Claude McKenzie
Florent Vollant
Living approximately 800 km north of Montreal, Quebec, friends Claude McKenzie and Florent Vollant turned to music to break the tedium of living on the Maliotenam reserve of Northern Quebec. Vollant had spent 10 or 12 years playing area bars doing the material of everyone from the Beatles to Pink Floyd, throwing in old songs from their Montagnais native heritage.
Recognizing the talent of McKenzie, whom he met in 1984 when McKenzie's family moved to the reserve, they formed a band that they called Kashtin, which in their native Innu language means tornado. Playing local bars and festivals, the duo became celebrities in Northern Quebec, but had not achieved recognition out of the area until a TV crew from a station in Montreal came north to film them at a festival for a documentary they were doing on the Montagnais natives. One person to be impressed with their television debut was Guy Trepanier, head of Montreal's Groupe Concept Musique and Les Productions Avanti Plus. He brought them down to Montreal to record a demo and very quickly they were picked up by Trans Canada Disc, Canadian label for the Gypsy Kings.
Their self-titled debut was released across the country and sold over 100,000 copies in Quebec almost immediately. Produced by Trepanier, the album eventually went double platinum in Canada, surprising almost everyone because the entire album was in the duo's native Innu language, which only about 12,000 people in the world speak and understand. They quickly became known for their spirited, exciting live shows as they toured across the country and back. In 1990 they made ten trips to Europe and went Top 10 in France; the musicians that played on the album also formed their band: Donald Meunier, Alan Cavallo, Serge Durocher, and Claude Guay.
Returning to the studio after their extensive touring, the second album, 'Innu', was released in 1991, has gone platinum in Canada, and was picked up for US release on TriStar Music. Once again extensive touring at home and abroad drew overwhelming praise from fans and critics alike.
For their third album, 1994's 'Akua Tuta', Kashtin signed with Columbia Records, and the album was released simultaneously in the US with the Canadian release. Robbie Robertson included the title track on his album 'The Native Americans', and one of their songs was featured on the soundtrack to 'Dance Me Outside'. The television show Northern Exposure also used some of their songs.
The end of 1996 saw the release of a solo album by Claude McKenzie on Sky Dog Entertainment out of Minnesota, entitled 'Innutown'.
With notes from LeAnne Lis
Singles
1989 E Uassiuian
1989 Harricana
1989 Tipatshimun
1989 Tshinanu
1991 Ishkuess
Albums
1989 Kashtin
1991 Innu
1994 Akua Tuta
Video
Compilation Tracks
1994 cuts on 'Dance Me Outside' - soundtrack
1996 "Akua Tuta" on 'Due South - The Television Soundtrack' (Nettwerk/EMI)
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