I’m proud to have had an opportunity to work with Paul Nolin. In case you haven’t heard, Paul Nolin was the Executive Producer for the jazz festival in Winnipeg—a job that presented a set of challenges that were not meant for the faint of heart! Though there were many unpredictable complications involved with this post, time […]

One of the big concerts at this year’s Tarbut: Festival of Jewish Culture is David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana: Roots. Imagine Jewish folk music choosing Cuban jazz as a dance partner. The match is surprising but also somehow obvious when you hear it—the song forms, the energy, the mix of ache and joy… Odessa/Havana emerged from one […]

Singer Alicia Olatuja is one of the strong new voices in the jazz world. As you listen to her effortless melodies, you can hear a wide range of influences—gospel, soul, jazz, and classical. These are the gifts of growing up in St Louis, a musically diverse city, then soaking up the music of the world […]

Many of you will know by now that Paul Nolin, the muscle behind Jazz Winnipeg for the last dozen years, has packed up his family and headed to Alberta where he has taken on the role of Senior Events Manager for Banff and Lake Louise Tourism. We wish you well, Paul! Moving forward, long-time Jazz […]

For a lot of people, jazz means big band—and big band is an important part of jazz, but it’s not the whole field. Big band (or jazz orchestra) is a gateway between the classical world and the jazz world. It’s organized and balanced, and there’s always somebody there to usher you through the challenges that […]

Quincy Jones’s story is extraordinary. He started in the 1950s as a jazz musician playing the trumpet and as a freelance arranger and became a mogul and one of the most sought-after record producers in the world. He has defied the boundary lines for music genres because he sees it as a whole. In August […]

I first was aware of the Belgian harmonica legend Toots Thielemans through Sesame Street—the harmonica playing in that theme music is amazing! I wasn’t sure who it was at first, but you could hear a fair amount of jazz in that folksy melody. Then I heard him on Quincy Jones’s Walking in Space. That’s some […]

Bobby Hutcherson is easily one of the most important vibraphonists of the twentieth century, an artist who really opened a new era for this instrument. Coming into his own in the sixties, Hutcherson helped modernize his instrument by bringing it into the world of hard bop and avant-garde jazz, with all the associated technical and […]

One of my favourite groups of recent years has without a doubt been the organ trio made up of organist Larry Goldings, guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart. All three musicians are highly in demand in the international jazz scene. Peter Bernstein has worked with Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, and Bobby Hutcherson, and studied with […]

My friend Dana is slogging through chemo these days. Periodically she sends a note out to all of her friends detailing the daily grind—the weakness, the medical challenges, the indignities. Then she reflects on the blessings she ekes out of this journey. I suspect these occasional missives are therapeutic for her, but I’ve been struck […]