Francis Tétu - Take 2 (2020)

Born in a family of musicians, Francis Tétu went to the Cégep Marie-Victorin before getting his bachelor’s degree in jazz and pop guitar interpretation from the Université de Montréal. He begins his professional career at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal by performing more than 300 shows with his jazz trio. In 2007, he plays for the first time at the Festival de jazz de Montréal, sharing the stage with Guy Nadon, dubbed “the king of drum.” He has come back almost every year since with the jazz band Le Montréal Dixie.

In 2008 and 2009, Francis works as a musician, writer, arranger and producer on Nathalie Albert’s records No more blues and Le Call de l’orignal. Incidentally, at that time, his songs can regularly be heard on Planète Jazz and Espace musique.

His taste for all musical styles allows Francis to take part in numerous jazz, pop, rock and even country music projects. Thus, as from 2005, he tours in Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario and the United States with more than 20 artists such as Edith Butler, Marie-Michèle Desrosiers, Kim Richardson, Nathalie Simard, Vincenzo Thoma, Renée Martel, Marc Hervieux, Marie-Denise Pelletier, Ima and many more. In recent years, he has been touring with today’s queen of country music, Guylaine Tanguay, playing guitar, mandolin and banjo. Recently, he shared the stage with Martine St-Clair and worked on the writing and recording of her new record, due in 2020. As a guitarist and musical director of the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal, Francis has the privilege to conduct hundreds of shows and to work on arrangements for shows such as Fiesta, starring Étienne Drapeau, and more recently New York Hollywood, a musical review. He is also the musical director for the Passeport record label, where he works with Marie-Luce Béland, Gildor Roy (actor/singer) and Steve Veilleux from Kaïn.

In early 2014, he spends most of his time working on the production and recording of the first album of 2Francis (the jazz gipsy duo of violinist Francis Covan and guitarist Francis Tétu). Titled Club Manouche, it is released on June 2, 2015, under the Passeport label. Since 2016, he works in his studio as a producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. He produces other songwriters’ albums, which urges him to write his own music. In 2019, Francis produced his own record with original instrumental pieces tinged with his international music influences. He sees it as a journey into his musical universe. The title, Versatilité, is quite evocative.