Marie-Catherine Bouchard - La tulipe noire - Reprises de Barbara (2021)

The great French singer Barbara is reborn from her ashes this winter thanks to Marie-Catherine Bouchard's album La Tulipe Noire. In a light and captivating atmosphere, the 10 pieces perfectly harmonized by the singer and her 7 musicians will pay a brilliant tribute to the late artist.

It is no coincidence that Marie-Catherine Bouchard dedicates her first album to Barbara: she has been particularly interested in the latter's work for several years. The singer from Quebec, who has a rich background and a solid training in popular singing and jazz, has developed over the course of her career a vast repertoire of French songs that perfectly match her emotional voice. In her covers of Barbara, lyrics are central to the arrangements and the music carries the powerful stories they tell. On first listening, we discover jazz sounds, but also inspirations from traditional music and even world music, which add a very unique touch of color to this tribute album. Finally, the addition of a string quartet ensures the classical side of the pieces.

For the recording of La Tulipe Noire, a process that spanned a year, Marie-Catherine was able to count on her two usual collaborators, Véronique Gilbert on piano and accordion, then Hugo Rinfret-Paquet at the double bass, with whom she has been performing in trio for more than 10 years, the work of the great Barbara. Then came Jean-Michel Marois on classical violin, Annie Morrier on alto violin, Rachel Baillargeon on cello, Sylvain Neault on jazz and traditional violin as well as Olivier Bussières on percussion. The production of the album was entrusted to Sébastien Champagne, who also collaborated on the arrangements with Hélène Desjardins. The recording, mixing and mastering were carried out by Serges Samson of the LARC studio at Laval University, while Marie-Catherine Bouchard handled production.