Bassist Luke Sellick completed his undergraduate degree in the Jazz Studies program at the University of Manitoba in 2013, then headed to New York City for graduate work at Juilliard. Now an active member of the jazz scene in the heart of the jazz world, Luke is releasing his first recording as a leader. I […]

New Orleans is one of the only places in the world where you encounter a city, a culture, and a music scene all at the same time. When I arrived here a year ago, I wasn’t prepared for how interwoven music, dance, food, and history are in this city, and how quickly I would be swept […]

On May 8, I boarded a flight to New York City for the first time. I was on my way to the 2013 Essentially Ellington Festival, one of the most unique music festivals for high school students in the world. Created in 1995 by the fantastic people at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the festival celebrates […]

The club is dark, cramped and smoky, and other than the music radiating from the bandstand, silence is the only thing that can be heard. It’s so quiet, you might wonder whether the audience is enjoying themselves. But immediately following the last note of the set, they jump up and break into a roar of […]

In his book, The Year Before the Flood: A Story of New Orleans, Ned Sublette says, “If you’ve never been on a second line, there’s something about jazz you don’t know.” The second line became very apparent to me this summer when I was in New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity, rebuilding homes damaged by […]

I’ve mentioned before that Winnipeg is beginning to gain a reputation amongst the world’s jazz community. We’ve had the opportunity to share our investment in this art form with a lot of high-powered visiting artists over the past nine years. Now, members of our jazz faculty are regularly invited to tour in North America, Europe, […]