Winnipeg’s music lovers are getting excited. On March 20, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra welcomes one of brightest luminaries of our time, bassist Rufus Reid. For more than 35 years, this powerhouse artist has been injecting life into all aspects of the music scene, his creativity extending beyond all labels and boundaries. He teams up with […]
On April 10, the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series ends its tenth year celebrations with the return of Montreal pianist Oliver Jones. He teams up with tenor saxophonist Harry Allen for a concert of Gershwin music. Expect some magic! As Winnipeg audiences well know, Oliver Jones is a very bluesy, soulful musician. I think of […]
A year ago, bookstore owner Kelly Hughes didn’t know much about jazz. Now the performance space upstairs at Aqua Books is one of the busiest jazz venues in the city, and George Colligan is shaking things up as the store’s first Songwriter-in-Residence. For those of you who haven’t visited Aqua Books yet, it’s a cheeky […]
The first time I met Paul Balcain, he was wielding a saxophone. The next time I met him, he was wielding a paint roller. When I track him down for this interview, I ask him about it. “I grew up in the construction business,” he says. “The harder I tried to escape it, the more […]
Stan Getz coaxed the most sorrowful, sentimental sounds from his tenor saxophone. As jazz critic Whitney Balliett once said, he had “a lovely tone, the kind of tone one would want to go home to.” No doubt about it, Getz was a troubled individual. At seventeen, he was already an alcoholic and, not long afterward, […]
Knut Haugsoen, an architect and musician who made Winnipeg his home for almost four decades, died January 17 at the age of 75. Haugsoen was born in Norway. He pursued architecture as a career, but a passion for jazz was with him from childhood, and he began performing when he was still a teen. After […]
I was New Orleans this January for the annual Jazz Educators Network meetings. JEN is the phoenix that has emerged from the ashes of IAJE, and there’s a lot to like about it! There were three unexpected stand-outs for me at this year’s JEN. One was a masterclass on self-directed learning by Harry Pickens, special […]
Esperanza Spalding appears to be somebody from another planet. She’s just this absolute musical genius. She’s one of the most giftedly lyrical musicians alive today—when you hear her inventing melodies, it’s nothing short of miraculous. Esperanza Spalding has been one to watch since she appeared on the jazz scene in 2005. An unconventional kid, she […]
There is a writer I want you to know. He writes edgy, tough-minded, bitingly ironic novels about crime—serious crime like theft, kidnapping, extortion, murder. His novels are filtered through a sardonic anti-hero, Monty Haaviko, an ex-con who is determined to go straight. Monty lives in Winnipeg, of all places. It’s not the city you’ll find […]