The amalgamation of diverse musical influences, pulsating rhythms, and soul-stirring collaborations in BAD HOMBRE’s Riviera Maya Jazz Festival 2023 concert made it an evening to remember.
The 20th edition of the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival transported music enthusiasts into a realm where drums and percussions took center stage.
When looking back at his life in the music business, Jim West can rightfully claim to have had one great ride. When he created his imprint, Justin Time Records, in 1983, he had already worked in the retail trade for a decade, and had started his parent company, Distributions Fusion III, a year prior. Justin Time Records — Still Riding High at 40 By now, the story of Jim West’s first catch, pianist Oliver Jones, has been told countless times. Jones’s signing to the label marked the beginning of an enduring business relationship that ended with the artist’s retirement a…
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,…
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…
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:…
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…
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…
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…
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…
