Youn Sun Nah. I imagine that is a name most of you are hearing for the first time. I recently discovered this artist-visionary-vocalist when I clicked on a link in a promotional email from her booking agent. Lucky for me that I did! While Youn Sun Nah is relatively unknown to most of us in […]

On June 18, Gregory Porter will be performing in Winnipeg as part of the TD Winnipeg International Jazz Winnipeg Festival. The last time I was this excited about a vocalist coming to town was when Dianne Reeves was here seven or eight years ago. The fact that Gregory Porter just won his first Grammy for […]

On Saturday, November 10, one of the most creative young jazz vocal musicians will be performing in Winnipeg and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Cyrille Aimée is a 27-year-old French woman with a French father and a Dominican mother. Her hometown of Samois-sur-Seine is the same village in which the great jazz guitarist, […]

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 […]

Curtis Nowosad, a 20-year-old in his third year in the U of M’s Jazz Studies program, has been playing drums for only about 6 years, but he is already a force to be reckoned with. When I talked with him about his success, I found out that timing is everything! When he was still a […]