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Newswire | Jocelyn Ménard Caribbean Jazz Group launches Montreal tour

By Newswire on 26 September 2023 Mainstream Jazz, Montreal, Scena Jazz, World Music

Montreal, September 25 – Saxophonist, composer and arranger Jocelyn Ménard is a Canadian-born jazz musician. Trained in Montreal, New York with George Coleman and Paris with Bernard Maury. He has played regularly with the Bernard Primeau Jazz Ensemble, Vic Vogel’s Big Band and various groups ranging from jazz to Latin music, and has taken part in numerous festivals. Since 1988, he has regularly shuttled between Quebec and Guadeloupe. He plays regularly with André Condouant, Happy Lewis, Charlie Chomereau-Lamotte, and the Big Band Mavounzy, and Gwadloup and in small groups [Men Art Jazz 4tet, An’nax, Guanada…]. With Canadian pianist Normand Deveault,…

Photo: Jerry Toth – Alto Saxophone; Roy Smith – Tenor Saxophone; Eddie Karam – Baritone Saxophone; Murray Lauder – Bass; Phil Nimmons -- Clarinet; Ed Bickert – Guitar; Erich Traugott – Trumpet (information courtesy Mike Cado) Broadcast Date: January 23, 1963 Photography Date: November 14, 1962.

Phil Nimmons – 100 Years in the Making

By Marc Chénard on 26 May 2023 Canadian Music, Mainstream Jazz, Toronto

This page also available in / Cette page également disponible en français The field of jazz has its share of stories about musicians who died young, but there are also those who lead long and productive lives, some fortunate enough to reach a ripe old age and receive due praise for their accomplishments. In this era of smoke-free clubs, more jazz figures than ever are pushing well into their 90s, a handful of them even shattering the centenary mark. In case you wondered, the oldest living jazzman today is Ray Anthony, the last of the swing era big-band leaders, now…

CD Review | Gabs Sings Babs (Self-produced, October 2022)

By Andrea Rush on 18 February 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Scena Jazz, Vocal Jazz

Gabs Sings Babs Gabi Epstein, singer Self-produced (October 2022) Jazz cabaret star Gabi Epstein is enjoying well-deserved praise for the beauty and intelligence she radiates on stage and in the studio. Growing up in a supportive musical family that breathes in unison, Gabi rocketed through the McGill University Bachelor of Music program in record time, to the delight of her fans across Canada. Her latest release, Gabs Sings Babs, is a musical treasure. Gabi captures the universal markers: ambition, longing, hope, coping with loss. She covers with enhancements the songs of Barbra Streisand. Kudos to her group of fantastic musicians:…

Interview | Ranee Lee @ Centaur Theatre – Viva la Diva!

By Marc Chénard on 1 December 2022 Interviews, La Scena Online, Vocal Jazz

Any town with a decent jazz scene has at least one good diva of popular song. In Montreal few, if any, would dispute Ranee Lee’s claim to that title. For this ’vocal musician” (her term), the year now ending marks two milestones in her life—the first being her 80th birthday this past Oct. 26, the other marking her arrival in the city half a century ago for her local debut at Hotel Bonaventure. In the years since she took up residence in Montreal, the American jazz singer and musician built a career that also included acting, teaching and being a…

Backstage at Carnegie Hall: Opera by Tim Brady

By Justin Bernard on 2 September 2022 Classical Music, Contemporary, Opera, Vocal Jazz

Tim Brady is very single-minded. For six years, he has nurtured his opera about the history of the electric guitar, as personified by its pioneer, Charlie Christian (1916-1942). As a guitarist and composer himself, Brady knew quite well that this story would open the door to those who transcend individuals and borders. The life of Charlie Christian effectively aligns not only with the history of the electric guitar, but with that of jazz, Black musicians, and the Black community as a whole in its struggles against segregation and racism. Instead of limiting himself to one time period or place, Brady…

Promotional image from the Ottawa Chamberfest website

Summer 2022 Festival Highlights – Quebec, Ontario and Canada

By Zenith Wolfe on 3 June 2022 Classical Music, Mainstream Jazz

MARITIMES New Brunswick Summer Music Festival Aug. 2-13 https://nbsummermusicfestival.ca/ The New Brunswick Summer Music Festival was a small, three-day series of concerts when it was first established in 1994. In 2022, however, the festival’s concerts will be joined by some free events, educational components and lectures spread out across two weeks. The early-August festival will focus on the influence of Italian and Canadian-Italian artists, and although the program and schedule have not yet been released, the retrospective will include such widely known artists as Vivaldi and Verdi. A variety of works from different musical eras over the last few centuries…

Vernon Proms

By Jacqueline Vanasse on 3 June 2022 Classical, Mainstream Jazz

Over the past two years, despite pandemic and heavy forest fire activity, Natalia Polchenko and her Vernon Proms festival team have continued to present live music. “I hope that this year we will not encounter any disasters,” says Polchenko, who moved the festival to an earlier date this summer to avoid the fire season. Stronger After The Storm The festival is proud to commission new music; this year, they will première a work by Imant Raminsh, a noted Canadian composer who happens to live in Vernon. “The piece, O Language Where Language Ends, is a song cycle about arts and…

Historic St. Mary's Church, venue for the USMF (image courtesy of the USMF website)

Newswire | Indian River Festival Renamed to Under the Spire Music Festival for 27th Season

By Newswire on 28 May 2022 Classical Music, Mainstream Jazz, Newswire, World Music

Kataganek/Kensington, PEI (May 27, 2022) – After many years of wonderful performances in Historic St. Mary’s, Indian River Festival has announced their 27th season under a new name: Under the Spire Music Festival. With this change, the mandate and core ideals of the Festival will continue to build on a nearly three decade-long legacy of beautiful music set in an unparalleled venue. Since its founding in 1996, Under the Spire Music Festival (USMF) has hosted some of the best Canadian performers and strives to present musical excellence spanning multiple styles. No matter the artist or genre, beautiful music will always…

Cover of The Isabel's season brochure

Newswire | The Isabel Announces 2022-23 Power of Live Season

By Newswire on 27 May 2022 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Mainstream Jazz, World Music

Kingston, ON (May 26, 2022) – Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts (“the Isabel”) at Queen’s University announces its 2022/23 Power of Live season that includes 25 Isabel debuts with classical, jazz, global, Indigenous, indie, and children’s artists and creators. The season also features the Bader & Overton Canadian Piano Competition with collaborations with CBC and the Kingston Symphony, the Isabel Human Rights Arts Festival, and the new Art for All visual arts event led by Kingston’s Catie Allan. Details on programming are contained in the Isabel’s 2022 23 season brochure: https://www.queensu.ca/theisabel/sites/default/files/uploads/content/ISABEL%2022.23%20SEASON%20SM.pdf. Most programming also will be streamed with high-fidelity sound on the Isabel Digital Concert Hall. Gryphon Trio and Sistema…

Off the Record – Twice Upon a Time (final instalment)

By Marc Chénard on 8 September 2021 Mainstream Jazz, Scena Jazz

In the first instalment of this feature, the issue of authenticity in a listening experience was raised in relation to historical recordings that document musics of the past for the first time. But what about subsequent recordings of those works? Are they less authentic when other musicians than those on the originals tackle them? Or do they stand a better chance of being truer to form if those participating in the remakes had played them when they were brand new? The items under review here are responses to these queries. The first recording belongs to a well-known category, the Reunion…

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