Jazz’s Not Dead (2019)Live painting – Montréal International Jazz Festival
Painted live on a plywood panel during the Montréal International Jazz Festival, this work was exhibited on Wellington Street in Verdun, marking the festival’s first expansion beyond the downtown core. It was later shown at Quai 5160, Verdun’s Maison de la culture, before eventually being taken down or destroyed. This ephemeral trajectory reflects the fragile nature of public art, while also affirming its ability to leave a lasting impression on collective memory.
The piece depicts a gypsy jazz trio led by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, rendered in a naive narrative style with anthropomorphic characters and repetitive text.
Halfway between a neighbourhood brass band and a surrealist parade, this illustration was created as part of a partnership between the Montreal International Jazz Festival and TD Bank, in a community-focused initiative to bring music beyond the downtown core.
With a nod to punk culture, the piece humorously reclaims the iconic slogan Punk’s not dead (popularized by The Exploited) to proudly declare: Jazz’s not dead. It pays tribute to gypsy jazz, that of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, while playing with the tensions between tradition and marginality, discipline and improvisation.
In the foreground, painted in warm tones, appear the “manouches”: hybrid figures with puppet-like limbs, held by strings as if animated by a divine musical force. Their gift is raw, almost feral, a dilapidated virtuosity, free and instinctive. In the background, drawn in cooler tones, classical jazz musicians look on, startled and unsettled by the sudden emergence of these musical beasts disrupting the established order.
Festival Jazz de Montréal
Presented in a local Montreal park, the piece marked a turning point: the first time the Jazz Festival expanded beyond the downtown core. A symbolic gesture where music becomes a tool for dismantling boundaries, and where jazz, far from being a rigid institution, asserts itself as movement, invitation, and life force.
Its accessible aesthetic conceals layered meanings, inviting multiple modes of reading.
Medium: Acrylic on plywood panel, painted live
Dimensions: 4 x 6 feet
Location: Wellington Street, Verdun (Montréal), QC
Style: Naive narrative drawing, anthropomorphic characters, repetitive text
Medium: Acrylic on plywood panel, painted live
Dimensions: 4 x 6 feet
Location: Wellington Street, Verdun (Montréal), QC
Style: Naive narrative drawing, anthropomorphic characters, repetitive text
Cultural resonances
While a metaphorical parallel can be drawn between gypsy jazz and punk culture, it is important to respect their distinct cultural and historical roots. Gypsy jazz emerges from the oral traditions of Romani communities, shaped by marginalization and intergenerational transmission. It carries a deep sense of resilience, memory, and identity.
And yet, on a symbolic level, they echo each other. Both represent marginal artistic gestures, raw expressiveness, and a defiant claim to identity beyond convention.
This work embraces the metaphor of jazz as a living force, one that, like punk, refuses to fade. It brings together two distinct yet kindred impulses: to speak, to create, to persist, with limited means but unwavering conviction.
This work embraces the metaphor of jazz as a living force, one that, like punk, refuses to fade. It brings together two distinct yet kindred impulses: to speak, to create, to persist, with limited means but unwavering conviction.
The drawing’s simplicity is intentional.
Some words, names, and figures are present, but discreet. They reveal themselves only to those who slow down and truly pay attention.
The visual repetition acts like a beat, almost musical, inviting viewers to look again, differently.
In this layered narrative, every element, however modest, may carry meaning. What is unseen is not hidden; it simply lives elsewhere.
Some words, names, and figures are present, but discreet. They reveal themselves only to those who slow down and truly pay attention.
The visual repetition acts like a beat, almost musical, inviting viewers to look again, differently.
In this layered narrative, every element, however modest, may carry meaning. What is unseen is not hidden; it simply lives elsewhere.
Maison de la culture de Verdun - Quai 5160
Quai 5160 - Maison de la culture de Verdun
