Claude Léveillée

Claude Léveillée (Montréal, 16 October 1932 – 9 June 2011) was a Canadian actor, pianist and singer-songwriter, who composed over 400 songs, numerous instrumental scores and a number of Musicals.

Claude Léveillée co-founded Les Bozos in 1959, the year he met Édith Piaf. He composed several songs for her (including Les Vieux pianos, Ouragan, Boulevard du crime). He went on to compose for a number of Quebec singers, including Julie Arel (Merci à toi in 1976) and Nicole Martin (Il est en nous l'amour in 1985, and Mon père et ma mère and On s'aimera in 1987). He performed in France and the Soviet Union (USSR), as well as in Belgium, Switzerland and Japan. He is also an actor (notably in Line of Demarcation, in 1966, and in the Scoop series from 1991 to 1994).

Joseph Gérard Adolphe Claude Léveillée was born on 16 October 1932 at 7406 Drolet Street in Montreal. His parents were Pierre Léveillée (1901–1992) and Laurette Lalande (1901–1995) . Claude was their second child of three, Jean being the eldest and Raymonde the youngest. The Léveillée family introduced their children to music at a very young age. His mother's talents as a musician and a pianist and his father's tenor singer, influenced Claude's childhood, he was already interested in piano improvisation, although he had no formal musical training. His mother played the piano and his brother the violin, and Claude Léveillée completed the ensemble by playing the accordion and harmonica..

He began performing on the accordion in the streets of Montreal, where he received his first applause.

Claude Léveillée enrolled at Collège André-Grasset in 1947, then at Collège de Montréal in 1951 . He had some difficulty with the school system, finding it time-consuming and confined by stone walls. He sometimes entertained himself with his little Comtessa accordion, playing his folk repertoire with cheerful rhythms.

In 1954, at the age of 21 and with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the classical course, he enrolled at the Université de Montréal in economics, politics and social sciences. Showing little enthusiasm in class, he discovered an old piano in a room at the university, whose music led him to meet Élizabeth Chouvalidzé, who opened his horizons to European culture.

In October 1955, with the support of his friend Élizabeth, Léveillée appeared on stage at the Université de Montréal, in the magazine Bleu et Or, with a number by Gilbert Bécaud and Liberace. He was noticed by Noël Gauvin, director of the TV show Music-hall . The latter approached Léveillée to compose the song Montréal for the singer Andrée D'Amour.

Still encouraged by Élizabeth Chouvalidzé, Claude Léveillée produces musical and poetic compositions. Three months later, he began setting his poems to music. In 1955, he created his first song, Tes Rêves. It was entered in the Chœur Bleu et Or competition at the Université de Montréal. He appears on Music-hall, where he performs some of his songs. At the university cantina, Élizabeth and Claude audition for extra roles at Société Radio-Canada. They met Claude Caron, who remembered Léveillée's accordion performances. Caron offered him the role of Bozo in Père Ambroise Lafortune's television series La Rivière perdue.

After two years, he dropped out of university and the social sciences. In 1956, he played in "Le Secret de la rivière perdue" on Radio-Canada Television; he also created a character for children, Clo-Clo (sets, script, text and music), on the "Domino" program (1957–59, 1961–62). Léveillée composed hundreds of songs.

He met Paul Buissonneau at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, where he was in charge of the musical score for the 1956 revival of Orion le tueur at the Centre Saint-André-Apôtre. Buissonneau offers Léveillée the opportunity to open the next play he stages, La Tour Eiffel qui tue, presented from 4 to 9 March 1957 at the Salle du Gesù in Montreal and on 25 May in Edmonton. In 1957, Claude Léveillée creates the soundtrack for La Belle Rombière by Guillaume Hanoteau and Jean Clevers. In 1958, he plays the lead role in Marcel Aymé's Les Oiseaux de lune.

In 1959, he co-founded Les Bozos with six other young Quebec chansonniers. That same year, he entered one of his songs ("Les vieux pianos") in the third edition of the Canadian Song Contest. This song, selected as one of the twelve finalists, was recorded shortly afterwards by Micheline Manseau, to a honky tonk piano rhythm that underlines the nostalgic aspect of the lyrics ("[...] vous n'êtes plus de notre temps [...]"): this is the first recording of Claude Léveillée, the pianist turned songwriter.

On 12 June 1959, under the influence of Paul Buissonneau and his wife Françoise, who were encouraging Édith Piaf to go to the little cabaret Chez Bozo, Claude Léveillée met the artist. She invited him to come and compose songs for her in Paris in August 1959. Léveillée's time in France with the singer was an enriching experience, and helped establish his own reputation. Many years later, Léveillée would evoke his collaboration with Piaf in the documentary 67 bis boulevard Lannes, directed by Jean-Claude Labrecque .

He returns to Quebec in 1960. Édith Piaf recorded several of the songs he had written for her (including Boulevard du crime, Ouragan and Le Vieux piano, a version of Les Vieux pianos featuring a third person), then died in 1963.

In 1961, Léveillée was artistic director of the small "boîte à chansons" Le Chat noir, in Montreal, where he hired Gilles Vigneault and asked him after his performance if he had any other texts to set to music. Léveillée obtained several of Vigneault's texts (some of them written in his presence), and composed some thirty of them, including Le bout du monde, Le chemin de prairie, Il en est passé, Avec nos yeux, L'Équateur, Les nuages, Comme guitare... and (to Russian-style music) L'hiver, "sung admirably by Monique Leyrac", as well as the other songs on the album Monique Leyrac chante Léveillée et Vigneault (1963).

Following his experience in France, Claude Léveillée won the Grand Prix du disque canadien de la radio de CKAC in 1962.

On 23 April 1963, with Paul Buissonneau, Yvon Deschamps and Jean-Louis Millette, he co-founded the Théâtre de Quat'Sous .

In the 1960s, he produced a number of hits including The Old Pianos, Frédéric, The Legend of the White Horse, Le Rendez-vous (lyrics by Gilles Vigneault ), The Scene, Emmène-moi au bout du monde and Soir d'hiver (poem by Émile Nelligan ).

In 1963, he played the musical part in Paul Buissonneau's show Les Éphémères, with Yvon Deschamps and Jean-Louis Millette, among others. Due to union disputes, the show was cancelled. Léveillée nevertheless recorded the music he had composed. Later, for Louis-Georges Carrier, director of the Théâtre de la Marjolaine, Léveillée wrote the music for several musicals, including Doux temps des amours, libretto by Carrier and Éloi de Grandmond, presented in the summer of 1964 as "the 1st French-Canadian musical", and Ne ratz pas l'espion, whose libretto was written by Carrier in collaboration with Hubert Aquin.

He was the first Quebec singer to perform alone at Place des Arts (in 1964).

He won the Grand Prix du Disque in 1966. He enjoyed some success with his 1967 album 1 voix 2 pianos, a melancholy, jazz-influenced record on which he worked with his friend André Gagnon (the other piano) and backing singer Nicole Perrier (vocals). He also continued his musical comedy career with Elle tournera la terre in 1967, presented at the Comédie-Canadienne de Montréal the same year. On 21 May 1967, he performed the song Le rendez-vous on the American Ed Sullivan Show, exceptionally broadcast live from Montreal, on the occasion of the World's fair held there at the time.

In 1968, accompanied by André Gagnon, Léveillée performed 26 recitals in the USSR.

In the early 1970s, he produced such acclaimed songs as L'étoile d'Amérique, Cheval de bois, Si jamais and Marie Rose. In 1972, he represented Canada at the Sopot Song Festival in Poland. The same year, he returned on tour to the USSR. In the mid-1970s, Claude Léveillée electrified his music a little and produced more politically committed lyrics: Les amoureux de l'an 2000, Ce matin un homme, Ce soir si on s'aimait, Les filles de l'Acadie illuminate these years of intense creativity.

In 1976, he gave a series of concerts at Place des Arts, participated in the "5 grands sur la montagne" show (Une fois cinq) and presented a few concerts with Félix Leclerc on Île d'Orléans (Le temps d'une saison). That same year, he gave Julie Arel the song Merci à toi. In 1978 and 1979, he gave way to instrumental music with Black Sun (a foray into progressive music) and Escale 80.

In 1980, he lost his only child, Pascal, who died at age of 20. Léveillée embarked on an intimate tour in 1980, beginning at the Théâtre de Quat'Sous in the fall. In 1982, he released a new album of songs featuring Le coyote, La grande vie and Les fils de la liberté. A few tours of Switzerland, from 1981 to 1984, earned him full recognition in that country. Accompanied by Claude Gauthier and Pierre Létourneau, Léveillée took part in the Trois fois chantera tour in Quebec in 1984.

In 1985 he presented the commemorative show Tu t'rappelles Frédéric with his friend André Gagnon, and that year took part in the Fondation Québec-Afrique, singing in the collective project Les Yeux de la faim, the Quebec equivalent of 'We are the world'. He also composed the song Il est en nous l'amour, for Nicole Martin, with a text by Pierre Létourneau. The song was so successful that it was nominated at the ADISQ gala the following year. In August 1986, he married Hélène LeTendre LeBlond, in Lutry, Switzerland. She is a journalist, columnist and Quebec TV host. They remained married until Claude's death in 2011. That same year, 1986, he began a series of instrumental concerts entitled Un homme, un piano. In 1987, he shared the stage with Renée Claude for a few concerts under the title Partenaires dans le crime, then wrote the songs On s'aimera and Mon père et ma mère for Nicole Martin, for which he joined her as backing vocalist. These two songs are found on the album Histoires de femmes de Madame Martin. In 1988, McDonald's restaurants use his song Frédéric for the Quebec adaptation of the advertising campaign around the character Mac Tonight, renamed Pierrot McDo. In 1989, he released the album Enfin revivre .

In the early 1990s, Léveillée landed the role of businessman and press magnate Émile Rousseau in the TV series Scoop, for which he also composed the musical score. The series, which ran from 1992 to 1995, was a huge success, enabling Léveillée to win over a new audience.

In 1994, he recorded the album Mes années 60, featuring his old hits. He went on to produce 3 albums, part instrumental, part children's stories: Rêves inachevés (1998), Rêves inachevés vol 2 (1999) and Non stop le rebel (2000). His latest songs can be found on Mes années 80 (1996) and Cœur sans pays (2008). On stage, he continued to perform at Place des Arts in 1994, 1997 and 2003. Never giving up acting, he appeared briefly in George Mihalka's L'Homme idéal and Michel Poulette's La Conciergerie. He made a return to television in 2002, playing a mentally ill former teacher in the TV series Tabou.

On 27 April 2004, on stage at the age of 71, he suffered his first stroke, followed by a second on 20 October, leaving him severely disabled. After a long stay in hospital and some rehabilitation, he was taken home at his own request, and was able to stay there thanks to the initiatives of friends, who ensured his maintenance and the financing of his care.

In 2008 the second and final volume of his biography was published; the following year, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationaux du Québec (BAnQ) acquired the Claude Léveillée archive. The fund is still kept there.

On 5 May 2011, the Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécois presented Guy Latraverse and the artisans of the "1 fois 5" show with the "Artisan de la Fête nationale du Québec 2011" award,

to mark the 35th anniversary of the patriotic concert that left its mark on the history of Quebec song at the height of the sovereignist era. Claude was unable to attend the press conference due to his frail health. So he took the trouble to make a video testimonial, which was his last public appearance before his death the following month.

On 4 June 2011, Claude Léveillée suffered a third stroke at home and loses his speech. On 9 June 2011, he died peacefully of a cerebral hemorrhage[10] at the age of 78.[11]

His funeral took place on 18 June 2011– at Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica (capacity 1,500). The ceremony, conducted by Father Raymond Gravel, was broadcast live on RDI, with André Gagnon at the piano. On this day, the flag at the Parliament Building in Quebec is lowered to half-mast (as was the case for Alys Robi shortly before). The day before, the public was invited to march near the coffin at Place des Arts,.[10][12] Claude Léveillée was then taken to Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery,[10] where he was laid to rest beside his parents and son.

Claude Léveillée's musical and poetic work is distinguished by its lyricism and theatrical expressiveness. It explores themes of love, nostalgia, the yearning for freedom, a vast country, solitude and the passage of an often absurd existence.A creative pianist, Léveillée is at his best in orchestrations marked by romanticism, dramatic rhythms, subtle harmonies and melodic lines. And Léveillée "had a gift: he knew how to put the right syllable on the right note, how to make words sing and notes speak". And "his piano was an orchestra unto itself [...] not his accompaniment but his duettist, as lilting as he was."

Most of the original versions of Claude Léveillée's hits are now available on CD, notably on the double boxed sets Émergence (Sony, 1997) and Mes immortelles, je vous les confie (Aube, 2003). In November 2012, the legendary Léveillée-Gagnon album was finally reissued in its entirety. Released in 1965, this veritable treasure trove of Quebecois musical culture bears witness to an era in turmoil, and to a work of quality that is still relevant today.

Marriages: Micheline Guernon (mother of her son Pascal); Monica Miller; Francine Massé; Hélène LeTendre LeBlond 1986–2011.