Stringers - Swing Rock Swing

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	The Scratch	02:59
	2	Work Song	02:48
	3	Fingertip Monkey	02:24
	4	Summertime	03:41
	5	Memphis	02:55

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Coming Home Baby	02:30
	2	Birk's Works	03:23
	3	Soak'n Wet	02:03
	4	Marmelade	02:39
	5	All About My Girl	04:18

Photos

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Information/Write-up

Emerging from Montréal’s club circuit in the early 1960s, The Stringers were one of the most accomplished rhythm-and-blues-based instrumental groups operating in Québec during the pre-British Invasion era. Led by teenage trumpet prodigy Denis Lepage, the group fused jazz phrasing, R&B rhythms, and early rock and roll with a sophistication that set them apart from most Canadian bands of the period.

The Stringers came together in the first half of the decade, with Lepage—barely in his mid-teens—already functioning as bandleader and musical director. The lineup included Serge Proulx (guitar), Pierre Guay (saxophone), Guy Rocheleau (bass), and additional rotating personnel, with Michel Lepage (Denis’s brother) likely handling drums during this period. From the outset, the band displayed an unusually refined grasp of arrangement and groove, drawing equally from jazz standards, soul instrumentals, and contemporary R&B.

Their sole LP, Swing Rock Swing, was issued in 1964 in both English and French-market editions on the Banff and Caprice labels. Despite Banff’s reputation as a country-oriented imprint, the album presented a concise, jazz-inflected R&B program featuring versions of “Work Song,” “Summertime,” and “Comin’ Home Baby,” alongside original rhythm-driven instrumentals. In style and execution, the record aligned more closely with American soul-jazz ensembles than with the surf or beat groups dominating Canadian charts at the time.

By the mid-1960s, Lepage and guitarist Serge Proulx dissolved The Stringers and reconfigured the ensemble into The Persuaders, marking a decisive shift from instrumental jazz-R&B toward vocal soul, funk, and heavier rhythm and blues.

With that transition, the Stringers name disappeared, closing an early chapter in Lepage’s career that documented his formative years as a bandleader and arranger within Montréal’s pre-soul club circuit.
-Robert Williston

Musicians
Denis Lepage: trumpet, bandleader, musical director
Serge Proulx: guitar
Pierre Guay: saxophone
Guy Rocheleau: bass
Michel Lepage: drums

Production
Produced by Ken Ayoub
Engineered by Paul Mongeau

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