About three years ago, I had the good fortune to be roaming the jazz circuit in Greenwich Village in New York, and I wound up at the Village Vanguard. Christian McBride was being featured all that week with his new trio and he was doing the grueling Friday three-show haul. The young man on piano […]

I’m certain that many of you see this type of thing all the time but it’s a rare phenomenon for me. I’m talking about a personality that is so stunning that it calls to mind the days when I believed in magical stuff. The incident happened when it was my turn to take my son […]

Winnipeg audiences are in for a treat this February 18 when vibraphonist Warren Wolf takes his place on the stage at the West End Cultural Centre as part of Steve Kirby’s Oceanic Jazz Orchestra. Wolf is one of the leading voices on the vibes, with three recordings as a leader on the Mack Avenue label—Warren […]

On November 18, Winnipeggers packed the Park Theatre for Rent Party 7, a celebration of dig! magazine’s twelfth birthday! The lobby was alive with people getting their pictures taken, making strategic efforts to win prizes at the rainbow auction table, and enjoying music performed by Marc Tugby, Max Osawa, Chenoa McKelvey, and friends. This year, […]

Jazz Winnipeg is rolling out its tenth season of Nu Sounds, a lively series featuring Manitoba musicians venturing into new territory.  The season opens on Sunday, January 15, with a performance by guitarist, singer, and composer Marco Castillo. With countless performances in cafés and festivals, and a couple of CDs as a leader, Marco has […]

Last issue we shared some memories of Jazz Winnipeg’s long-time Executive Producer Paul Nolin. With this issue, we’re happy to introduce you to Michael Petkau Falk, the organization’s new Artistic Director. You might know Mike from his time fronting the popular Winnipeg indie band Les Jupes, or his period as Artistic Director of the West […]

Pianist Kyle Zavitz is a relative newcomer on the Winnipeg jazz scene. He grew up in a musical household in Ottawa and started playing the piano when he was just a kid, but it wasn’t until he was nineteen and a friend sent him tunes from Herbie Hancock’s pop-centric collaboration album Possibilities that he got […]

Have you ever heard of the 10,000-hour rule? It is commonly (and misleadingly) paraphrased as claiming that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in something. The idea originates with the work of psychologist Anders Ericsson but captured the public consciousness with Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. Many people took the idea this […]

Duke Ellington is one of the most important musical figures of the twentieth century. He refused to recognize boundaries of any kind and created a staggering body of work that includes three thousand compositions and two thousand records. Born in 1899 in Washington, D.C., Edward Kennedy Ellington grew up to be tall, handsome, and a […]

For years I had a dream about walking across a horizontal ladder. Most often it was stretched over darkness, without a start or end point, and rungs were often missing. It was treacherous, and the only certainty was the need to press on. I can still feel the terror—one misstep and I will fall forever. […]