' (1973) *''Live à Montréal'' (1974) *''Ville Émard'' (1975) *''2 Disques incluant 2 oeuvres inédites'' (1979) *''Complete VEBB Au Complet 1973-1975'' (2004) *''Live au Festival des musiques progressives de Montréal 2007'' (2009)

References

{{Authority control Canadian progressive rock groups Musical groups from Montreal Musical groups established in 1973 Musical groups disestablished in 1975 Musical groups reestablished in 2004 1973 establishments in Quebec 1975 disestablishments in Quebec 2004 establishments in Quebec