The posters created for the Montreal Jazz Festival are among the most stunning examples of popular art happening today. In their way, they rival the best from the days when the Fillmore East and West unleashed their creativity on our culture. For 25 years, the official posters have been imagined and painted by Yves Archambault. Trained in the fine arts and graphic design, Archambault began work with the Jazz Festival in 1988 - and has worked as the artist in residence ever since.
The Jazz Festival writes: The artist has long chosen fluid media for his paintings; his favourite is ink. On paper or wood, he plays with darkness and limpidity, with a chiaroscuro that invokes the contrast between light and shadow characteristic to live venues. Having experienced the metamorphosis of graphic techniques, from analog to digital, the artist now works and creates in an endless to-and-fro between the drafting table and computer: he scans, enlarges, transforms colours, superimposes, to finally draw forth an image created of ink and pixels.
For me, Archambault captures both the experience of jazz AND its promise. Bill Frissell once said: anything is possible in jazz - you can try anything - and nobody gets hurt. Dave Brubeck also observed: there is a danger in the spontaneity of jazz because if you refuse to play it safe you never know what's going to happen next. I sense that in Archambault's work and love it.
According to our "sabbatical countdown" clock, we leave in four weeks: 34 days. After waking up to yet another drive way/garage flood (thank GOD spring is really coming) we ate breakfast, put on our water gear and took to the shop-vac. In about an hour we had things under control because in the past two weeks we've become pros. Sabbath days have their own surprises, yes? Suffice it to say, I am psyched to see what Archambault has cooked up for us this year.
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