This year’s opening weekend for the TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival was a rousing success. People were out in droves. I was offered the opportunity to perform on the Monday after opening weekend at noon on the Cube Stage in Old Market Square, a little park about half a city block in size. Just to […]
This year, the U of M Summer Jazz Camp turns twenty, and the stars are aligning in celebration of that milestone! As well as our all-star Winnipeggers—Will Bonness, Derrick Gardner, Quincy Davis, Larry Roy, and Steve and Anna-Lisa Kirby—the camp welcomes three special guests to this year’s faculty. Saxophonists Jon Gordon and Steve Wilson and […]
I distinctly remember standing outside a practice hut at the Banff Centre on my Grade 12 orchestra trip. Looking up towards the Music and Sound building at the foot of Tunnel Mountain, I declared to myself that one day I would return to Banff to do a longer residency. This year, that particular dream was […]
Sam Little is a young bass player with fire in his belly. Equally comfortable on the upright and electric, he has wide-ranging taste and a warm sound. This summer, he’s rounding up a few keen players and kicking off a Tuesday evening jam session. What got you interested in playing the bass? I was always […]
Since moving to Winnipeg in 2002, I have participated in the annual University of Manitoba Summer Jazz Camp almost every year. (At my first Jazz Camp, I played in an ensemble with Chris Butcher and Curtis Nowosad, and I met Amber Epp and Heitha Forsyth. Need I say more? ) I’ve attended as a student, […]
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 […]
Wynton Marsalis is arguably the most recognized jazz artist in the world. As a messenger of peace for the United Nations, he’s become a jazz statesman, and as the artistic director of New York’s stellar Jazz at Lincoln Center initiative, Marsalis has helped to lift jazz to new heights with his innovative programming. He has […]
I first saw Mulgrew Miller almost three decades ago, playing with Tony Williams in a nightclub in St Louis. I remember thinking that was about the most elegant jazz piano playing I’d ever heard. The lines were smooth and swinging and flowing out like waterfalls cascading—gorgeous! Then somebody said his name was Mulgrew and I […]
In 2007, Ambrose Akinmusire won the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo as well as the Thelonious Monk International Jazz competitions. He also released his debut recording, Prelude…To Cora. It was clear the world was being introduced to a major new talent. A native Californian, Akinmusire studied at the Manhattan School, then returned to the […]
George Orwell’s classic novel, 1984, has experienced a big upsurge in popularity in recent weeks. Obviously its depiction of a culture under surveillance is resonating with contemporary readers. I suspect it’s not only Big Brother that new readers will find relevant to our present landscape, but also the ubiquitous doublespeak, the hyped-up militancy, the pressure […]