Jean Derome

One of the most visible figures of Montreal's musique actuelle (new music) scene, saxophonist, and composer Jean Derome is also one of the instigators of the music community represented by the Ambiances Magnétiques label he co-founded. The fact that he is a graduate of the College of Pataphysics and was the recipient of the prestigious Freddie Stone Award in 1992 goes a long way to explain the blend of absurd, childish fun and dead-serious avant-garde jazz found in his compositions. Born in the mid-'50s, Derome first studied flute at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in Montreal. He taught flute and music theory in various Montreal colleges from 1974 to 1983. In the meantime, he began to work as a multi-instrumentalist, adding alto and baritone saxophone. His ground-laying work in the new jazz trio Nébu (1973) and the free improv laboratory Ensemble de Musiques Improvisées de Montréal (or EMIM, started in 1978) led to the creation, in 1983, of the collective and record label Ambiances Magnétiques, together with René Lussier, André Duchesne, and Robert Marcel Lepage.

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