If anyone has a copy of the Montreal Gazette from Saturday, February 23, 2008, it would be much appreciated if you could send me a copy of this great article about my friend Greg.
The original e-article is here but I’m copying and pasting it also considering I’m sure the article will be lost in a reshuffle on the original site but will always have a place here…
——-
Musicians played and died together
| Alan Hustak |
| The Gazette |
Saturday, February 23, 2008
|
Jérôme Petitgirard and Gregory Barker were talented Montreal freelance musicians who were just beginning to achieve recognition on the local scene when they were killed Feb. 13 in a car accident on Highway 158 in the Laurentians between Lachute and St. Sauveur.
Petitgirard, 39, billed as The Horns Guy, was a tenor saxophonist originally from France.
Barker, 29, who was from from Ottawa, was a pianist who obtained his arts degree at Concordia two years ago and had recently joined the St. James United Church choir.
What they had in common was music; both loved to entertain at the drop of the hat, whether there was money to be made or not.
“There is always push and pull in launching a career, and Jérôme died just as he was starting to come into his own, do recordings and make a day to day living at it. Greg had already basically built up his own network,” said saxophonist Adam O’Callaghan, who knew both.
“Jérôme lived every day for the moment. Everyone who knew him remembers him as an incredible musician and as a very social person, out there hustling to get gigs.”
Petitgirard was born in Paris Oct. 22, 1968. Both his parents are pianists, and he started taking piano lessons when he was 6.
He took up the saxophone and continued studying classical music and jazz at a Paris conservatory. He was 16 when he started teaching and playing professionally
He emigrated to Canada in 1997 and took out Canadian citizenship.
“He lived for music. He played flute, trumpet and saxophone,” said bassist Thomas Viardot.
“It was his life, and he wasn’t in it for the money. He lived on a plane of his own. He decided he was going to make a living from his music and not take any other jobs. He was super nice, always ready to play even if the gig didn’t pay. He was even into marching bands, big time.”
Drummer Ray Newton remembers travelling in the early morning hours with Petitgirard after doing shows with Petitgirard sprawled in the back seat of the car playing the sax.
“He was hilarious, a lot of fun,” Newton said.
“Considering he was 6’4″, he was also the hardest guy to find in a club. After he finished his solo, you could never find him. He’d leave the stage, get lost in the crowd, or sit at the bar drinking beer until it was time for him to play again.”
Friends at the wake in St. Sauveur Thursday recalled an insouciant, devil-may-care character who was lackadaisical about everything except his music.
“He was hopeless at paperwork. You knew he would show up for a gig, you just never knew when he would show up,” said Newton. “But he was really cool. He worked everywhere. All the jazz musicians in town knew him.”
Gregory Barker, the youngest of three sons in a retired civil servant’s family, was born in Ottawa Dec.11, 1978, and began piano lessons at age 9. He obtained a degree in computer programming from Carleton University, but after he graduated in 2002 he decided he didn’t want to be a computer geek and he moved to Montreal to study music, obtaining his degree in 2006.
Even as a youngster, he was socially committed, volunteering at area hospitals and championing environmental causes. He especially enjoyed playing for seniors in retirement homes.
He was an avid cross-country skier and cyclist who often biked the 100 kilometres from Montreal to his family cottage near Ste. Agathe and once hitchhiked across Canada.
“Greg was very much a free spirit, fiercely independent and resourceful,” said his brother, Stephen. “He loved challenges and shunned the safe and easy way of doing things. His anti-materialism, love of jazz and classical music, travel and living each day to its fullest, was like a character out of a Jack Kerouac novel.”
Petitgirard is survived by his 9-year- old son, his parents and a brother. Barker leaves his parents and his two brothers.
Petitgirard was buried in St. Sauveur on Friday; Barker’s funeral was Saturday at St. James United Church in Montreal.