Sometimes jazz musicians will only give you part of a familiar rhythm—they want you to fill in the blanks. They’ll play bits and pieces of a melody. You’ll remember how the rest of it goes and smile at the parody. They’ll lead you to an obvious ending and hand you a surprise exit through a […]

One day this past year, our jazz history class was studying Horace Silver, one of the great jazz pianists and composers. Our guest lecturer laid out about what you’d expect from a good, informative lecture, and then he began recalling things he learned when he played with Horace… With the faculty appointment of saxophonist Jimmy […]

Marcus Printup is one of the most accomplished trumpet players on the scene right now—he’s Wynton Marsalis’ right-hand man, and an in-demand player in his own right. He’s also a fantastic educator who truly cares for the students he teaches, which will make him a great addition to the guest faculty at this summer’s U […]

This August, the University of Manitoba is welcoming one of North America’s leading music educators to present his unique and innovative ideas about teaching jazz to young people. “The Jazz Course with Doug Goodkin” takes place from August 16 to 20, overlapping with the highly respected U of M Jazz Camp so that participants and […]

Will Bonness has been tearing up the keyboard for a lot of years now. He was touring with Maynard Ferguson’s band when he was still in his teens, playing all over North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. Not yet 24, he has now performed on stages here and afar with some of […]

He sang, he talked, he coached—and he inspired. On a Sunday morning at the end of May, musicians and music-lovers had a chance to watch Kurt Elling at work. We got a glimpse of the musical philosophy underpinning his phenomenally successful career, and we all took home lessons from his astute and supportive instruction of […]

Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver [b. 1928] was exposed to lots of different music from a very early age. His Portuguese father and American mother listened to Portuguese and Cape Verdean folk music, and at church he heard the gospel music his mother sang. Later, he listened to blues records from the 1930s and 19r0s […]

One of the joys of my life as the Director of a writers festival is discovering new books by new writers. This year, the sleeper for me has been a graphic novel called Tyranny, by a Toronto artist named Lesley Fairfield. Tyranny is a book about a young woman who is wrestling with an acute […]