Guy Latraverse

Latraverse, Guy

Guy Latraverse. Producer, impresario, b Chicoutimi, Que, 5 Jul 1939. While a student at the St-Laurent College in Montreal, he set up a pirate radio station and produced shows by Pauline Julien and Hervé Brousseau. He went on to become one of the pioneers of the Quebec record and entertainment industry. As a student at the École des hautes études commerciales, he met the singer-songwriter Claude Léveillée in 1961, becoming his impresario and organizing his tours in the boîtes à chansons of Quebec. He subsequently worked for Jacques Blanchet, Pauline Julien, and soon, for some 15 performers and singer-songwriters. In 1963, he started producing his own shows and rented the PDA for Claude Léveillée, the first Quebec artist to sing in the new hall. He then invited the most famous European stars to sing before a Quebec public eager for French song: Charles Aznavour, Guy Béart, Petula Clark, Léo Ferré, Enrico Macias, Mireille Mathieu, and others. In 1968 he produced L'Ostid'show, which introduced Robert Charlebois, Louise Forestier, and Yvon Deschamps and which revolutionized the Quebec chanson. In 1970, he organized 150 shows. The revenues from these shows were reinvested for the benefit of Quebec stars whose success was to a considerable degree attributed to Latraverse.

In 1970, after a bankruptcy, he founded Kébec-Spec, a production and distribution company of shows by such artists as Jean-Pierre Ferland, Claude Dubois, Diane Dufresne, Jean Lapointe, and Clémence Desrochers. The venture extended to records, with Kébec-Disc, and to film, with Kébec-Films. In 1975 Latraverse presented a series of shows at the Place des nations on St-Helen's Island (Montreal) with, among others, Peter Frampton, Frank Zappa, and Chick Corea. He was one of the founders of ADISQ and of its annual gala, the first of which was televised 23 Sep 1979 by the CBC, while he was president. After the bankruptcy of Képec-Spec in 1983, he founded Artistes et associés which produced shows for stage and television. In 1984 he was the master-mind for Diane Dufresne's monumental show, Magie rose, at Montreal's Olympic Stadium where thousands of spectators turned up wearing pink. From 1985 onwards, he concentrated on the production of special TV broadcasts, notably 'Rendez-vous avec Gerry' (with Gerry Boulet - Félix trophy for the best variety show of 1989), 'Bonjour la visite' (Gala of the Communauté des télévisions francophones, 1989), and 'Mission Apollo' (recorded in 1990 in New York for the Communauté des télévisions francophones). He was awarded the Félix 'Hommage' at the ADISQ Gala in 1988.