JAZZ INSIDE MAGAZINE, New-York

Interview
Making Beautiful Music With Just Two Hands. “For me, playing the piano is black and white photography applied to music. It is the orchestra in equation. Everything is there, but at the principle level, behind the image, like roots under the flowers. I love black and white in photography. The piano with its black and white keys immediately gives the sign of its economy. In that sense, only the string quartet would approach it. The jazz trio too, belongs to this pure world. Other trinity, other mystery,”

ASSOCIATED CONTENT, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

« Musiques de Ballet is a phenomenal endeavor which gels multiple expressions, textures and dynamics that bend and reflect capriciously, and subsequently inject meaning into Bourget’s art. »

JAZZ INSIDE MAGAZINE, New-York

Pianist Claude Marc Bourget can orchestrate energizing symphonies with the nimble movements of his ten fingers across the keys of a grand piano.  The protégé of such arduous musicians as Chopin, Debussy, Stravinsky, Paul Bley, and Keith Jarrett, Bourget has a heart that is true to his passionate nature and a mind that exhibits a boundless imagination. (…) Like his predecessors, Claude Marc Bourget is not trapped into becoming a period pianist but a musician whose improvisations will be relevant for centuries to come.  His synthesis of jazz and classical music structures is inspiring and positions him to become a source of motivation for aspiring musicians to come.

ALL ABOUT JAZZ, ITALY

(…) Second Time, realizzato in perfetta solitudine su uno Steinway gran coda (suono magnifico!), si sviluppa infatti come un lungo racconto, come una lunga suite. Preceduta da un cappello introduttivo, la prima parte si muove lungo le coordinate « consuete » del piano solo in chiave jazz. Gli inevitabili echi jarrettiani, dunque. Ma assai più forte, in Bourget, è l’impronta del conterraneo Paul Bley. L’amore per la risoluzione inattesa, per il cambio d’umore che, nello spazio di una nota, ci porta da un gioioso maggiore ad una malinconia più intima.

Con lo scorrere delle tracce si insinuano qua e là, fino a diventare predominanti, gli echi classici. Non solo dal punto di vista compositivo (Brahms e Beethoven, cuore della seconda parte), ma anche da quello esecutivo. La mano sinistra, spesso trascurata dai pianisti jazz, svolge qui un lavoro enorme diventando a tratti la vera protagonista.  ⎯ Paolo Peviani

JAZZ TIMES, USA

Bourget creates a balance between the deposits of rage and peacefulness in nature. His compositions channel the moods which guide nature’s course, and draws out its beauty even when confronted with its darker, brooding tirades. Second Time demonstrates Bourget’s agility as a pianist, and skillfulness to convey nature’s messages to audiences. He shows a desire for challenges, and a need to master them. ⎯ Susan Frances

JAZZ REVIEW, USA

« The intensity of the music and the quality of the recording pull you into the music, until you feel almost as if you are sitting alone in a concert hall. (…) No matter whether you are solo piano aficionado or not, Bourget’s sound is enthralling.  His technical and creative facilities alone are admirable, but the sheer intensity of his music is enough to draw the most callused listener in.  When so much music follows set forms of conformity and repeating phrases, it’s easy to get lost in the long, full themes that seem to never end.  I am not traditionally a fan of solo piano works, and I probably won’t go out and buy any right away, but this album will definitely have a spot in my listening library. » ⎯ Lorelei Clarke

JAZZ REVIEW, USA

“ Bourget’s compositions are strictly focused as well as free to soar as high as the creative imagination will allow and sink as low as the heart’s emotional abyss. Through the episodes of deep contemplation and mesmerizing flights, Bourget exhibits impressive maturity that causes people to stop in their tracks and listen to him. (…) His long stretches of wanderings wicked by the piano keys seem mysteriously guided, as even the moments of transgressions manage to stay on course like they are under a trance, which stops them from trailing away from their objective, and every track resounds with an objective in mind. (…) His album Second Time shows his skills as a virtuoso on the piano, but also as a masterful composer and arranger. At 52 years of age, Bourget does not seem to want to turn back time, but to move ahead with it, as Second Time embraces huge challenges and tests Bourget’s reflexes to move spontaneously along the changing tides.” ⎯ Susan Frances

JAZZ FRISSON, CANADA

« Bourget est un pianiste exigeant. Introspectif par moment, plus exubérant sur certains morceaux, il nous fait vivre toute une gamme d’émotions. Il faut se laisser envelopper par sa musique, dont l’émotion se dévoile par couches successives comme l’aube naissante révèle les détails qui nous entourent. La musique de Bourget est majestueuse, vecteur de tous les chagrins, joies et espoirs qui y transitent sereinement. » ⎯ Jazz Frisson).

THE LIVE MUSIC REPORT, CANADA

Bourget “explore a mysterious and vast territory. A great gust of wind blowing the melodies against a wall of sound”. (Live Music Report) . / Read the full review byJessica Lombardi.