He might be one of Canada’s most prominent jazz pianists, but François Bourassa’s first musical hero wasn’t Oscar Peterson or Art Tatum. “Johnny Winter was my idol!”
The Texan blues-rock guitar warlock? Yep. “I played blues guitar and had a big Marshall amp and a Gibson Firebird, the same as him. I was not playing piano at that time.” Like many of his teen peers back then, he was drawn to “all those groups like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple…”
These days, Bourassa, BMus’85, is widely recognized as a major figure in the country’s jazz scene and his group, the François Bourassa Quartet, recently marked their 30th anniversary with a summer tour across Canada. The quartet includes saxophonist/flautist André Leroux, bassist Guy Boisvert, BMus’90, and drummer Guillaume Pilote, BMus’14, MMus’17 (the group’s original drummer was Greg Ritchie, BMus’03).
During the tour, Bourassa took part in three separate shows at the 2026 Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, including a John Coltrane tribute. Bourassa is a festival regular, and it has played a pivotal role in his career. His first big break was in 1985 when he won the festival’s New Artist Prize. In 2007, the festival presented him with its Oscar Peterson Award for his contributions to the development of Canadian jazz.
A Juno Award winner who has released 11 albums over the years, Bourassa is known for his European and classical influences, cross-rhythms, and an “avant-gardism of a liquid and often lyrical sort” (according to New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen). He has had the opportunity to share stages with jazz giants like Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter and Dave Brubeck.
As a teenager, it wasn’t all Led Zeppelin IV and Machine Head in the Bourassa home. His mother Andrée was a devotee of classical music, taking him to concerts and playing piano at home. Bourassa describes his discovery of Chick Corea’s jazz fusion band Return to Forever as a eureka-moment “transition point to jazz,” followed by plunges into Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Coltrane and Miles Davis. Jazz was “the only thing I thought I could maybe be good at,” he says with a laugh. His father wasn’t so sure about that career plan at first. “My dad tried to make me, like, be an engineer, and I took some accounting courses…”
Bourassa’s father Robert served as the premier of Quebec for 14 years – from 1970 to 1976 and 1985 to 1994. Bourassa says his father was “two hundred per cent passionate” about politics and the intense focus he placed on his political career was “like me in that way.” The senior Bourassa might not have known much about jazz, but he recognized that his son had a similar drive to excel in his chosen field. “He came to see me a little bit.”
“I’m not saying that there’s no art in pop music – but jazz… you have to be really dedicated to be good.”
Jazz musician and composer François Bourassa
That passion for music kept Bourassa going as the landscape for professional musicians became increasingly challenging. While he and his quartet had a busy summer touring festivals, that tends to be seasonal work. Montreal has the largest jazz festival in the world, but for most of the year, there’s ”like just two or three clubs, Upstairs and Dièse Onze.” Most jazz musicians teach as well as play and record because “just playing gigs in Canada, it’s impossible,” says Bourassa. He himself taught at the Schulich School of Music for several years.
Canadian jazz critic (and prominent political columnist) Paul Wells, who has been “listening to [Bourassa] since 1987,” notes that “it would not have been a surprise back then that he’s been in it for the long haul.”
Bourassa, says Wells, is “the opposite of self-indulgent. He’s always been a professional. [He] writes stuff audiences find interesting.” Wells adds that Bourassa “turned into a road warrior like Michel Donato or Guy Nadon before him, and it’s important for young musicians to have somebody on the scene who demonstrates that you can have a life in this music.”
Bourassa says that jazz continues to attract new converts and that the jazz scene is “growing and there’s a lot of amazing young players.” He sees the younger fans at shows and enjoys going to “see younger guys play, it’s like a community.” He knows from experience the commitment to craft that jazz demands. “I’m not saying that there’s no art in pop music – but jazz… you have to be really dedicated to be good.”
Bourassa still pick up his old guitar “on New Year’s Eve” and other rare occasions. Forty-odd years later, that Gibson Firebird must be worth a fortune.
