Wikipedia

Richard Desjardins

Richard Desjardins (born March 16, 1948) is a Québécois folk singer and film director.[1]

Richard Desjardins
Background information
Born (1948-03-16) March 16, 1948 (age 76)
Rouyn, Quebec, Canada
GenresFolk
Occupation(s)Singer, film director
Years active1981–present
Websitewww.richarddesjardins.qc.ca

Career

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Desjardins and his friends formed the country rock ensemble Abbitibbi in the 1970s; Desjardins played piano, guitar, and sang. When the group disbanded in 1982, Desjardins pursued a solo career. He released a number of solo albums, including Tu m'aimes-tu in 1990[2] and Boom Boom,[3] which appeared on the RPM 100 Top Albums list in 1998.[4]

Desjardins also found work scoring films, especially documentaries. This involvement in the Quebec film industry even led him to co-direct a number of feature-length documentaries. He was known for his environmental activism, especially with regards to protecting forests from over-exploitation, and to promote this he and Robert Monderie created the documentary film Forest Alert (L'erreur boréale) in 1999.[5] In 2007 Desjardins, again with Monderie, created The Invisible Nation (Le Peuple invisible), a documentary about the Algonquin nation in Quebec.[6]

Desjardins went on tour in 2013, promoting his album L'existoire; after that he made occasional live appearances, including the 2018 Festival guitares du monde in Abitibi.[7]

In 2017 a group of singers came together at Steve Jolin's Rouyn-Noranda record company to record Chanter Richard Desjardins, a tribute album of Desjardins' songs.[8][9]

He was profiled in Lisette Marcotte's 2019 documentary film The Last Nataq (Le dernier Nataq).[10]

Discography

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Albums

  • 1981-Boom Town Café (with Abbittibbi)
  • 1988-Les derniers humains
  • 1989-Le trésor de la langue (with René Lussier)
  • 1990-Tu m'aimes-tu
  • 1992-Les derniers humains (new recording)
  • 1994-Chaude était la nuit (with Abbittibbi)[11]
  • 1998-Boom Boom
  • 2003-Kanasuta[12]
  • 2011-L'existoire

Live albums

  • 1993-Richard Desjardins au Club Soda
  • 1996-Desjardins Abbittibbi Live (with Abbittibbi)

Soundtrack

  • 1990-Le Party

DVD

  • Kanasuta - Là où les diables vont danser (2005)

Filmography

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  • 1977 - A Raging Disaster (Comme des chiens en pacage) by Desjardins and Robert Monderie
  • 1978 - Firefly (Mouche à feu), by Desjardins and Robert Monderie
  • 1999 - Forest Alert (L'erreur boréale) by Desjardins and Robert Monderie
  • 2007 - The Invisible Nation (Le peuple invisible) by Desjardins and Robert Monderie
  • 2011 - The Hole Story (Trou story) by Desjardins and Robert Monderie

Music for films and theater

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  • À double tour (English title: Twice Convicted), by Marie Cadieux, 1994
  • The Party (Le Party) by Pierre Falardeau, 1990
  • La Nuit avec Hortense (The night with Hortense), by Jean Chabot, 1988
  • Noranda, by Robert Monderie and Daniel Corvec, 1984
  • Le doux partage (Soft Sharing) by Sylvie van Brabant, 1983
  • Depuis que le monde est monde (Since the world is world) by Sylvie van Brabant, 1981
  • Blue Winter (L'hiver bleu) by André Blanchard, 1978
  • Beat by André Blanchard, 1976 (Desjardins and Abbittibbi as well as other musicians)
  • Composed music for and was musical director of ”Têtes rondes et têtes pointues“ ("The Roundheads and the Peakheads") by Bertold Brecht, at the 1986 Brecht International Festival in Toronto.
  • Malartic, 2024

Bibliography

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  • Carole Couture, "la parole est mine d’or", Éditions Tryptique, Montréal, 1999.

References

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  1. ^ Larry LeBlanc (27 January 1996). "The Fix on 96". Billboard. pp. 75, 80. ISSN 0006-2510.
  2. ^ Colin Larkin. The encyclopedia of popular music. Oxford Univ.; 2000.ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4. p. 865.
  3. ^ Le nouvel observateur. 1998. p. 65.
  4. ^ "Top Albums/CDs". RPM, Volume 68, No. 5. Oct 26, 1998
  5. ^ The Canadian forum. Canadian Forum, Limited; March 1999. p. 37.
  6. ^ "Cousins d’Amérique : encore deux jours". la Nouvelle Republique, 19/10/2019
  7. ^ "Retrouver Richard Desjardins". La Presse, 29 August 2019 Josée Lapointe
  8. ^ "Richard Desjardins, tu nous aimes-tu?". Le Devoir, Sylvain Cormier, 22 avril 2017
  9. ^ "Le défi Richard Desjardins". La Presse, Alain de Repentigny, 1 May 2017
  10. ^ Manon Dumais, "«Le dernier Nataq»: Richard Desjardins, un homme et son territoire". Le Devoir, April 23, 2021.
  11. ^ Landscapes and Landmarks of Canada: Real, Imagined, (Re)Viewed. Wilfrid Laurier University Press; 28 March 2017. ISBN 978-1-77112-203-0. p. 173.
  12. ^ Cormier, Sylvain (2011-04-20). "Desjardins, le nouvel album - Pour ne pas désespérer tout seul". Le Devoir (in French). Retrieved 2023-03-01.
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