Guy Nadon (Denis Alix)

The audience at the Gesù centre de créativité greeted Guy Nadon with genuine, heartfelt applause as he walked on to the stage.

He made us laugh, roll our eyes, blush and shake our heads, but more importantly he reminded us how to enjoy ourselves and the music he loves.

An entertainer at heart, Nadon, from the lip of the stage, talked and joked almost as much as he played. If there had been a Just For Laughs schedule nearby, I would have checked to see if he was on the bill.

Well-known to jazz fans and musicians in Quebec and Montreal, Nadon, who turns 75 on January 29 of this year, grew up in Montreal’s East End teaching himself how to play like his heroes Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, Sidney “Big Sid” Catlett, Bernard “Buddy” Rich and entertaining the neighborhood by drumming on whatever he could get his hands on: boxes, garbage cans and pots from his mother’s kitchen.

Last night was a tribute to some of Nadon’s favourite saxophone icons: Gerry Mulligan, Wayne Shorter (“Footprints”), Charlie Parker (“Scrapple From the Apple”), Jimmy Heath (“GTA”), John Coltane (“Naima”), Oliver Nelson (“Stolen Moments”) and Paul Desmond (“Take Five”).

Quebec saxophonist Yvan Belleau did not make the mistake of trying to sound like each one of these iconic saxmen. Instead, he did his own thing on soprano saxophone and sounded good.

Nadon was clearly enjoying himself as he scatted the head to “Scrapple From the Apple” in unison with Belleau, or when imitating a drummer who had only been playing for a week, or when in mid-solo he stopped to dust off his clothes with the brushes. He could have no doubt gone on all night (and almost did), but the evening did end and I can’t imagine that anyone could have left the Gesù without a smile on their face.