Montreal’s Celebrated Jazz Piano Quartet Marks Three Decades Together with New Music and Dates from Victoria to the Montreal International Jazz Festival
The Francois Bourassa Quartet announces a sweeping summer 2026 tour across Canada in celebration of the group’s 30th anniversary, taking in some of the country’s most prestigious jazz festivals from Medicine Hat to Montreal. Pianist, composer, and Juno Award winner Francois Bourassa leads the quartet alongside longtime collaborators Andre Leroux (saxophones, flute), Guy Boisvert (upright bass), and Guillaume Pilote (drums) on a tour that marks three decades of one of Canadian jazz’s most enduring and evolving partnerships. A new piece of music will be released in conjunction with the tour.
With eleven albums of original music to his name and an international reputation built over four decades of performance, Bourassa has become one of Canada’s foremost jazz ambassadors. Born in Montreal, he first came to national attention winning the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s New Talent prize in 1985, and has since toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, performing alongside legends including Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, and Dave Brubeck. In 2007 he received the Oscar Peterson Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in recognition of his contribution to the development of Canadian jazz. His quartet’s 2001 live album, recorded at Toronto’s Top O’ The Senator, received a JUNO Award.
The Quartet, which has been a cornerstone of Montreal’s artistic landscape since its inception, released its most recent album Swirl in 2023, recorded live at Studio Piccolo in Montreal and praised internationally for capturing the spontaneity and musical camaraderie that defines the group’s live performances. Jazz Magazine in Paris described their connection as something that makes them “a group, in the deepest sense of the term,” while Marc Chenard of Jazz Podium called the album “as virtuose in execution as it is imaginative in its subject matter.” The 30th anniversary tour brings that same living, breathing ensemble energy to stages across the country.
Bourassa’s compositions are widely celebrated for their range and unpredictability, drawing on jazz, contemporary classical, and improvised music in equal measure while remaining rooted in melody and emotional directness. Ian Mann of The Jazzmann described his work as “rich, episodic, constantly evolving, multi-faceted pieces that feature strong, accessible melodies allied to unusual and imaginative harmonies.” Jazztrail called Number 9 “one of the boldest and most gratifying records of the year,” while the Ottawa Citizen placed it among the best Canadian jazz albums of 2017. The quartet’s ability to translate that compositional complexity into something genuinely alive and immediate in a live setting is what makes this anniversary tour an event worth attending.
The tour opens June 19 at the Medicine Hat Jazz Festival and moves through Saskatchewan, Victoria, Calgary, and Edmonton before arriving in Montreal for the International Jazz Festival in early July. Bourassa will appear at Dièse Onze on July 3 and in a trio setting at Messe Jazz at the Gésu on July 5 and will also be featured as part of the Christine Jensen Sextet at the FIJM Modes of Coltrane celebration on July 1, marking the centenary of John Coltrane’s birth. The tour concludes August 9 at the North Hatley Jazz Festival in Quebec with dates to follow in France in November.
The tour is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. For a quartet that has spent 30 years refusing to repeat itself, this summer is both a celebration and a continuation: new music, new stages, and the same four musicians who have, as Bourassa himself has said, learned to trust each other, know each other well, and anticipate each other’s next move.
2026 TOUR DATES:
June 19: Medicine Hat Jazz Festival, Medicine Hat, Alberta
June 21: Regina Jazz Festival, Saskatchewan
June 23: The Bassment Jazz Club, Saskatchewan
June 25: Victoria International Jazz Festival, Victoria, British Columbia
June 26: Calgary Jazz Festival, Calgary, Alberta
June 27: Edmonton International Jazz Festival, Edmonton, Alberta
July 1: FIJM Modes of Coltrane (with the Christine Jensen Sextet), Club Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
July 3: Dièse Onze, Montreal International Jazz Festival, Montreal, Quebec
July 5: Messe Jazz, Gésu, Montreal, Quebec (trio setting)
August 9: North Hatley Jazz Festival, North Hatley, Quebec (trio setting)
Connect with Francois Bourassa Quartet:
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