Jean Carignan (1916 to 1988) was the master fiddler of Quebec. He held a repertoire of some 7,000 reels, jigs, and dance tunes drawn from Quebec, Ireland, and Scotland, and he played them with a technique that classical violinists praised. He drove a taxi for 20 years to pay the bills. In 1974 Canada made him a Member of the Order of Canada as “the greatest fiddler in North America.”
Why Carignan matters
Carignan showed that a folk fiddler could play with the precision of a concert violinist without losing the drive of a dance hall. He learned the Irish recordings of Michael Coleman and the Scottish tunes of J. Scott Skinner note for note, then set them beside the Quebec reels of his teacher Joseph Allard. The Canadian Encyclopedia calls him the leading exponent of the Celtic tradition in French Canadian fiddling. Quebec fiddlers still learn his settings.
Life and career
Carignan was born on December 7, 1916, in Lévis, Quebec, across the river from Quebec City. His father was a mason and a fiddler. Jean started at age four on his father’s tunes and played on street corners in Lévis by age five. At seven he heard a record by Joseph Allard, the great Quebec fiddler. The family moved to Sherbrooke, then Trois-Rivières, then Montreal when Jean was ten. In Montreal he studied with Allard from 1927 to 1931 and began learning the recordings of Irish fiddlers Michael Coleman and James Morrison and Scotland’s J. Scott Skinner. Police harassed him for playing in the streets, and at 11 or 12 he became a shoemaker’s apprentice.
In his mid teens he joined George Wade and His Cornhuskers, a Toronto country band. He played fiddle, and at times clarinet and saxophone, with the band for about five years and appeared on its Victor recordings. He returned to Montreal and led a small dance band at the St-André Dance Hall until 1954 while working in factories between gigs. He then spent two years with Bob Hill’s dance band. In 1956 he decided to play only concerts and folk festivals. To make a living he drove a taxi, a job he held for 20 years.
His partnership with singer Alan Mills took him to the 1960 Newport Folk Festival and to Carnegie Hall the same year. He recorded for Folkways and Elektra in 1960 and became a regular at the Mariposa Folk Festival, where he played until 1977. In 1973, 400 fiddlers gathered at Ascot Corner, south of Montreal, to honor him at the unveiling of a wooden bust. The National Film Board released the documentary Jean Carignan, violoneux in 1975. In 1976 André Gagnon wrote the Petit Concerto pour Carignan et orchestre, and Carignan performed it with Yehudi Menuhin on CBC television in 1979. Menuhin was his friend and admirer.
In 1978 he played for Suite Carignan, a ballet built on his music for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Hearing loss from years of factory work forced him to retire. He died in Delson, Quebec, on February 16, 1988, at age 71.
Playing style
Carignan played fast and clean. He learned Coleman’s Irish ornaments and Skinner’s Scottish tunes note for note, and he could put both into a Quebec reel without dropping the beat. His bowing was tight and articulate. Each note in a run had its own attack, which is why folklorists and violinists such as Menuhin and Henryk Szeryng praised his technique.
He was strict about the tunes. He learned each one from the source and kept it that way, and he refused to change a setting to make it easier. On his 1973 Philo record he plays a track with the fiddle tuned like a viol, one of the old cross tunings of the tradition. His repertoire ran to about 7,000 pieces, learned from Coleman, Skinner, Allard, Wellie Ringuette, and others.
Influences and legacy
Joseph Allard taught him in person. Michael Coleman, James Morrison, and J. Scott Skinner taught him through records, and he later cut a whole album of their tunes. Blind pianist and fiddler Gilles Losier was his accompanist in later years, and his twin brothers Marcel and Rodolphe played beside him in a 1976 concert at Place des Arts.
His records on Folkways, Elektra, and Philo carried Quebec fiddling to American folk audiences in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1998 the Canadian Museum of Civilization and Disques Tout Crin released a three CD set of 104 tunes recorded at his home in 1976. Quebec fiddlers working today still play his settings of the old reels.
Signature tunes and songs
Reel de Lévis Reel du pendu Sherbrooke Jig Tarbolton Reel Reel Gaspésien.
Essential recordings
Ti-Jean… Le Violoneux (London Records, 1958) Old Time Fiddle Tunes Played by Jean Carignan (Folkways, 1960) The Folk Fiddler Who Electrified the Newport Folk Festival (Elektra, 1960) Jean Carignan (Philo, 1973) Jean Carignan rend hommage à Joseph Allard (Philo, 1976)
Awards and honors
Member of the Order of Canada (1974) Prix de musique Calixa-Lavallée (1976) Honorary doctorate, McGill University (1977) Honorary doctorate, University of Toronto (1977) Plaque on the Canadian Folk Music Walk of Fame, Ottawa (2002)
Watch and listen
The National Film Board’s 1975 documentary Jean Carignan, violoneux shows him at home and on stage. Watch his bow arm on the reels.
Carignan plays Le reel du pendu, the hanged man’s reel. Listen for the drone notes under the melody.
What to learn from Carignan
Learn Reel de Lévis, the tune from his home town that the Canadian Encyclopedia uses to introduce him. It has the crooked Quebec phrasing that catches bluegrass players off guard. The technique to steal is his note separation. Play a reel at half speed and give every note its own bow attack, with no slurs. Then bring it up to tempo. Carignan’s speed came from that clarity, not from the other way around.
Sources
Jean Carignan, The Canadian Encyclopedia Jean Carignan, Wikipedia Ti-Jean Carignan, Ti-Jean… Le Violoneux, Discogs Jean Carignan, Old Time Fiddle Tunes Played By, Discogs Jean Carignan, The Folk Fiddler Who Electrified the Newport Folk Festival, Discogs Jean Carignan, Jean Carignan, Discogs Jean Carignan, Jean Carignan Rend Hommage À Joseph Allard, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more players. Don Messer was the other giant of Canadian fiddling in his era, and Graham Townsend recorded across every Canadian style. April Verch and Pierre Schryer carry the French Canadian and Ottawa Valley traditions forward.