Marriage counselors love a jazz bass solo because it’s the best way to get people to start talking to each other. Seriously, jazz bass playing is tantamount to things like the art of butlery or homemaking. When you are at your most effective you are barely seen or heard, yet the people you serve receive […]

When most people think of the violin, they think of a solo instrument in a concerto, or a lead in a small ensemble, or a whole section of ten or twenty violinists playing in perfect synchronicity in an orchestral setting. Other styles that often include violin—or fiddle, as it’s more likely to be called—are zydeco, […]

Russell Malone is one of those guitarists that every young musician aspires to be like, because his level is as high as one could hope to achieve. His musical versatility on the guitar is remarkable, from blazing fast bebop lines to soulful R&B melodies, wailing blues licks to sensitive ballads. Every line he plays is […]

Diane Schuur is one of my favourite jazz vocalists, and she is coming to Brandon in March, spending a week as an artist-in-residence at the Brandon University School of Music and as the headline artist for the Brandon Jazz Festival. Michael Cain, professor of Jazz Piano at BU, is excited about the opportunities for his […]

Bill Green is an unassuming IT guy, but he’s also a wicked bass trombone player, and his warm tone adds presence and power to several of the city’s bands, from the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble (his longest gig at 18 years) and the Mennonite Community Orchestra, to the East Side Jazz Band, the Winnipeg Jazz Collective, […]

On January 24, the Youth Jazz Collective had its first rehearsal, and we got off to an excellent start! I’m taking over from Professor Derrick Gardner this year, and I’m looking forward to working with this talented group of kids from high schools across the city. They are hungry to learn and excited about continuing […]

Bill Charlap is the best pianist to emerge in jazz since the mid-1990s. He is an astonishing player who has taken the best of what all the great jazz pianists have had to say and incorporated it into his own playing. This has made him a pianist with the chops to move the music any […]

Jazz is a new art form now. If you want to know the state of the art form, you check out who’s playing in the San Francisco Jazz Collective. It’s an elite team—all the artists are at the cutting edge of their field. Even being a sub is a high honor! The SF Jazz Collective […]

I’m the parent of teens. I’m always surprised when that information elicits groans of sympathy. It’s a tempestuous patch, for sure, when peer culture collides with parental expectations. Throw in rampant hormones and a dawning realization that you’re going to join a larger world that appears to be on the brink of ruin—it’s a lot […]