Sèmel Rèbel

Sèmel Rèbel (the French term for a brass band) have taken their fanfare right off the streets of Quebec's foremost festivals and laid them onto their 11-track self-titled debut. It's a Mardi Gras funk-fest with French Canadian flair that packs such a mean party punch it could wake the dead. The beat-driven, jazz- and calypso-flavoured extravagance is infectious ― at times downright comical ― rising from a hullabaloo of crowd cheers, record scratching, giddy prattling, horn squeaks and sousaphone puffs. Founded by "Big Mamma" Geneviève Duval, Sèmel Rèbel are a collection of exceptional jazz musicians from around Quebec who are so comfortable clowning around it's easy to forget that these university music graduates are serious about their passion. Big Mamma's posse include fellow brass players Isabelle Verville, Alexandre Dion, Louis-René Rheault and Pierre-Luc Labelle, along with percussionists Olivier Forest, Andy Stewart and Guillaume Landry. Their vision of creating something new from the old, by fusing the "reel" (the folkloric music of Quebec) to the traditional New Orleans street funk is most certainly a fait accompli with Sèmel Rèbel; it's a prêt-a-porter summer festival in a 12x12 cm case.