Yves Lambert: the Québécois maverick embracing his golden age

Fifty years is a long time to stay at the top of your game in the music business, and especially to maintain your drive and enthusiasm. Québec’s Yves Lambert, co-founder and former frontman of the legendary La Bottine Souriante, has not only persisted, he’s grown and diversified. And with his current eight-piece band, Le Grand Orchestre, he’s having more fun than ever.

“I’m living by far the finest moments of my career,” he says, speaking in the accented French of Lanaudière, his home region northeast of Montréal. “I’ve never been so happy in my job. With the close understanding between me and the musicians, and their group spirit, it really is my golden age.”

Lambert is known for the earthy verve he brings to his performance of Québécois songs and tunes, a tradition he’s been immersed in since before La Bottine’s founding in the mid-70s. However, the veteran singer and diatonic accordionist has long been interested in innovation as well, drawing particular inspiration from the progressive rock outfit L’Infonie (1967–74).

“I’m no folklorist. I’m trippy, and that’s very much part of my identity these days. I’m more and more experimental – there’s improvisation happening almost all the time. I’ve been working in the patrimoine [Québec’s folk heritage] for six decades, and I’m well up on all of that, but it’s no longer endangered. I’m more concerned now with things like sophistication and getting rid of barriers.”

Lambert left La Bottine in 2002 to form his own acoustic trio, followed by a quartet. Le Grand Orchestre’s powerful sound weaves electric bass, fiddle, accordion, keyboards, acoustic guitar, flute, saxophone and bassoon in arrangements by Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Schwarz. The octet came together two years ago.

“It was a business decision, and I wanted to include women”, Lambert recalls. “With this band, I don’t need to travel far, I can earn my living in Québec. That said, I’ll be in Spain later this year, and I’d love to go back to England. The last visit was for the Sidmouth Folk Festival, where I was invited by Martin Carthy to join the celebration of Norma Waterson’s life, a great honour. As for the US, I’m tired of going there, I find them just too crazy.”

Lambert & Le Grand Orchestre will record a live album, their debut, this summer. In addition to chansons à répondre (call-and-response songs) and jigs and reels delivered with typical Québécois swing, listeners can expect to hear another side of Lambert.

“I find that traditional song often has little or nothing to say. I’ve spent my whole career singing about life in the country, but now I’m tripping out on urban song, which has a very different spirit. My great passion of the past few years has been French chansons réalistes [realist songs] which date from the 1880s to the mid-20th century, ending with the death of Edith Piaf. They’re tough, gritty songs of city life as experienced by poor and marginalised people, and performed primarily by women such as Piaf and, before her, artists like Eugénie Buffet, Damia, Fréhel and Nitta-Jô. What interests me is how you present yourself on stage, why you’re making music, your values, your originality, not hiding behind virtuosity. I guess I’m a rebel, and always was.”