For the last few years, Toronto-based drummer and composer Ernesto Cervini has been in love with the novels of Louise Penny. Her books are best-selling murder mysteries based in a fictional rural village called Three Pines. It's the kind of idyllic locale that might be left off of maps, deep in the forested mountains East of Montreal.
The characters in the Three Pines series are complex, nuanced and quirky. Armand Gamache, head of the homicide department of the Surete de Quebec (the provincial police force of Quebec), is the even-keeled crime-solving protagonist. While Gamache is intuitive, his partner and son-in-law Jean-Guy Beauvoir is a more rational thinker who struggles with substance abuse. Then there's the unforgettable curmudgeonly and profane poet Ruth, whose pet duck Rosa utters a four-letter swear-word instead of quacking.
This is just scratching the surface of the rich world that Penny has created in her series, which is to say that there is plenty of fodder for Ernesto Cervini to find musical inspiration. His new album Joy features fifteen musical sketches based on the Three Pines books performed by an all-Canadian cast of musicians. Some of the outstanding performers include pianist Adrean Farrugia, alto saxophonists Luis Deniz and Tara Davidson and Ernesto's sister, vocalist Amy Cervini.
Penny's Three Pines series continues with the soon-to-be released book A World of Curiosities. A new series inspired by Penny's pooks will come to Amazon in December. View the trailer here.
