L’ORKESTRE DES PAS PERDUS (O.P.P. for short, liberally speaking the Lost Steps Orkestra) is a six to nine pieces brass band made up of a sousaphone, a trombone, a trumpet, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and drums. Full of humour and highly energitic, this group draws from various contemporary currents and timeless material, breathing new and inventive dimensions into music, to the great deligth of the audience.
With this type of instrumentation, there is an inevitable difference, a sort of meeting of circus music and surrealist cabaret, with strong influence of jazz, funk and fun… For the occasion, slide trombonist Claude St Jean is the man responsible for the compositions and the arrangements of this very urban music at the crossroads of Europe and America, stretching O.P.P’ s repertoire with a touch of Zappa, a smidgen of Nino Rota and a breath of Carla Bley’s.
The musicians that make up O.P.P. are from solid jazz and musique actuelle/improvising music backgrounds, having performed with a wide cross section of Montreal’s best and musicians from elsewhere. The lively performances of the group are tinged with deligthful humour, but the play is tight and determined, giving to the compositions a cachet that is both ironic and serious.
Established in 1993, O.P.P. has since produced 4 CD’s : Projet 9 (2007), Mondo cuivro (2004), Maison douce maison (1998) and T’auras pas ta pomme (1996) They’ve done concerts in Mexico, Taiwan, Portugal, Spain, France, U.S.A. and in major jazz festival’s in Canada. They have already some’s music played on TV program in Japan.
L’Orkestre des Pas Perdus in concert is a generous mix of music for brass and other metals, original compositions and colourful and imaginative arrangements, the whole interpreted in an energetic and joyous musical happening, exploding into a fanfare of entertainment.
