Le Maïkotron Unit, met en scène un instrument fort inusité qui donne son nom au groupe de Québec qui existe maintenant depuis presque trois décennies. L’instrument à vent, conçu par le multi-instrumentiste Michel Côté, se joue avec une anche et l’embouchure de saxophone ténor. Il emprunte le reste de son corps aux trompette, cornet, euphonium et clarinette. La voix du Maïkotron, jumelée à celles de la clarinette et du violoncelle, étonnent par leur beauté et leur complexité. C’est aussi ce qui caractérise la formation : une volonté d’explorer et de découvrir des sons nouveaux, uniques. Le Maïkotron Unit c’est aussi  le contrebassiste et violoncelliste Pierre Côté et le percussionniste et maïkotroniste Michel Lambert.

Le saxophoniste de 64 ans qui avait livré sa première performance à Québec au printemps 2011 se joindra à cette formation d'exception, le temps d’une soirée résolument exploratoire. Dave Liebman, qui figure sur tout près de 300 disques et qui pendant quatre ans accompagna nul autre que Miles Davis, nous offre cette fois-ci une prestation mémorable devant un public comblé. 

Concerts 2011

À à la suite de ce concert, le Maïkotron Unit s'est vu décerner le prix François Marcaurelle 2011. Ce prix en l’honneur de François Marcaurelle, co-fondateur du festival, L’OFF Jazz, en collaboration avec la Guilde des musiciens et des musiciennes du Québec, est annuellement décerné à un(e) musicien(ne) ou un groupe s’étant particulièrement distingué lors de l'OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal.

Vendredi 18 mai 2012

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2012 

MAÏKOTRON UNIT / STEPHEN HAYNES

Vendredi 19 octobre 2012

Quartet Haynes Côté Lambert

Largo Resto-Club Festival de Jazz de Québec

• • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

http://blog.monsieurdelire.com/2012/05/journal-du-fimav-2012-fimav-diary.html?spref=tw

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.phpid=42235&pg=4#.UFponhjwPJw

• • • • • • •

Always a joy to experience, both for the visual curio and the way in which these musicians challenge our auditory expectations, this little-known Montreal band managed to garner a cult following in the mid 80’s that was happy to see its return in ‘11 after what seemed like its demise. The maïkotrons—brass instruments with added sections, valves, and contraptions—are the brainchild of Michel Côté, invented in 1983 to force band members to break free from the conventions imposed by their habitual instruments as well as an attempt to demark themselves in an acceptably-gimmicky way within a hard to sell and then stagnant market.

The result is an openness and abandon that engages listeners into beguilingly textured microtonal depths that provides the grist for more conventional improv. The trio itself is always interesting, but I’m tempted to believe that their success best lies in performances with a guest musician, as they’ve recently done with saxophonist Dave Liebman and, in this case, with the Bill Dixon-trained and imposing Stephen Haynes who perfectly complemented the group’s democratic approach with sparse but powerful and haunting lines.

By Pascal Denis Lussier, posted on June 11, 2012

The second installment in our four part series covering this year’s FIMAV festival.

Reinvention was key to a set by Quebec's Maïkotron Unit with Connecticut-based trumpeter Stephen Haynes. While they were, on the one hand, a classic piano-less quartet, the unit had a way of shape-shifting with instruments they'd morphed in advance. Frankenstein monsters of brass and reeds filled the stage: a double-reed soprano sax with an elongated neck, a trumpet body held vertical with a clarinet mouthpiece, a rather unholy sousaphone and a fairly ingenious system for mechanized mutings. But more to the point, Michel and Pierre Côté (a pair of brothers unrelated to Ambiances Magnétiques' Michel F. Côté) have learned how to play their hybrids, how to trap air and nudge it through the tubes. The quiet flutters of the ill-begotten instruments made for nice contrast with their passages of free jazz.

By KURT GOTTSCHALK,

All about Jazz, June 4, 2012

"Day Two began at 1pm with the Maikotron Unit from Quebec (...). Although I had heard of this ensemble before, I had no clue they had so many discs out (nine?) on their own label. (...) The set-up for this quartet was visually striking as each member played an assortment of odd instruments. There were a few mutant-looking hand-made reed & brass instruments that looked like they were from another planet. Most of the solos of the hybrid instruments were bizarre sounding and hard to describe. Much of this set was pretty restrained with each piece started by a different musician. The hybrid horns included two contrabass clarinet-like instruments with odd mutes that were on a hinge and a string to pull to open & close. There was also an over-sized tuba-like instrument which was too big to hold played by the drummer. (...) It was good idea to have this quartet start off day 2 although it took some getting use to the more subtle side of their explorations. I felt that Stephen Haynes (a longtime Bill Dixon collaborator) was a perfect match for the rest of the quartet. Like moving cautiously in slow motion."

Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery - 5/30/12

18 octobre 2011

Festival de Jazz de Québec,

MAIKOTRON UNIT  avec DAVE LIEBMAN