I’m writing this letter while parked along a highway in Arizona. The closest perceivable form of life is a very tall and spiny cactus. It’s one of thousands. I may as well be on Mars by the look of the landscape. Perspective is tricky out here—things can look close, yet be so far from reach. […]

When I was a kid, we’d put on our favorite records and have dance parties.  We’d mix it up, so a typical party would have a Jackie Wilson record, an Otis Redding record, an Aretha Franklin record—and a record by The Ramsey Lewis Trio. Even all these years later, just listen to tunes like “The […]

Like her contemporaries Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper, Janelle Monáe is a very complex, creative and unique artist who is utilizing all of her influences in an exceptionally compelling way. She is fearless—with her singing, with her performance style, and with her whole musical concept. I saw Janelle Monáe live at the MTS Centre last […]

If you’re any fan of jazz, you’ll know the great diva singers of the past—Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughan… Ella could scat any other vocalist into the ground and took advantage of her four-octave range. Billy could make you cry, and preached new ways of manipulating a phrase. Sarah had the voice of an […]

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is one of the brightest young stars on the music scene today. The New Orleans native has been thrilling crowds across the world for a few years now. He is a natural showman and a powerhouse on both the trombone and the trumpet. Andrews was born into one of the most […]

Delfaeyo Marsalis is the third brother in the famed Marsalis family. His father, Ellis, and all four sons—Branford, Wynton, Delfaeyo, and Jason—were honoured in 2011 with a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, in recognition of their extraordinary contribution to jazz performance and culture. Delfaeyo gravitated to the trombone in middle school, and […]

It was just another shot in the dark when former Winnipegger Paul Metcalfe responded to a Toronto Craigslist ad that read, “New Orleans Style Brass Band Looking for Sax Player”—but meeting tubist/composer Rob Teehan on the bus on the way to the audition seems more like fate. Paul recruited another former Winnipegger, trombonist Chris Butcher, […]

No doubt you’ve seen Jeff Presslaff—identifiable by his signature ponytail and beret—sitting at a piano or playing the trombone on various Winnipeg stages. Presslaff came here in 1997 from New York City, and has established himself as a busy player and teacher, and an accomplished writer and arranger. On May 4, his band will close […]

Bill Evans is the most significant jazz pianist of the last forty years. He influenced a wide range of players, including Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, and Herbie Hancock. Evans was a brilliant player who created some of the most complex, calming music in jazz, but offstage, he was an enormously troubled individual. An introvert, he […]

I first met Luke in 2008 at the U of M Summer Jazz Camp. There were a few standout bass players that year, but Luke had an edge on the best of them. Of course I wanted him to join us in the Jazz Studies program at the U of M. At that time, the […]

I tripped over a little video on YouTube called “Alive Inside” and it’s got me thinking about the way music is folded into the deepest parts of us. In the early frames, an old man is slumped over in his wheel chair, listless and disengaged. He doesn’t respond to the caregiver, he doesn’t recognize his […]