Jacques is a self-taught keyboard player, bound to twirl intuitively his long phalanx on all sorts of keyboards. Particularly keen on technology in general, he uses it freely as a mode of expression. He first started out on acoustic guitar, at the age of nine. This was the high point of the Beatles and it definitely influenced his musical taste, which was later redefined by the likes of progressive rock, jazz-rock and pure jazz artists such as Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and George Duke. After switching to the Hammond B3 and the Farfisa organ, which appealed more to his Cartesian side, the Fender Rhodes soon became his primal instrument, and it still is. He later discovered all the diverse aspects of sound synthesis and computer recording and arranging which quickly became his playing field.
Musically, he has always been drawn to modal jazz rather than the tonal expressions of traditional jazz. “I prefer fourths to thirds. My music becomes jazz when it turns to improvisation.” In 1982, he won the first prize of the Roland synthesizer music contest which counted 750 participants from 22 countries. Oscar Peterson was on the judge panel. He played for a while with the musicians from the group “Tchukon” (Slim Williams, Kat Dyson). He also played with Michel Séguin and in the groups “Agharta” and “Anoosh” with Pierre Veniot. He worked briefly with singers like Geraldine Hunt, Zachary Richard, Marc Gabriel and a few others.
As Zen as Jazz can be, Jacques is opening doors to new unexplored sonic experiences. His style? He presents it as smooth jazz, a qualifier that does not totally do justice to his musical imagination. His latest musical direction is shifting towards Urban Jazz, which has a extra dose of funk and R&B, and is strongly oriented towards composition rather than cover playing. He tells us: "I have long abandoned to dream of playing like the greats, like Herbie or Zawinul, because they are simply the best of the best. But I can express as many emotions with my own personal vocabulary and most important, I am having a extreme amount of pleasure doing it."
Jacques now works as a computer programmer in a language fortuitously called C#. He spends most if not all of his free time working on production and composition, creating as many albums of what he calls "good user friendly music" as possible. Jacques uses the Internet exclusively to promote and distribute his music.
ZEN GROOVE
Jacques Mignault has surrounded himself with a range of exceptional musicians to give birth to this smooth jazz album, which flirts more with improvisation than composition.
Yves Nadeau, Michel Dupire, Michel Dubeau, Nathalie Cora, Pierre Veniot and Christian Proulx have played along to the composer's game by conceiving for this project, a vast palette of improvised tracks born from their imagination, their whim and their freedom of creation.
Master of these sound registers, Mignault has conserved the cream of these recordings to create a groove which at times hold us breathless like on the rails of a runaway train; or that sometimes brings us back to more areal rythms, to the total being, to the philosophy of the Tao.
Life, from the outside to the inside: the beating of the heart that carries us from one moment into the next, from adventure to adventure.
This album is made of instruments that the author loves deeply: the keyboards, the bass and the percussions represent the principal ingredients of this recipe he has concocted for the lovers of transcendental experiences.
This album wanted to be made. "This music was in me", he would say. With the help of his friends, Jacques Mignault has given life to it.
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