Chances are you’ve heard singer Rayannah Kroeker by now—perhaps as one of the Andrew Sisters in last winter’s WJO concert, perhaps at Prairie Ink Café with bassist Quintin Bart, perhaps as one of the Satellites with the Retro Rhythm Review, perhaps putting a band through its paces at The Cool Monday Night Hang. Rayannah has […]

The current backlash against President Barack Obama feels similar to the backlash against President Dwight D Eisenhower during the mid-1950s. The Supreme Court ordered the integration of schools and Eisenhower started with nine black kids at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. History calls those kids the Little Rock Nine. Arkansas Governor, Orval Eugene […]

Considered by many to be the most proficient improviser in jazz history, Sonny Rollins is the last remaining true jazz giant of his era. A contemporary of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Clifford Brown and Thelonious Monk, Rollins performed with all of these luminaries whilst shaping his own legendary career as a bandleader. Sonny […]

Born in New Orleans, Terence Blanchard began playing piano at the age of 5 and picked up the trumpet in elementary school. His father, a professional opera singer, told him, “If you’re going to do this music thing, you’re going to do it right and take some lessons.” He studied with Ellis Marsalis and Roger […]

Roy Hargrove is one of the most soulful and in-demand trumpet players today. He has played with the who’s who of the jazz world, including Wynton Marsalis, Jimmy Cobb and Herbie Hancock. When I listen to his recordings, I am struck by his immense musicality and deep passion. Hargrove was born in 1969 in Waco, […]

There’s something about the lushness of a piano duo that makes it especially appealing to jazz audiences. At this year’s jazz festival, the sound of two pianos will ring out under the hands of Renee Rosnes and husband Bill Charlap, ambassadors of a new generation of jazz greats. While Renee grew up in Vancouver and […]

If there were one word to describe Ranee Lee, it would be versatile. After touring North America in the 1970s as a tenor saxophonist and drummer, the Brooklyn-born Lee moved to Montreal, and was chosen to star in the first Canadian production of Lady Day, a musical portraying the life of legendary jazz singer Billie […]

Vibraphonist Stefon Harris has visited Winnipeg several times over the past few years. He mesmerized audiences in the Asper Jazz series, and catapulted students at the Summer Jazz Camp to new levels of harmonic awareness. His are possibly the most spectacular extraterrestrial visits the jazz community has ever experienced! When Stefon plays, the music you […]

With the Jazz Festival right around the corner, both aspiring and experienced jazz musicians will hear some great concerts, but there’s always a chance they might share musical conversation at a late-night jam session as well. A jam is a curious creature. The players are assembled on the spot, the song is decided in the […]

Throughout his long career, Charlie Haden has striven for musical excellence and variety. He is one of the world’s best improvisers, and his bass playing has set a standard for several generations of jazz artists. It is no surprise that Charlie Haden became a musician. His family’s country band, the Haden Family Singers, had a […]

My nine-year-old daughter asked the other day what was in grass that made it alive. We were raking the winter road grit off the boulevard, and truly there wasn’t a trace of green yet. We stood and looked at last year’s tawny grass and pondered. What is it, anyway? I trotted out the science, but […]