When I was a little kid, there was magic in almost everything. There was magic in the smell of certain plants in spring, at sunset, when just the right blue covered the horizon, after just the right words from my parents. There was magic in my aunt’s fried chicken—I don’t know why it tasted that good! There was magic in Cheryl Chapman, the cute girl who sat across the aisle in first grade. The whole universe came together when she was born! It was magical to fantasize that she secretly liked me too.

As I got older, there were fewer magical things. And I get it—magic is attached to mystery, and innocence. Now that I’m classified as an adult, my activities rarely have either mystery or innocence attached to them. I am now compelled to traffic in rationality practicality, and the most sobering of all notions judiciousness.

As a kid, the magic of mystery was inspirational. As an adult, the mystery is finding inspirational magic. I look for a few words in a song or a certain combination of notes that sends the hair up on my back or causes me to shiver. Just the right tone and immediately I’m back to age four, drawing pictures while sprawled on the floor next to my mother. Or I’m looking down into a ravine and there’s thunder in the background.

Today there’s tons of information available to us. In music, I hear so much harmonic and structural nuance—and so little magic. John Coltrane took decades of hard work and sacrifice to invent “Giant Steps.” Today we assign students the task of transcribing that recording and expect even the average student to pull off “Giant Steps” in a month. After four years of university, students will have more information than many jazz greats ever had, yet the mystery of self-discovery can get marginalized. Without experiencing that mystery, they can come out like robots. We educators must be vigilant.

The spark of magic we seek lies somewhere in personal discovery. When we first start to experience music, there is a magical element of delight and permission. We’re mapping things about music—and life—that are uniquely personal. Here’s the conundrum: with so much information out there to master, self-discovery begins to feel impractical. Why reinvent the wheel when you haven’t quite learned how to use it?

Here’s why: I often sit with my toddler son Solomon and find rhythms and notes that make him dance or giggle. I can relate when that happens because it feels good to me too. I find sparks of magic, and through his innocence I’m able to touch my own.

Everyone has a voice and something to say. The uniqueness in that voice lies somewhere between permission, innocence, and childlike curiosity. For me, innocence carries the most intrigue because of the absence of conventional knowledge and the presence of so much profound universal wisdom. When others can tell why you love what you do by the way that you do it, we all discover the real magic in who we are.

Steve Turre is the real deal. He has performed with more jazz luminaries than I can name. He played with Woody Shaw. He was part of Art Blakey’s band. He recorded with Ray Charles. Add Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente, Pharoah Sanders, Horace Silver, Max Roach, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and a whole lot more. Then there are the other trombonists: all the legends, including JJ Johnson, Al Grey, and Curtis Fuller, have called Steve to match up with them on recordings. That speaks volumes about him as a musician. He’s been in the Saturday Night Band for over two decades, and has been top choice in both the Readers’ and Critics’ polls in JazzTimes, DownBeat, and Jazziz for Best Trombone and for Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist (shells).

Steve Turre’s playing is both modern and traditional at the same time. You hear the history of the art form when he plays. He takes you right to the edge—and then he steps over, but not too far. He’ll start off with a bebop line and then end with some type of rhythmic modulation or modal shift. He really speaks with his own voice. He’s incredibly proficient on his instrument. He can live in the altissimo range and there’s no strain at all, it just sounds beautiful. The bottom range sounds full and natural too, more like a bass trombone.

The shells are something special. Shells are a rare instrument, but they’re also ancient—people have been playing shells since they could first pick them up. Turre plays conch shells that have been cut at one end, and the sound is haunting, like a ceramic French horn. Rahsaan Roland Kirk introduced him to the shells, and Steve really took to them. He found out later that playing shells had roots in his  Mexican heritage, and that has added another level of meaning for him.

Steve has been one of my mentors, and I’ve been fortunate to play and work with him over the last 15 years or so. In our travels together, we’ve had some amazing moments. I remember once we were playing in Nice, France. We were set to perform, and they dimmed the house lights. Steve pulled out one of his shells and began to play. It just so happened that the audience included a lot of people from Fiji. One of them pulled out a shell and answered back. Then, all without any plan at all, the lights dimmed to black, and all these different people around the auditorium and up in the balconies began to play on different shells. Some were really small shells, some were big huge shells, and they were all talking back to Steve and he just kept the conversation going. It was like floating in space with ancient voices—it was gorgeous, unbelievable, magical.

Another really great experience took place in São Paulo, Brazil. We were performing at a night club there. Steve heard this popular tune on the radio, and in the time it took for us to do the sound check, go back to our rooms, and then return to the club, he had written an arrangement of it for our band. When we started playing that tune—and it’s a ballad—people just tore the club up! They were pounding on the furniture, and cheering for us like we were in a soccer match. The tune was Cartola’s “Inôcensia,” and it is one of my favourites to this day—I recently added it to the Oceanic Jazz Orchestra repertoire list.

Steve Turre is an incredibly gifted and versatile musician. He’s an amazing player. He’s also a gifted composer and arranger. On top of that, he’s one of best clinicians you’ll ever encounter. You’ll find trombonists who are flashier—with sound effects and great tricks. Steve Turre isn’t that person. His playing is always really melodic and emotional and appropriate to whatever he’s doing. He’s a true artist.

Steve Kirby plays with Steve Turre at every possible opportunity—including his visit here in March.

As a growing centre for jazz music in North America, Winnipeg has been graced with a steady string of concerts performed by the most acclaimed musicians in the jazz genre today. They pass through bringing with them their culture, their musical prowess and experience, their wealth of knowledge and their will to share it all. They offer our city a surge of energy, an abundance of information, and a new perspective on the possibilities of jazz music.

The Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series is reflective of the jazz genre itself: it is eclectic, diverse, and influenced by cultures from all corners of the world, yet it has strong roots in the blues, swing and bebop. This spring, Monty Alexander takes us right into the heart of the tradition, and adds a little Jamaican spice.

Monty Alexander was born in June of 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica, and spent the first seventeen years there. He began piano lessons at age six, but describes himself as primarily self-taught. Surrounded by a fertile and diverse musical environment, he absorbed elements from many musical genres which can now be found in his own playing. Among these genres was jazz, especially the smooth velvety voice of Nat King Cole and the blaring trumpet of Louis Armstrong he heard at the Carib Theatre in Kingston. Monty was profoundly affected by both those concerts.

Since then, Monty Alexander has himself become an important musician in the jazz scene worldwide, having recorded over 70 albums as a leader. Following his family’s move to the United States in 1961, he began to play with Art Mooney’s orchestra in Las Vegas. There he was heard by New York club owner Jilly Rizzo, who was so impressed by his playing he immediately hired Monty to accompany Frank Sinatra at his club in New York. In the hub of jazz, Monty was surrounded by the best musicians of his day, including vibraphonist Milt Jackson and bassist Ray Brown, both of whom became important collaborators throughout Monty’s career.

While Monty Alexander’s music is most often categorized as jazz, his projects are far-reaching. One of his recent albums, Concrete Jungle, melds his jazz piano expertise with the songs of Jamaican legend Bob Marley. The result is a tasteful and intriguing balance of styles. In contrast to Concrete Jungle, his most recent work, The Good Life, is a tribute to the singer Tony Bennett.

His proficiency in numerous contexts has led him to perform with an impressive array of artists including Bobby McFerrin and John Clayton. He has also worked with Sonny Rollins and Dizzy Gillespie, both of whom performed extensively in the Afro-Cuban and calypso style and helped to bridge jazz and Caribbean music. Monty worked with Natalie Cole on her award-winning album, Unforgettable. In 2008, he led the Jazz at the Lincoln Center’s “Lords of the West Indies,” a program featuring the best of today’s reggae and calypso musicians.

Monty Alexander has had a busy and successful career as a musician for over five decades. His music has taken him across the globe, playing festivals and concert stages and clubs in Europe, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. He is listed in the top five in Gene Rizzo’s The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time, and has been honored by the Jamaican government with the title of Commander in the Order of Distinction.

No matter the place, the style, or the configuration of musicians he’s playing with, Monty Alexander’s primary purpose in creating music remains to bring joy to his audience. His playing has the relaxed rhythmic feel that is so characteristic of Caribbean musicians, and he moves through recognizable melodies with an infectious pleasure. A concert by Monty Alexander is a musical joyride. When he’s here in April with Hassan Shakur on the bass and Herlin Riley on drums, we’re in for a treat!

Rayannah Kroeker is a vocalist in the Jazz Studies program at the U of M, and the force behind the upcoming “Jazz for Humanity” benefit concert.

Juno-award winning pianist Hilario Durán will be bringing some Cuban heat to Winnipeg this April when he performs with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. The Cuban import has a busy musical career. His trio—Roberto Occhipinti on bass and Mark Kelso on drums—has just wrapped up a tour, and he’s working now with them on a new recording. He also leads two Latin bands, and teaches at Toronto’s Humber College. I was happy to talk with him about his very musical life.

Why do you play music?

I don’t think that I could do anything without music. When I was ten, my parents bought a piano for my sister. When I saw the instrument in my living room, I fell in love right away. Music is the main force of my life—music is my breath.

Why did you choose the piano?

Piano was my destiny. I started to play the piano by ear, and it was like a toy for me—even my mother couldn’t get me away from it. Later on I started to absorb the works of many artists like Adolfo Guzmán, Ernesto Lecuona, Harry James, and Errol Garner, among others. I listened, learned, imitated, and tried to reproduce all of the music I was hearing. By that time, I had decided that piano would be my future.

Tell me about your first gig.

My first gig was playing with the Orquesta de Aficionados during my military service in Cuba. It was very exciting for me as I performed a concert with piano and band. I learned a lot from that first experience.

How did you come to Canada?

I came to Canada for the first time in 1987 to perform with Arturo Sandoval at the Montreal Jazz Festival. I was here just for few days, but I felt very comfortable with the Canadian people. I came again to perform with Jane Bunnett in the 1990s. At that time I was thinking seriously about what to do in my near future and I felt that this country of diverse cultures would allow me to expand my musical interests. I wanted the opportunity to mix my roots with different rhythms and musical genres, so I decided to stay here.

How is the music scene different in Canada than in Cuba?

The scene in Canada is a little bit different than Cuba. Canada is a multicultural country where many different music styles exist and musicians from everywhere perform. Cuba is a small country with a rich musical heritage but there are not foreign musicians performing frequently across my country.

What do you suggest to Canadians interested in learning about Latin music?

One of the most important things is to study the principal Latin rhythms—all of these rhythms are danceable, so it’s very important to understand how to dance salsa. For Cuban music specifically, musicians would need to learn to play congas and timbales. For the musicians interested in Latin music, it would be great if they could visit countries like Brazil and Cuba to interact with musicians, rhythms, and styles.

Do you have an especially memorable musical experience?

Yes! Chucho Valdes called me to replace him in the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna—for me, this orchestra was like a great school where I had the opportunity to perform with most of the greatest musicians and directors in Cuba. Since that time, I have been dreaming of having my own orchestra, a dream which came true in 2005 when my big band performed in the Distillery District in Toronto.

You are a very busy musician. Besides coming to Winnipeg in April, what does 2009 hold for you?

One of the most important things is a new recording with my trio. I am composing new tunes for this CD and I am very excited about this. I will continue my work with my big band, and with Havana Remembered, a project that’s close to my heart because it reflects the Cuban music of the Golden Era.

What advice do you have for younger musicians starting out?

Study and dedication. All musicians who would like to success in music have to feel passion for music. The most important things are passion, dedication, effort, and the ability to learn from others and follow goals.

Amber Epp is a singer in the Jazz Studies program, and will perform with Hilario Durán in the WJO concert.

Curtis Nowosad, a 20-year-old in his third year in the U of M’s Jazz Studies program, has been playing drums for only about 6 years, but he is already a force to be reckoned with. When I talked with him about his success, I found out that timing is everything!

When he was still a student at Silver Heights Collegiate, his band director Blaine Workman helped him get into jazz. “Blaine Workman had John Pittman coming in to teach a small jazz ensemble after school and I learned harmony, jazz piano, how tunes work. That was a huge step for me. I would haunt A&B Sound downtown and buy all the $10 jazz CDs I could get my hands on—Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones. Blakey was the first drummer I heard that really made me want to play straight-ahead jazz instead of fusion.”

At this time the Cool Monday Night Hang started at The Freehouse. Curtis was there, and he has been at The Hang almost every Monday since. “The Hang shaped me,” he says. When he first played at The Hang, he only made it through half a tune, but soon he worked his way up to playing with Steve Kirby, an experience that was both intimidating and exciting. (For those who wonder what Steve yells at the young drummers, Curtis offers these examples: “Change it up!” “Mark the events!” “Don’t just keep time—I don’t need a ^#*% metronome!” Or the kiss of death: “Lay out!” which roughly translates as “It takes an awfully good drummer to be better than no drummer at all…”)

For Curtis, getting to play with Steve at such a formative time was invaluable. It began a mentoring relationship that remains critical to this day. It also led him to study with Alvin Atkinson at the U of M, and then with Terreon Gully, first at the U of M Jazz Camp and more recently in the U of M Jazz Studies program.

Terreon has opened Curtis’s mind to a whole new way of approaching the drums—and jazz. “What I’m realizing is that culture is such an important component in playing this music. In order for me to get that edge as a drummer, I need the influence of other cultures. His culture is all about groove and dancing. Our culture is not based on that, but I can get some of that by studying with Terreon.”

“Terreon learned technique in marching bands. In the drum-line, you either got it together or you were out! His high school band experience was similar—their director, Dr. Ron Carter, had high expectations and the students did whatever they had to do to meet them. That’s what I’m getting from both Terreon and Steve. After that it’s up to us to do something productive.”

“I went to The Hang every week until ultimately I became the house drummer. It drives me nuts that so many players complain about not getting gigs, but they’re not out there playing. The ones that sit in and fall on their faces on the bandstand are the ones that get better and eventually get the gigs. Nobody owes anybody a gig—you have to earn it.”

Curtis is making a name for himself in the city. He’s a regular at several small clubs, and has been booked for some pretty high profile gigs too. His group—Keith Price, Julian Bradford, Neil Watson, and Will Bonness—has been featured now at the Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival, in the Jazz on the Rooftop series at the WAG, and in Jazz Winnipeg’s Nu Sounds series.

“We are getting a really positive response to our music,” Curtis says. “When people who don’t normally listen to jazz hear a rock tune they recognize, they have something to hang on to and they’re more likely to stick around and enjoy the more unfamiliar stuff. It’s kinda like sneaking vegetables into a kid’s meal without them knowing it!”

Jazz vocalist Anna-Lisa Kirby profiles local jazz artists in every issue.

Diana Krall is possibly the most successful artist in the history of jazz. Her sultry looks, laid-back vocal delivery, prodigious piano chops, and savvy marketing have made her albums consistently top of both the jazz and pop charts. Many jazz critics have reacted negatively to the slick packaging and marketing, but it has helped her achieve a level of success that was previously attainable only by pop and rock musicians. For an artist so successful, she remains humble and unassuming, and gives the impression that she’s not comfortable with the attention she’s receiving and would rather be anonymous, playing piano in a combo at an after-hours club in New York City.

Krall grew up in Nanaimo, British Columbia, where she started taking piano lessons at age four and played in her high-school band. Her family figured prominently in her musical development, particularly her father, who was a huge fan of Fats Waller’s music. As her talent became more obvious, word spread quickly about the piano prodigy from Nanaimo and she received a scholarship to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. Later her friend and mentor Ray Brown advised her to go to Los Angeles and study with Jimmy Rowles. It was good advice. Rowles had accompanied Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee and had vast knowledge about singing and playing the piano. Rowles’s own laid-back, slightly melancholy vocal delivery had a huge impact on Krall.

Krall’s knowledge of music is extensive. She is a musical story-teller and has a strong commitment to the lyrics of each song. She excels at recreating classic songs for today’s audience. Her 1998 CD When I Look in Your Eyes (Verve #065374) is a sensual masterpiece featuring twelve late-night songs that cover the many moods of love.

The title track, Leslie Bricusse’s “When I Look in Your Eyes,” is a largely forgotten song from the 1967 movie Dr. Doolittle. Krall’s orchestrated version is so much her own, you quickly forget that in the movie Rex Harrison sang it to a seal.

Two classics from 1936, Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” and Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” feature innovative bossa nova arrangements. Krall shapes these songs and gives them personality, but their true genius lies with the arranger and one of the producers of the CD, Johnny Mandel.

Mandel is a highly versatile musician. He has written several standards, including “Emily,” “The Shadow of Your Smile,” and the “Theme to M.A.S.H.” One of his great strengths is knowing how to arrange music for singers. He’s written for many of the best, including Frank Sinatra and Shirley Horn.

When Mandel and Krall first started discussing When I Look into Your Eyes, he told her that her voice was the sweet spot on a baseball bat. To a former tomboy from Nanaimo, it was the right thing to say. Their collaboration is magical. Mandel participated as an arranger, producer, and conductor on seven of the twelve songs. He raised the musical bar even higher for Krall by introducing lush strings, quiet horns, and languid tempos. Krall rose to the occasion.

Krall also shines when she returns to her roots with a quartet or trio. From the 1950s, Bob Dorough’s chestnut “Devil May Care” swings with newfound glory. From the Frank Sinatra songbook, there is the beautiful ballad “East of the Sun (West of the Moon).” Diana’s rendition is intimate and soothing.

It doesn’t matter what setting Krall performs in on this CD because there are two constant elements throughout—her voice and the piano. As a vocalist, she is one of the best torch singers. As a pianist, she’s confident and highly imaginative.

choice cuts features a CD from Ross Porter’s book, The Essential Jazz Recordings (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006).

I’ve known Jeff Presslaff for six years, and I’ve heard him in many different playing situations. I think with red goddess, we have my favourite way to appreciate Presslaff’s artistry: he’s leading a piano trio through a collection of his originals, and that gives us a chance to really hear his musical personality.

Jeff is a multi-faceted musician who writes and arranges, and plays both piano and trombone. In this recording, we get a good illustration of his writing and his piano work. Jeff is joined by Julian Bradford, an up-and-coming Winnipeg bass player with a great sound. Scott Senior, who brings a lot of experience as a percussionist to the drum kit, rounds out the trio. The three show a great deal of ease and musical camaraderie as they move through unconventional and often soft-spoken melodic constructions, while exploring quirky harmonic schemes. The structures are open enough that the three players can really talk to each other, and the conversation is engaging.

In red goddess, I hear echoes of The Bad Plus, another adventurous trio who challenge the adequacy of the term jazz. If you’re looking for an Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner or Bud Powell sound, you’re not going to find it here. But if you’re looking for intriguing, contemplative, inquisitive trio music, this is a good bet.

Steve Kirby is the Director of Jazz Studies at the U of M.

Oliver Jones has nothing to prove to anyone. At 74, his artistry and importance cannot be disputed by anyone in this country or abroad. Despite this, he continues to push himself, entertaining and encouraging his fellow human beings.

Jones is one of the most generous men I’ve ever encountered. Winnipeg audiences may remember him from his May 2006 performance in Asper Jazz Performances series. You may also remember that he donated his fee from those concerts to a young drummer entering the jazz program at the University of Manitoba—and allowed that young drummer to play a tune on stage with him. I was the young drummer, and thanks to his incredible generosity, I did not pay a cent for my first year of university. He has done the same for several other young Canadians, playing two or three benefit concerts a year for various causes.

His work has not gone unnoticed: Jones is the recipient of several Juno and Felix awards, five honorary degrees, the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s award, the Martin Luther King Jr Award, the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Award, and the Oscar Peterson Award. Despite all this, one thing remains certain: the man can sure play the piano.

Oliver Jones is a great performer—his concerts showcase his facility on the keyboard but also his genuine pleasure in playing for people. A few months after I met him here in Winnipeg, I saw him at the All-Canadian Jazz Festival in Port Hope ON, a festival he headlined. Always the crowd pleaser, at this particular show he took requests, playing tunes as diverse as “The Way You Look Tonight” and “Waltzing Matilda”—and playing them all beautifully.

A Montreal native, Jones was born in 1934 and grew up down the street from jazz legend Oscar Peterson. He began studying classical piano with Peterson’s sister Daisy, but also spent a lot of time just listening to Peterson practise. Studying classical piano until age 15, Jones ultimately began playing shows and commercial music, and playing jazz when he was able.

In 1964 Jones travelled to Miami and then to Puerto Rico with Jamaican singer Kenny Hamilton for what was supposed to be a four-month engagement. It took another fifteen years until he would return to Canada! The man responsible for bringing him back home and starting his real jazz career was Montreal bassist Charlie Biddle. Playing for six years at Biddle’s jazz club, he began recording for Justin Time Records in 1983, a relationship that continues to this day. After leaving Biddle in 1986, Jones toured the world several times over, ultimately retiring at the close of the century. It was only when he had the opportunity to play a duo concert with his friend and hero Oscar Peterson in 2004 that he decided to begin playing again.

His first post-retirement recording, One More Time (2006), refers to his coming back to music. The disc is superb, and is made up almost entirely of original compositions, with a couple of tried-and-true standards, “The Days of Wine and Roses” and “Body and Soul,” being the only exceptions. He adds horns to the mix for a few tunes, while the rest of the record showcases Jones in his most identifiable format, the trio. The album features Montreal drummer Jim Doxas and former Winnipegger and Canadian favourite Dave Young on the bass.

The horn players all get room to stretch out and each of them excels in their own way. Trombonist Dave Grott really shines on the title track with an incredibly facile and soulful solo. British Columbia-born Ingrid Jensen tears up “Good Day Miss Lee,” proving why she is one of the most important trumpet players on the scene today. Jim Doxas’ tenor saxophone-playing brother Chet also plays some memorable solos—his lyricism on “Ballad of a Lonely Man” is tough to match.

Jones’ latest recording, Second Time Around (2008), has just been nominated for a Juno award in the traditional jazz category. It showcases Jones’ always-developing output of original tunes, as well as nice renditions of familiar standards “Broadway,” “When I Fall in Love,” “Misty,” and “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.”

Jones is on record saying that he’ll perform until he turns 75, and then he’ll give up music for good. That being said, he turns 75 in September and doesn’t show any sign of slowing down—his playing is as youthful as ever, and his energy is contagious. In case he’s right though, Winnipeg audiences will want to be in their seats when he plays here on April 16. No doubt it will be an uplifting, swingin’ affair!

Curtis Nowosad is a busy Winnipeg drummer enrolled in the Jazz Studies program at the U of M.

I had the great fortune to host a reading and conversation recently with Don McKay, one of Canada’s most honoured poets. Don is a shy man—he would admit that he’s more at home on a riverbed or a rock outcropping than in a room full of people. At the same time, he’s playful, subtle, and delightful to talk with.

Don has been writing compelling poems and essays about the natural world for many years. He’s worked his particular magic on ephemeral things like weather, blossoms, bird songs. More recently he’s been drawn into the slower parts of planet, charting his experience of the rock that sits patiently under us all. His obsession with geology has been fuelled by a recent move to Newfoundland where he can walk through fields of fossils that are older than our timeline has previously imagined. Ancient rock and deep time—those are provocative topics for a poet to tangle with.

A solitary person on a rock-face contemplating a timeline that far precedes the human species: that’s an image that Don treasures, and one that surfaces in various ways in his books. It’s a value for him that the natural world humbles him. That experience becomes the grist for his writing.

Don’s most recent book, Strike/Slip, explores the idea of fault lines, but rock becomes a whole lot more than a metaphor here. The whole project in this collection involves a kind of surrender of self, a submission to the object of contemplation. It’s a demanding prospect, to become “the momentary mind of rock,” and the book opens with a pair of poems, “Astonished—” and “Petrified—,” which look at the implications of that effort.

I’ve been reading and thinking about these poems, because I think they get at something essential to art-making. Both poems are connected with rock, but they have a completely opposite emotional charge. To be astonished is to be swept away in wonder. To be petrified is to be caught “in the arms of wonder’s dark / undomesticated sister.” Both extremes register your own limits. Both are part of the artist’s practice.

To me, an artist’s task is to visit what is just outside comprehension, and to carry back intimations of it in words or color or rhythm. When Don writes a poem that I can hear, I am able to breach my own limits and encounter the wilderness—whether that happens to be deep time or maternal love or environmental catastrophe. Thelonious Monk and Joan Miro and Pedro Almodovar do the same for me. I hear myself through them—and more importantly I hear what is not myself, what challenges me.

Art has the potential to transform a person. At times we may be petrified—we are pulled out of ourselves and “have no house.” On the flip side, though, art can release us into new dreams. Or as Don puts it: “Someone / inside you steps from the forest and across the beach / toward the nameless all-dissolving ocean.”

Charlene Diehl’s musings on jazz and its sister arts appear in every issue.

This is a sample news posting. Number 1

An artist-in-residence who was here last winter talked with me about moving to Winnipeg with his family. For me this was huge. In fact, he’s huge. At about 6’7” and 270 lbs, this guy can hunt bear with a switch. Fortunately he’s not likely to participate in such an action. He’s a warm and friendly person, an amazingly empathetic educator, a loving and devoted family man, and an organizational wizard. This guy’s a real jewel.

When he stood before a class of students and spoke about moving to Winnipeg, one of them stepped forth and chided him for making a terrible mistake. That student went on to register a litany of inadequacies about this city. That guy was lucky that I was out of town when he did that. I had just enough time to cool off before I got back.

I experienced the same type of rebuke repeatedly six years ago when I arrived. Also the question, “What’s it like to move to such a small town?” Can you imagine that a city with 700,000 people can still be called a small town? I checked—the 700,000 doesn’t include Saint Norbert, Transcona, the Kildonans…

Many people take pride in their disdain for Winnipeg, but I’ve really come to enjoy living in this city of Biblical plagues. There’s some new marvel to behold every year. For example, I live on the Red River across from St. Vital Park and I’m astonished by how the rising flood water is slowly devouring a park bench that normally perches on a bluff about 25 feet above the water. My 8-year-old daughter has aptly named that bench “the smoochy bench.” No doubt it has acted as a brokerage point for many a fine and upstanding Winnipeg family over the decades. I hate to see it go.

Likewise, I’m gonna miss the Northern Lights. I hear they’re picking up and moving to Russia. Now if the mosquitoes find a way to pack up and leave, I’m all for it; however, I suspect there’s no such luck.

Granted, there’s a certain amount of disenchantment with every place. I’m certain people in Jamaica get tired of all that ganja and those yearly hurricanes. People in Hawaii no doubt have some kinda complaint as well although I can’t for the life of me imagine what it is.

Every place has its challenges. How people address those challenges is what makes a city great. A city is only as beautiful and cultured as the people in it. It’s an old and cheap trick to complain just to appear important. It’s much more helpful to contribute something and be important.

The fact that I live in the largest most culturally diverse city within a thousand-mile radius has me brimming with pride all by itself. When people like Jimmy Cobb or Al Green or Branford Marsalis come to this city, I want them to go away wishing they had a little piece of this place to keep with them all the time.

Have you had this conversation?

You: Like jazz? Other Human: No, not really, but I love Kind of Blue.

I’ve had it so many times that I’ll venture Miles Davis’ 1959 album is the one jazz record you know if you know no others. And for those who do know others, it’s the singularity just before the Big Bang—the universe of modern jazz begins here.

How to explain such a thing: the once in a lifetime confluence of opportunity, execution and dissemination that changes all that comes after. Bill Evans, who famously played piano on four of the five cuts and wrote the liner notes, likened it to Zen painting, where a lifetime of thought and discipline is channeled into a few moments of spontaneous perfection.

Miles brought sketches he made hours before the session, and used the first complete take on all tracks but one. They made no others. The vibe is meditative, with bursts of saxophone fire from John Coltrane and Julian (Cannonball) Adderley. Paul Chambers played bass, Wynton Kelly played piano on one tune (“Freddie Freeloader”), and Jimmy Cobb was the drummer.

Cobb, who is now 80, is the only one of these remarkable musicians still with us, and to commemorate the half-century since, is now touring with a group he calls the “So What? Band.” They perform the Kind of Blue tunes and others from (and inspired by) that era.

Miles was the least nostalgic of musicians, and didn’t try to sustain the feel of the session on the road, quickly taking those tunes to new places. Mr. Cobb stays true to Miles’ aesthetic with an inter-generational approach. He brings together the one who was there (himself), the ones who were impressionable teens at the time and are now distinguished veterans (Larry Willis, piano; Buster Williams, bass, who also recorded later with Miles), and those born after the fact, who are willing and able carriers of the message (Wallace Roney, Miles’ only trumpet student; Javon Jackson, tenor sax; Vincent Herring, alto sax).

Some of these choices (like Wallace Roney) are obvious if the goal is to evoke the sound. Some are not so clear. (Larry Willis isn’t the first to come to mind when thinking of Wynton Kelly or Bill Evans.) And who can climb to the apex of sax perfection that the album embodies? But one can be evocative without being reiterative, and that’s a much more likely scenario.

Jimmy Cobb can’t commandeer a time machine, but he can recreate the dynamic—six extraordinary musicians bringing six lifetimes of thought and discipline to the moment of spontaneous performance. Like Zen painters.

Jeff Presslaff is a Winnipeg jazz performer and composer.

New Orleans-born saxophonist Branford Marsalis has had one of the most enviable careers in modern music. In 1985, when he was only twenty-five, Branford had already held membership in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Lionel Hampton’s big band, Herbie Hancock’s quartet, and his brother Wynton’s hugely successful quintet. With the latter group, he recorded such must-have records as Think of One and Black Codes (From The Underground). On top of all this, he was also featured on Miles Davis’ Decoy, and recorded his own debut album, Scenes in the City, for Columbia Records.

At this point, he and his close friend, pianist Kenny Kirkland, joined Sting’s band. They contributed greatly to some of Sting’s most successful records, including Dream of the Blue Turtles and Nothing Like The Sun.

In 1992, Branford relocated to Los Angeles to lead the Tonight Show band, staying there until 1995. For the remainder of the 90s, he made several memorable recordings, including The Dark Keys (1996) and the Grammy-nominated Requiem, which was Kenny Kirkland’s final recording before his death in November of 1998. During this period, Branford was also leading a successful hip-hop/jazz hybrid group called Buckshot LeFonque.

By the late 90s, Branford was producing records and serving as Creative Consultant for Columbia Records. In 2002, with the creation of Marsalis Music, he added record company executive to his list of responsibilities. The label is home to several great and varied artists, including Miguel Zenón, Harry Connick Jr., Doug Wamble, Claudia Acuña, and of course Branford himself. The label’s Honors Series, which brings attention to veteran artists who have been underappreciated, includes drummers Jimmy Cobb, Bob French, and Michael Carvin, as well as late New Orleans clarinetist Alvin Batiste.

This year Branford’s quartet—Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass, and Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums—has released a new album, Metamorphosen, to celebrate ten years together. It is the group’s first release since 2006’s acclaimed Braggtown, and it proves that they continue to be in fine form. Highlights include Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning” (which they manage to completely reinvent) and Branford’s boppish “Jabberwocky” (incidentally his first recording on alto saxophone in over twenty years). Other standouts include Revis’ Monk-inspired “Sphere,” Calderazzo’s haunting ballad “The Last Goodbye,” and Watts’ high-energy opener “Return of the Jitney Man.”

When the Branford Marsalis Quartet hits Winnipeg this June, jazz fans will hear one of the most exciting groups in the history of jazz swinging their way though up-tempo tunes and playing their signature free-form ballads. Branford has truly taken his place in the history books—and he’s still just getting started.

Curtis Nowosad is a busy Winnipeg drummer who’s enrolled in the U of M Jazz Studies program.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band takes you back to New Orleans in the early heyday of jazz. You can hear the marching band sounds of John Phillip Sousa and the Spanish tinge from the streets at the turn of the century. They’re a rousing, smack-em-up, no-rhythm-section band—tuba, sousaphone, trombones, trumpets, saxophones. They march on out there, bang on the big bass drum, and play hard. Sometimes they even sing.

They’re soulful in a church spiritual kind of way—they sound like a southern Baptist choir with horns. They might do “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and it will make you laugh at the same time that it’s sweeping you away.

With The Dirty Dozen (and yes, there are only eight of them), what you get is a lot of core tradition. This is not what they’ve learned about how this music sounds, but what their daddy’s daddy’s daddies pass on down.

In traditional African cultures, there aren’t music schools. Everybody in the tribe is a musician, but certain families have been musicians for uncountable generations. These guys are the griots, the keepers of the musical traditions of their cultures. They know the story for every note, the song for every story, the method for every song. They know how to pass messages in the way they sing and the songs they choose for every single thing that happens in the day. I met some amazing griots on my travels in Africa with Elvin Jones—they stunned me with their facility and subtlety, and the depth of their knowledge. What they know is handed down, rooted in.

The Dirty Dozen makes me think of those encounters. These guys have grown up steeped in the music and in the play— our jazz ancestors talk to us through their voices. These are the American griots. Of course they can benefit from a few thousand years—but I say don’t wait!

Steve Kirby has been known to dance in public to New Orleans’ Second Line.

Music knows no real boundaries, only those imposed by genre and convention. When you follow inspiration rather than expectation, you’re free to create in a genuine and unlimited way. At least that is how singer Dee Dee Bridgewater seems to approach it. From Broadway tunes to Mali’s folk songs, music is her idiom and the world her theatre.

Born in Memphis Tennessee, Dee Dee was surrounded by music at an early age. The voice of Ella Fitzgerald ushered her into jazz (one of her most successful recordings is Dear Ella), and as young as sixteen she was fronting a rhythm-and-blues trio in Memphis night clubs. Though music was her focus early on, it was only upon moving to New York that she came into focus on the international music scene. She joined the Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra in the early 1970s, and through New York’s jazz circuit, met and worked with such jazz greats as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and Max Roach among others. In 1974, she recorded her first album Afro-Blue and performed at the renowned Monterey Jazz Festival.

Having just established such an impressive jazz career, Dee Dee leapt into the world of musical theatre in 1974, wowing audiences in the role of Glinda in The Wiz, and winning Broadway’s prestigious Tony Award for Best Actress. Over the next decade, she took on a variety of roles in stage shows, including Billie Holiday in Lady Day which earned her a nomination for Britain’s Laurence Olivier Award. By the early 1990s, she was again devoting herself to jazz, producing an impressive string of recordings, including Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver, Prelude to a Kiss: The Duke Ellington Album, and her double Grammy award-winning album, Dear Ella.

Dee Dee’s more recent projects reach out to new influences. Her 2005 album J’ai deux amours showcases French love songs. Paris was a second home for Dee Dee, where she says she grew as a woman and an artist. Her most recent album takes her into the music of Africa. For her, Red Earth: A Malian Journey is about “embracing my ‘self,’ finding my ‘roots,’ seeking out my heritage.”

Whether as a shining Glinda or a sultry opposite to Ray Charles in “Precious Thing,” Dee Dee Bridgewater delivers each story with a stunning sincerity. Every note she shares with her audience is full of intent and experience, an offering from the heart. With the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra behind her, her performance at this year’s Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival will leave us all filled up but wishing for more.

Rayannah Kroeker is a vocalist in the U of M Jazz Studies Program and the mastermind behind the Jazz for Humanity project.

If you are hesitating for even a second about grabbing a ticket for the Al Green concert at this year’s Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival, you’re crazy! This might be your only chance to catch somebody who’s right at the center of the soul-gospel-R&B movement. If there was a Mount Rushmore for soul, this guy’s face would be on it!

Al Green was the son of a sharecropper, and sang as a child with his family. As a teenager, he was developing his own act, and by his mid-twenties, he was putting out albums like Al Green Gets Next to You (1970) which had four gold singles, and Let’s Stay Together (1972), with its amazing title song. Even when sung poorly by people who don’t get it, this piece knocks you out—and Al Green sings it like a prince. He’s one of the most soulful, most charismatic singers you’ll ever hear. He can sing the ingredients on a package of cereal and get you truly inspired—it’s amazing to witness that!

Al Green presides at the apex of this music along with a select few—Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin. Otis Redding is cut from that cloth; Smoky Robinson and Curtis Mayfield are as well. I’d go so far as to say that Al Green and Aretha Franklin killed soul—once we got to that height, there was no place you could take it. To this day, we have not produced anything near the work of these guys, and up to that point, nothing was ever like that either. In that strange little transitional era in the 60s and early 1970s, we were breaking away from our old consciousness and these guys emerged and caught the spirit of that transition. It’s pure power.

For most of the 80s, Green concentrated on his other calling—he is The Reverend Al Green—but he continued to record primarily gospel music, and won eight Grammys in the “soul gospel performance” category in this period. One of his first forays back into secular music was a 1994 recording with Lyle Lovett, which gained him another Grammy, this time in the pop music category. In 2002 he was recognized with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, but he’s far from stopping. A 2008 Blue Note recording, Lay It Down, was made in collaboration with The Roots’ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and features John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae and Anthony Hamilton.

I’m excited that Al Green is featured at a jazz festival because at the very core of what jazz is trying to convey is blues, gospel and rhythm. Al Green has stripped all else away, and lays it bare naked for you. If you get a little tincture of this in your music as a jazz musician, you’re gold. This is a guy who can sing a long tone and you feel the rhythm of it—it makes you bounce. His voice is not a traditional “wonderful voice” but when he sings, it’s like a plaintive moan that resonates in your spine and cuts all else away. It’s amazing…

Steve Kirby is the Director of Jazz Studies at the U of M. He grew up on Al Green.

Kurt Elling is a singer who commands your attention from the first note to the last. As well as fresh and compelling performances of the standard vocal repertoire, Elling is known for his imaginative reworking of instrumental standards. His original lyrics and virtuosic vocalizing have brought a whole new life to music that has never been considered part of the vocalist’s repertoire. Like Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks before him, he has shown that the sky is the limit when a singer’s voice becomes both a channel of expression and an instrument to explore.

Elling has won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best Male Vocalist every year for the past eight years, and has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. When he takes the mic at the Burton Cummings Theatre this May, audiences in Winnipeg will have a chance to hear for themselves why the Jazz Review said that “Elling may be the greatest male Jazz singer of all time.”

I talked recently with Kurt. Here’s part of our conversation:

How did you get started with music?

I grew up singing in church, beginning when I was very young, so I never knew there was an option not to sing. I was in environment that was joyful and not pressured in any way so I saw singing and music in general as a natural part of life.

How do you go about writing lyrics?

You start by choosing something you like. Then you have to have a story to tell or an emotion to describe that justifies the process. Finally, you have to be dedicated enough to follow the idea through and make it a worthwhile experience.

Your 2008 recording, Nightmoves, was a great success. What is next?

I am currently finishing a project with saxophonist Ernie Watts. We’re calling it Dedicated to You, which is a direct reference to the famous 1963 recording by John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. We’ve been playing the material live for a while and finally had a chance to record it.

Do you have any advice for young musicians hoping to make a career of music?

I didn’t go to music school, I didn’t make it going up through the New York scene, and I wasn’t tapped on the shoulder by Ray Brown. All I can say is that you must fall in love with the music hard enough that you practice more, work harder, be smarter, and have more faith than anyone else…

Shannon Kristjanson is a vocalist and reed player in the U of M’s Jazz Studies program.

Born in Brooklyn in 1951, pianist Kenny Werner has formed a niche for himself as a performer, a composer, and an important voice in the conversation about the spiritual underpinnings of music. Kenny was introduced to music at age 4 when he joined a children’s song-and-dance group. By 11, he had recorded with a 15-piece orchestra and appeared on television playing stride piano, and while still in high school, he began attending the Manhattan School of Music.

Eventually, his love of improvisation led him to transfer to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he studied with the great Madame Chaloff. Later, he was mentored by Juao Assis Brasil, a concert pianist who helped him develop his philosophy of music-making.

In the late 1970s, Werner’s performance career began to take off, and he found himself playing with such greats as Charles Mingus and Archie Shepp. He would go on to perform and record in a variety of formats, recording solo piano albums, duos with bassists Rufus Reid and Ray Drummond, and eventually as pianist in the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Other performance credits include work with Bob Brookmeyer, Ron Carter, Tom Harrell, and Joe Lovano, among many others.

Besides his impressive work as a sideman, Werner has been a successful leader for decades. From 1981 until1995, he led a trio with bassist Ratzo Harris until 1995 and drummer Tom Rainey. He has also led trios including such heavy-weights as Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Billy Hart, Drew Gress, Ari Hoenig, and Johannes Weidenmueller. Recent recordings like Democracy (Half Note 2006) and Lawn Chair Society (Blue Note 2007) feature him in slightly larger ensembles.

Werner is well-known in the jazz community for his spiritual approach to music-making. His book Effortless Mastery, published in 1997, opened doors for a generation of struggling musicians. Werner teaches musicians to become absorbed in their music-making with a joyful, child-like attitude. Werner articulates his own goals this way: “I want to continue to lose myself more and more in the bliss of music. Not only do I benefit from the intoxication, but the audience resonates with their own bliss. In this way, the music wakes us all to who we really are.”

Werner is appearing in Winnipeg with a stellar group: Randy Brecker on trumpet, David Sanchez on tenor saxophone, Scott Colley on bass, and Antonio Sanchez on drums. All of these musicians are themselves well-known as leaders and their performance is sure to be an exciting—and deeply moving—musical experience.

Will Bonness is one of Winnipeg’s busiest jazz pianists—and at the moment one of our musical ambassadors to New York City!

The weeks preceding a festival the size of the Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival are intense—last confirmations for artists, tiny adjustments to the scheduling, fine-tuning promotion and ticketing and volunteers. Paul Nolin, the Executive Producer of Winnipeg’s annual big jazz bash, is pretty relaxed when I stop in to talk to him early in April.

I’ve had a sneak peak at the Mainstage line-up so I know the acts are pretty remarkable, and they cover a broad style range, from heavy-hitters Branford Marsalis and Kenny Werner to the New Orleans-style Dirty Dozen Brass Band, to bluesman Buddy Guy, to R&B legend Al Green. “It’s all about good music,” Nolin says. “A festival is about discovering good music regardless of the style labels.”

Audiences will have some new places to discover good music this year. Two of the evening series will take place in new venues: Le Garage, a lively club on Provencher, and The Rachel Browne Studio at the Crocus Building in the Exchange District.

Nolin is excited about this development. “Le Garage has really been a place to go over the past year with lots of music. Ray Beaudry is doing a great job making a scene there, and the room has a lot of soul.” The Rachel Browne Studio might be a little harder for people to imagine, but Nolin is confident that the experience will win them over. With cabaret-style seating, a grand piano, full production support, and light bar service, it is shaping up to be a winner. “One of the things I’ve learned in my travels to New York and Texas,” Nolin says, “is that perfect venues don’t exist anywhere. But if you put great music and good audiences in place, the rest takes care of itself.”

Nolin is excited about the talent that will be heating up these Jazz Festival Club stages. Highlights? “Brandi Disterheft is coming through with her sextet. Her CD is terrific, and it’s always exciting to see a talented young woman standing behind a double-bass.” He’s keen about Monk’s Casino, a German group that’s a favorite of his Vancouver counterpart. Another European musician that will really connect with Winnipeg audiences is Jeanette Lindström, a singer from Sweden; Nolin is pairing her up with Jill Barber, an East Coast singer with roots in folk whose new CD features wonderful old-style torch ballads. Nolin is excited about welcoming back trumpeter Miron Rafajlovic who has been on tour with Cirque du Soleil this past year. “He’s a great entertainer with an aggressive edge,” Nolin says, “I like aggressive!”

Who else is traveling on the Canadian jazz festival circuit? “The Shuffle Demons—they’re a Toronto institution. Gypsophilia, a Halifax band, has this Django Reinhardt thing going on—people will really like that sound. Jean-Christophe Béney is a great sax player from Montreal who appears on the Effendi label. Oh, and John Stetch released a recording with his TV Trio—they do a whole series of TV theme songs, and it’s novel but he’s also such a solid player that the pieces stand on their own.”

The newly-renovated West End Cultural Centre is a festival venue this year. Kenny Werner, a festival headliner, will be there on Canada Day. José Gonzáles, a musician with a folky, subtle Latin-tinge vibe, will play there—he was through last July and packed the Park Theatre. One of the big shows at the WECC is the Bad Plus, a perennial favorite—they’ve released a new recording with singer Wendy Lewis who will perform with them.

The Pyramid stage is more varied this year, as well. It opens with African singer/guitarist Vieux Farka Touré (son of the legendary Ali) who does a kind of world-blues fusion. The Pyramid line-up also includes Alice Russell, a British soul-style singer. The Sea and Cake and Land of Talk are more to the rock-roots end of the spectrum. “The King Khan and BBQ Show is gonna be sloppy debauchery,” Nolin says, “and Keys N Krates is a project we’ve been chasing for awhile now.”

One of Nolin’s pet projects this year is Samuel James, a blues player with a rich guitar sound, who’ll appear at Times Change(d). Matt Anderson, a great roots rocker who recently won big at the East Coast Music Awards, is on that stage line-up as well.

Of course these are the visiting acts. The festival also draws on the dozens of high-level jazz musicians who live and work here in Winnipeg. That list goes on and on—and it continues to grow every year as more new artists show themselves to be ready to take the stage. “Winnipeg has a great musical base,” says Nolin, “with really strong players across a whole range of styles. It’s not surprising really since we have very eclectic audiences here too—people who are game to hear a lot of different stuff, as long as it’s got real character.”

The whole week winds up with a free weekend at Old Market Square. Friday night is all Latin, and after that it’s all soul and R&B. The Montreal band Beast is programmed in both nights, and we’ll hear Blue King Brown, and the UK band Heavy. “Everything wraps up with Moses Mays and a load of local talent,” Nolin says. He promises a “big sweaty party—with no mosquitoes!”

Charlene Diehl is also a festival organizer, but her charges are the unruly writers of THIN AIR, Winnipeg’s annual literary festival in September.

The Bad Plus is one of those bands that’s hard to categorize. Their music ranges from straight-ahead jazz to rock to classical, sometimes in the span of a single song. They’ve gained a huge following over the past few years—audiences who are game for their playful but demanding performances are packing concert halls and clubs, keen to be surprised by the many unexpected twists and turns of their music.

The Bad Plus is a trio made up of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Paul and drummer David King. The individual members grew up in the American Midwest, and knew one another as teens but all pursued different musical careers until they were hired to work together as a trio in Minneapolis in 2000. They immediately gelled, and haven’t looked back since.

I saw The Bad Plus here in Winnipeg a couple of years ago, and it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. They played a wide variety of popular songs, classical pieces and originals, but everything sounded fresh. They were twisting together unrelated pieces to create something completely new. The music had moments of humor, seriousness, and drama—you never knew what to expect next. Their ensemble work was amazing. One moment I distinctly remember was a series of apparently random shots that they played in perfect unison for several minutes!

Recently the Bad Plus has taken another surprising turn, collaborating with singer Wendy Lewis on their new recording, For All I Care. The project was inspired by John Coltrane’s recording with Johnny Hartman. “Coltrane’s quartet had already developed a group language, and then they enlisted this incredible singer without changing the language of the band,” says King. “In that same sense, this is still very much a Bad Plus record. We just happen to have a great singer singing the songs with us.”

A lot of us are keen to hear The Bad Plus again at this year’s Groove-FM Jazz Winnipeg Festival—this time with Wendy Lewis expanding the expressive range. For the listener who is looking for traditional straight-ahead jazz, this might not be the best bet, but for anyone who is adventurous with an appetite for fun and exciting music, this band is an absolute must! I wouldn’t wait—this show might just sell out.

Simon Christie is studying trumpet in the U of M’s Jazz Studies Program.