jeudi 9 juin 2011

Au revoir Claude

La nuit dernière, le Québec a perdu un grand artiste.  Claude Léveillé, 78 ans, a succombé à une hémorragie cérébrale.  Déjà paralysé depuis plusieurs années suite à un accident vasculaire cérébrale, ce grand chanteur compositeur n'a jamais été oublié des Québécois.  Son "Frédéric" tourne toujours et nous fait frémir à chaque fois.
Je l'ai connu au collège André-Grasset en 1947 ou 48.  Il avait formé, avec 8 de ses condisciples un groupe de chant qu'il avait nommé "Les amis de la chanson" et ils chantaient les tounes des "Copains de la chanson" alors très populaires.  J'animais alors "Les jeudis Grasset", un après-midi de films, musique et autres activités pour meubler cette période de congé.
J'avais persuadé Claude et son groupe, un peu réticents, de se produire sur notre scène.  Ce fut un grand succès et ils revinrent quelques fois par la suite.  Je crois que ce furent ses débuts sur scène.

10 commentaires:

  1. Une perte triste pour chacun qui a aimé sa musique.

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  2. Sorry to learn about Claude, Paul.

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  3. I had not, to my chagrin, heard of Claude Léveillée. On looking him up in Wiki, I see that he was indeed a great and prolific and versatile music artist who was sufficiently elevated to be associated with such luminaries as Edith Piaf and Andre Gagnon.

    Quebec and the world-wide Francophone music milieu generally, are going to be the poorer for Claude Léveillée's passing.

    There seemed no reference to you in the Wiki entry on Claude Léveillée. Given that you may have been responsible for his first appearance on a public stage, Wiki's failure to mention you could be a serious omission, which therefore deserves to be rectified!!!

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  4. Philippe, Claude was 13 at the time and I was 15, it was what you would call a highschool show. Nothing worth Wikiing there. Claude was very shy at that time and getting him up there may have had some influence later on but was not a determinating factor to be sure. Just a youth time anecdote.
    Cheri, Claude never was a friend of mine, just a school acquaintance two classes back. Still his passing away marks the end of an era in our musical history.
    Rob, Léveillé's music was and still is wonderful and very romantic. I guess he was one of our last romantic composers and singers.

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  5. Always sad to hear of someone you know passing on.

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  6. How right you are Rosaria, even though Claude was a souvenir of years past I find it difficult to see those younger than I am leave us.

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  7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I5OiyI53AU&feature=related

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  8. The clip that Zeus posted reminded me of Jacques Brel. Contemporaries, right? Brel would just barely be in his early 80s, if he were still around.

    We learned French verb tenses by listening to (over and over and over!) to Madeleine:

    Ce soir j'attends Madeleine...
    Ce soir j'attendais Madeleine...
    Mais demain j'attendrai Madeleine...

    What a great song!

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  9. Jenny, Zeus, Frédéric is one of Claude's greatest song along with "les pianos mécaniques". He does have certain Brelian accents but he is as much a reflexion of Québec as Brel was of Belgium and he remained true to his roots to the very end.
    After a stint in France under the tutelage of the great Piaf, he wrote several songs for her, he came back and was still the same guy that had left unlike some others who come back with a borrowed French accent and manners.

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  10. "...borrowed French accent and manners"...that's funny! I know some Americans who returned from England sounding quite unlike their former selves.

    I'll look for the songs for Piaf. Thanks.

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