Our good friend, Bertrand Déraspe, is one of the great fiddlers from the last bastion of traditional Acadian culture: The Magdalen Islands. He visited the Northwest in 2011 and attended the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes to great success. But because of travel issues, he couldn't bring his albums along to share his music. Now he's sent us a stash of albums and we're happy to sell for him! Albums cost $20 each, and that includes the shipping costs. You can pay with PayPal or check. Make checks out to Hearth Music and mail to: Devon Leger, 14879 6th Ave NE, Shoreline, WA 98155. All money goes straight to Bertrand.

Mes Racines  Bertrand Déraspe 2006  
 This is the first of Bertrand’s solo fiddling CD’s and definitely the one to start your collection. What you get is just Bertrand on fiddle and feet and Alain Turbide on piano, exactly as they appeared at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes last summer 2011 and with many of the tunes that they taught, including “Pu yèque sur le pu yinque” and “Cé fret su’l picassou”. There are also some of Bertrand’s beautiful waltzes. Bertrand channels tunes from the Magdalen Islands as well as Cape Breton in this recording. A must-have for any fiddle fan.

Vent Arrière: Bertrand Déraspe, Patrice Déraspe, Carole Painchaud 2003
    This is the cd that started it all for us at La Famille Léger and especially the first track: “Reel à Célestin à Jos”. The track starts off with the sound of the ancient Toc à Toc motor of the maritime fishermen and Bertrand dives in with his fiddle, never missing a beat and keeping the motor going feverishly to the end. It took our breath away and we wanted to hear more of this great “madelinot” fiddler.  Vent arrière means tale wind in French and there definitely is a strong wind driving this collection of songs and tunes.

This month we feature another fiddler from the Magdalen Islands: Avila Leblanc. Avila was born March 14th, 1914 and died July 13th 2010 at Gros-Cap in the Magdalen Islands off the coast of Canada. He was 96 when he died and during his lifetime he was celebrated as a fisherman, folklorist and fiddler. He fished for lobster and herring in Baie de Plaisance with his father and brothers. During his lifetime he gathered stories about the life and times of the Madelinots and was a respected storyteller and oral historian. He was a friend of Père Anselme Chiasson, the great collector of folklore and a co-author with Jean-Claude Delorme of the book « Histoires Populaires des Iles » (A Popular History of the Islands). He is cited in another book as the guardian of the oral tradition of the islands: « Deux Cents Ans d’Histoire aux Iles de la Madelaine » (Two Hundred Years of History in the Magdalen Islands). Above all, Avila was a great fiddler. His father bought him his first fiddle for 38 cents. Finally, his uncle bought him a Simpson/Sears fiddle for $50 and this is the one he played for gatherings and dances through the 1950’s to the 1970’s. Many of his tunes were recorded by the department of folklore studies at the Université Laval and there are also recordings at the University of Moncton. Robert Richard, the Archivist at the Centre d'Etudes Acadiennes Anselme Chiassson has graciously sent us some recordings of Avila Leblanc which we share below along with an approximate notation. We have also included one of Avila's famous stories. Many of Avila's tunes are without titles and are known as either Rabestans (short pieces), Cotillons, Reels, and Gigues (Stepdances). La Bottine Souriante featured one of his tunes "Air de Cotillon"  in a Pot-Pouri (medley) called "Surf and Turf" on their CD: "Tout Comme au Jour de l'An". Another great fiddler who knows and plays many of Avila's tunes is Lisa Ornstein. On her CD: "Par un Beau Samedi d'Eté" (One Fine Summer Day), she plays a medley of a cotillon sandwiched between two rabestans in "La Suite des Madelinots"

The fishermen say that the cod is the most voracious fish of all.  Many fishermen tell tales of losing things like pocket knives and keys that are later found in the bellies of codfish.  One old fisherman tells the tale of seeing a ship captain losing a five dollar gold piece while standing on the bridge of his boat and it falls overboard. Twenty years later to the day he finds himself at the same spot where he lost the money. He decides to throw in a line to fish for cod and hooks a huge cod.  He opens up the belly of the cod and, believe it or not, he finds the five dollars plus interest!

This month we focus on Bertrand Deraspe, a fiddler from the Magdalen Islands (Iles de la Madelaine), a small chain of islands off the East Coast of Canada. Bertrand will be a featured teacher and performer this summer at Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, WA. He was born in Point-aux-Loups and works as a lobster fisherman when not busy fiddling. He inherited a large répertoire of Acadian and "madelinots" tunes from his father, Arnold Deraspe and other Acadian fiddlers. Bertrand started playing fiddle when he was 4 years old and was already playing for weddings when he was 6. He has been a member of various music groups, including Suroit, Les Clapotis, and Vent'arrière. He recorded a solo album called "Mes Racines" (my roots) - featuring the traditional fiddle style of the Magdalen Islands as well as other Acadian styles from PEI and Chéticamp in Cape Breton.

The Magdalen Islands are a group of small islands in the shape of a fishook that lie in the Gulf of St. Lawrence between New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Gaspé and Newfoundland. You can get there by airplane but the most rewarding trip is by boat, either from Montreal (3 days and 2 nights) or on a 5 hour ferry ride from Souris in Prince Edward Island. The main sources of income are fishing, hunting and tourism. The fiddling tradition is very strongly tied to the fishing industry and the "Madelinots" share the rich maritime tradition of the Acadians from PEI, New Bruswick and Cape Breton. 

We first discovered Bertrand through his CD "Vent'arrière" with Patrice Deraspe and Carole Painchaud. The first tune was "Célestin à Jos" and it totally blew us away. The recording starts off with the "toc-a-toc" sound of the old one lung "Make or Break" fishing boat motor and the fiddler takes up the off-beat rhythm and launches into the tune without a pause. 

Further research into the music of the Magdalen Islands and Bertrand Deraspe led us to the archives of the Centre d'Etudes Acadiennes Anselme Chiasson at the University of Moncton. Robert Richard, the archivist, graciously allowed us access to their wonderful collection of field recordings and we found recordings of Bertrand's father, Arnold Deraspe. Here is a sound file of a tune called "Reel de la Morte" from these recordings.

Here is a a video that we found through the University of Laval ethnology department with Bertrand playing a tune in the kitchen with his dad. Click on the word "video" or on the photo to get to the file. The video starts off with a sweet twin fiddle waltz. Bertrand then talks in French about the fiddling style of the islands and the fact that many fiddlers play a slow style with very strong bowing.  He demonstrates how Madelinots fiddlers have a different bow stroke than Cape Breton fiddlers.  The Madelinot fiddlers, who were mostly fishermen with calloused hands and sometimes missing fingers, would tend to play with less notes and more rhythm.

We just received some great digital files from the archives of the University of Moncton and found some real gems, including field recordings of the great Acadian fiddler Eloi LeBlanc. We have decided to feature him as our first “Fiddler of the Month” on the Family Blog. I'm also exited that he's from the same region of New Brunswick that my parents were from: Memramcook.

Eloi LeBlanc was born in College Bridge, New Brunswick on November 26, 1909, died June 21, 1978 in Beaumont and was buried in Pré d’en Haut. He started playing fiddle at an early age, inspired by his fiddling maternal grandfather and uncle. Throughout his lifetime played for local dances and weddings, getting the nickname “The Fiddler of Memramcook Valley”. He had a phenomenal memory for tunes as well as a great knack for composition. Many of his tunes live on thanks to other fiddlers such as Den Messer who made them even more popular. He performed with Bob White’s Moncton Ploughboys, then on the Maritime Farmer’s radio show, and finally joined up with Kidd Baker and the Pine Ridge Mountain Boys in Ontario. He stayed with this band for 12 years and spent the final years of his life living with his sister Laura who was also his piano accompanist. Eloi recorded only one record album, “Eloi and his Fiddle” (Eloi et son Violon) on Les Productions Acadiennes  LPA-1001-1977. Some of his tunes include: Le Reel de l’Hiver, Anne Marie Reel, Reel des Maritime Farmers, Narcisse à John (named after his maternal grandfather),  and  Théotime à Six Pouces (named after his uncle).

Here are three wonderful tunes from Eloi LeBlanc that were sent to us by Robert Richard from the archives of the University of Moncton. He is the Archivist for the Centre d'Etudes Acadiennes Anselme Chiasson at the University of Moncton and has been most gracious in helping us research the old Acadian fiddlers. Merci Robert!

Eloi often either didn't name his tunes or forgot the names so we have named the three tunes as follows:
Mac à John: in the field recording, Eloi talks about getting the tune from "la fille à Mac à John" who was the brother of Narcisse, his maternal grandfather.
Double Temps à Eloi: he often refers to jigs as double-time tunes
Vieux Reel à Eloi: when asked the name he just replied "Oh ça c'est vieux" (Oh that's an old tune)