Jimmy Greene’s powerful saxophone and big heart have been a part of Winnipeg’s music scene for the last two and a half years. He can be heard at numerous venues around the city but his presence is felt most at the University of Manitoba where he teaches jazz saxophone and jazz composition and arranging, and [...]

The winter nights might be long, but the daytimes are bright. Set aside your Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from January through to early March for the Music ‘N’ Mavens series at the Rady Jewish Community Centre. The series includes lectures on a broad range of topics (from Winnipeg crime to how to get out of [...]

Last year, the dynamic duo of Tamar Barr and Karla Berbrayer put together a brand new festival called Tarbut: Festival of Jewish Culture, and Winnipeggers were swept up in a week of music, books, film, discussions, and celebration. This November, they’re back at the Rady Jewish Community Centre with a new line-up of compelling artists [...]

This year, there’s a new face in the house band at The Cool Wednesday Night Hang and in the hallways of the Faculty of Music down at the University of Manitoba. Jazz pianist David Restivo is the Jazz Studies Artist-in-Residence, and he’s already settled into the rhythms of performing, teaching, and coaching that are so [...]

Time for another season of solid concerts in the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series! Rolling into town in mid-October will be one of the year’s highlights: an all-star quintet led by brothers John and Jeff Clayton.
John Clayton is no stranger to Winnipeg audiences. A world-class bassist, he studied with Ray Brown at 16, and went [...]

It’s that time of year again—warm air, long evenings, and the luxury of listening to music outside.
For over thirty years, the Winnipeg Art Gallery has welcomed jazz lovers to its rooftop gallery for a series of summer concerts. The space is open and elegant, and even when everyone is seated and attentive, there’s a certain [...]

Every August, sixty or seventy young musicians get together for a really intense week of immersion in the jazz culture at the U of M Summer Jazz Camp. For five solid days, they work hard with peers who also want to explore this art form, and their skills and knowledge are fostered by a network [...]

Vibraphonist Gary Burton’s four-mallet technique is astonishing, and has revolutionized the role of the vibraphone in ensemble playing. After touring in the mid-60s with pianist George Shearing and saxophonist Stan Getz, Burton established his own group, the Gary Burton Quartet, in 1967, with guitarist Larry Coryell, drummer Roy Haynes, and bassist Steve Swallow. Their album [...]

I always tell my piano students to check out the masters: Fats Waller, Bill Evans, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, and others. But jazz has changed a lot since the 1950s and 1960s, incorporating trends in American popular music—rock, soul, funk, and hip-hop. It’s a living music, so it’s important to check out [...]

Where to start with Trombone Shorty? Perhaps as a 3-year-old in New Orleans, playing “the world’s smallest trumpet.” Or a year later, marching in a street parade with a trombone twice as long as he was high—he got his nickname there and then. Or turning heads at 12 with a funk band in a New [...]

For all of us lovers of Klezmer and Eastern European folk music, an exciting event is on the horizon! The Black Sea Station, a recent collaborative project comprised of five incredible musicians, is slated to perform at this year’s jazz festival.
I had a chance to speak with Winnipeg’s own Daniel Koulack about the genesis of [...]

Founder of Pink Martini, Thomas Lauderdale, describes their repertoire as widely diverse. “At one moment, you feel like you’re in the middle of a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro,” he says, “and in the next moment, you’re in a French music hall of the 1930s or a palazzo in Napoli.”
The birth of Pink Martini [...]

On April 10, the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series ends its tenth year celebrations with the return of Montreal pianist Oliver Jones. He teams up with tenor saxophonist Harry Allen for a concert of Gershwin music. Expect some magic!
As Winnipeg audiences well know, Oliver Jones is a very bluesy, soulful musician. I think of him [...]

A year ago, bookstore owner Kelly Hughes didn’t know much about jazz. Now the performance space upstairs at Aqua Books is one of the busiest jazz venues in the city, and George Colligan is shaking things up as the store’s first Songwriter-in-Residence.

For those of you who haven’t visited Aqua Books yet, it’s a cheeky update [...]

What do you get when you cross a sharp Latin dance band with a grand symphony orchestra? It’s a rare hybrid—and one Winnipeg audiences will have a chance to hear this January when Papa Mambo steps out with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Rodrigo Muñoz, the driving force behind Papa Mambo, is more than a bit excited [...]

If life were food, George Colligan would weigh in at 12,000 pounds—he has a voracious appetite. He wants to live. He’s fascinated by everything musical: apart from his brilliant keyboard work, he plays a mean set of drums, and I’m happy to put him on gigs as a trumpet player too.

He doesn’t do anything poorly—whatever [...]

The next concert in the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series is “A New Orleans Celebration,” with one of the sharpest bands we’ve ever put on that stage: trombonist/singer Wycliffe Gordon will be joined by Peter Martin at the keyboard, Jumaane Smith on trumpet, and Quincy Davis on drums. I’ll be holding down the bass chair.

Wycliffe [...]

Joe Locke is one of the busiest vibraphonists on the scene today. I’ve known Locke since I moved to New York in the 90s, and he has been a good friend. I’ve been lucky to share the stage with him a few times. He is truly a dynamic performer—nobody has more chops or energy on [...]

It’s fair to say that Winnipeg has developed a fondness for Andy Farber, and we’re preparing to welcome him back again this fall for the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra’s season opener, “Music from the Stage and Screen.”
Farber is one of the premier big band leaders and arrangers in New York, and he’s in high demand as [...]

Here in Winnipeg, when someone says Papa Mambo, people know the music right away—it’s fun, it’s lively, it’s danceable, and it’s our very own. The big sounds of Latin jazz, salsa, and cha cha cha always get people moving, no matter where they are.
Chilean-born Rodrigo “Papa Mambo” Muñoz put his salsa band together in 1989 [...]