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Artist
Antoine Berthiaume
12+ albums
guitarjazzcanadaCanadianAvant-Garde
about
Montréal (Québec), 1977 Composer • Performer (guitar, banjo) • Improviser Antoine Berthiaume was first meant to be an architect or a cartoonist. He showed talent for drawing at a very young age but his passion for comic books faded when he discovered it was more fun to spend time working with people; that’s how he traded his pencil for a guitar at age 15 starting his own band with Alexis Trepanier, today one of the greatest web designer alive. Guitarists David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Andy Summers and others were among the first inspirations of the young lad. He soon got bored of only playing blues and rock and discovered jazz at age 17 when he studied with guitarist Marc-André Laporte and Éric St-Laurent in Montréal before doing a two-year program at Cégep Saaint-Laurent studying with Benoît Charest in jazz guitar. It’s really at Montréal jazz club l’Air du Temps that Berthiaume learn to play jazz with the best players in town. He hosted the house band for a year with Magella Cormier (former drummer of Alain Caron) and François Turgeon on bass and started exploring standard jazz as well as free music. Berthiaume studied with Neil Smolar in Montréal before moving to Toronto to take lessons from guitarist Lorne Lofsky. Toronto didn’t really make it for Berthiaume so he eventually moved back to Montréal before going to New York to study with saxophonist Dave Binney. He heard many great musicians but his greatest pleasure was to spend time with his new friends from NYC ballet, El
