I was recently invited to a Grade 4 classroom at Riverbend School. The encounter was among the most memorable I’ve had since coming to Winnipeg. On arrival, 9-year-old ambassadors greeted me at the door with cordial speeches, and led me to the main office where they signed me in and introduced me to the principal. […]

Sophie Milman is a new jazz singer who is making waves across Canada and in other countries around the world. Her first self-titled disc, Sophie Milman, sold over 100,000 copies and gained her wide critical attention. Her second CD, the 2007 recording Make Someone Happy, won her a Juno for Vocal Jazz Album of the […]

A mainstay of Toronto’s bustling jazz scene, drummer Ted Warren has played with most anyone who’s anyone on the Canadian scene and several prominent artists from abroad, including Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, and Slide Hampton. This January, he and his band are booked in to play at the Park Theatre as part of Jazz Winnipeg’s […]

Steve Kirby’s Oceanic Jazz Orchestra took a lot of listeners by surprise last June at the Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival when the group opened for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. They heated things up again as the opener for the Domino Jazz Concert in mid-August. They anchored this year’s Concert for […]

Mira Black was born in Winnipeg in 1968, but didn’t stay here very long. She spent much of her childhood in many exotic places—India, Florida, Antigua—but eventually landed back in Winnipeg. At Balmoral Hall, she began to sing in musicals and “because it was an all-girls school and because of my vocal range and my […]

I often liken learning jazz to learning a language. If you took a class in Russian and the instructor only opened the textbook, you might piece together a certain amount, maybe even approximate a few sounds. But if I dropped you off in Moscow, you’d be lost. You might recognize a few signs, but you […]

Earl “Bud” Powell’s life was unhappy and painful, but his piano playing was exceptional, innovative, and very influential. The grandson of a flamenco guitarist and son of a stride pianist, Powell grew up in New York City. Before turning to jazz at age fifteen, when he joined a band led by his brother, a trumpeter, […]

In a recent issue of Canadian Children’s Book News, I came across an interview with celebrated Canadian children’s illustrator, Stéphane Jorisch. His characters, both human and animal, are quirky, expressive, intense, and full of intention. They catch the depth and seriousness of the worlds children inhabit, and are equally compelling for adults. He makes some […]