Come and read what Claude Rajotte, Paul Mills, Musiqu’en nous Festival, Richard Thorney from Penguin Eggs magazine and CIBL’s Marc Bolduc wrote on MAZ:
An excellent album: folk, jazz, but definitely from this day and age. There are 11 pieces on Telescope and I like… 11 of them. —Claude Rajotte, Musique Plus, Radio-Canada
Marc Maziade’s MAZ project has been adopted instantaneously with the firm belief that they are building a new genre. —Festival Musiqu’en Nous
I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this album. Very well recorded, wonderful musicianship and great arrangements! —Paul Mills, Millstream production
Just when you think you’ve heard it all when it comes to Quebecois traditional music, along comes something new to defy your expectations, in this case a young man multi-instrumentalist from Montreal by the name of Marc Maziade (hence “Maz”). His mission with Télescope is to bring a “new, modern edge” to traditional music, which may not strike you as particularly innovative in and of itself. After all, hasn’t this been the goal of plenty of Quebec outfits over the years? Well, yes. But few have blended the traditional so seamlessly with contemporary jazz before, and even fewer have produced something so eminently listenable and satisfying as has Monsieur Maziade and his band of young turks. The title track, for example, elegantly interweaves Maz’s tenor banjo and podorhythmie with violin (reminiscent of Jerry Goodman at times), acoustic bass, and wurlitzer, to great effect. There are staccato electric guitar lines, bass excursions, and touches of electric piano and other keyboards throughout, but you never lose the sense that this is music completely rooted in the musical history of Quebec.So, yes, mission accomplished and then some! —Richard Thornley, Penguin Eggs
(Traduit par Véronique G.-Allard)
A very decisive album for it dares go outsides the usual boundaries of traditional music. —Marc Bolduc, CIBL