Richard Desjardins (original) (raw)

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Richard Desjardins
Background information
Born (1948-03-16) March 16, 1948 (age 76)Rouyn, Quebec, Canada
Genres Folk
Occupation(s) Singer, film director
Years active 1981–present
Website www.richarddesjardins.qc.ca

Musical artist

Richard Desjardins (born March 16, 1948) is a Québécois folk singer and film director.[1]

Desjardins and his friends formed the country rock ensemble Abbitibbi in the 1970s; Desjardins played piano, guitar, and sang. When the group disbanded in 1982, Desjardins pursued a solo career. He released a number of solo albums, including Tu m'aimes-tu in 1990[2] and Boom Boom,[3] which appeared on the RPM 100 Top Albums list in 1998.[4]

Desjardins also found work scoring films, especially documentaries. This involvement in the Quebec film industry even led him to co-direct a number of feature-length documentaries. He was known for his environmental activism, especially with regards to protecting forests from over-exploitation, and to promote this he and Robert Monderie created the documentary film Forest Alert (L'erreur boréale) in 1999.[5] In 2007 Desjardins, again with Monderie, created The Invisible Nation (Le Peuple invisible), a documentary about the Algonquin nation in Quebec.[6]

Desjardins went on tour in 2013, promoting his album L'existoire; after that he made occasional live appearances, including the 2018 Festival guitares du monde in Abitibi.[7]

In 2017 a group of singers came together at Steve Jolin's Rouyn-Noranda record company to record Chanter Richard Desjardins, a tribute album of Desjardins' songs.[8][9]

He was profiled in Lisette Marcotte's 2019 documentary film The Last Nataq (Le dernier Nataq).[10]

Albums

Live albums

Soundtrack

DVD

Music for films and theater

[edit]

  1. ^ Larry LeBlanc (27 January 1996). "The Fix on 96". Billboard. pp. 75, 80. ISSN 0006-2510.
  2. ^ Colin Larkin. The encyclopedia of popular music. Oxford Univ.; 2000.ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4. p. 865.
  3. ^ Le nouvel observateur. 1998. p. 65.
  4. ^ "Top Albums/CDs". RPM, Volume 68, No. 5. Oct 26, 1998
  5. ^ The Canadian forum. Canadian Forum, Limited; March 1999. p. 37.
  6. ^ "Cousins d’Amérique : encore deux jours". la Nouvelle Republique, 19/10/2019
  7. ^ "Retrouver Richard Desjardins". La Presse, 29 August 2019 Josée Lapointe
  8. ^ "Richard Desjardins, tu nous aimes-tu?". Le Devoir, Sylvain Cormier, 22 avril 2017
  9. ^ "Le défi Richard Desjardins". La Presse, Alain de Repentigny, 1 May 2017
  10. ^ Manon Dumais, "«Le dernier Nataq»: Richard Desjardins, un homme et son territoire". Le Devoir, April 23, 2021.
  11. ^ Landscapes and Landmarks of Canada: Real, Imagined, (Re)Viewed. Wilfrid Laurier University Press; 28 March 2017. ISBN 978-1-77112-203-0. p. 173.
  12. ^ Cormier, Sylvain (2011-04-20). "Desjardins, le nouvel album - Pour ne pas désespérer tout seul". Le Devoir (in French). Retrieved 2023-03-01.