Live Music at The Jazz Room
Featuring International jazz acts that play the world’s top clubs (the Saturday program features artistic direction from Mark Kelso). For the latest news and & promotions, click here.
Please note that only Grand River Jazz Society events are shown below.
Trombonists Robin Jessome is currently based in Kitchener/Waterloo and performing around the Tri-Cities as well as Hamilton and Toronto, making loud and intriguing creative music. Robin like things dark, with a quirky sense-of-humour — deeply influenced by the likes of Carla Bley, Tom Waits, Kenny Wheeler and Charles Mingus.
Originally from Nova Scotia, Robin received a Bachelor of Music at St. Francis Xavier University (2003) and then completed a Master of Music in Jazz Performance at the University of Toronto (2009). While at UofT he studied trombone with William Carn and Terry Promane; composition with Phil Nimmons and David Braid.
Here is Robin in a “Blues solo” and “Alone Together“.
Jason Logue is a freelance trumpet player, composer, and arranger based in Toronto. He has performed with jazz greats Sam Rivers, Carla Bley, The Woody Herman Orchestra, Dave Brubek, Phil Nimmons, Dave Grusin, Louis Belson, Steve Swallow, Kenny Wheeler, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Guido Basso, Jim McNeeley and Rob McConnell.
He is best known for his Lead Trumpet work with David Clayton-Thomas, Emille-Claire Barlow, Laila Biali, Manteca, John Macleod, Kirk MacDonald, Manteca, Brian Barlow, N.O.J.O, Brian Dickinson, Mike Malone and Darcy Hepner.
As a freelance lead trumpeter, Jason has backed up artists such as Take 6, Michael MacDonald, Carvin Wynans, Diana Krall, John Pizzarelli, Rufus Wainwright, Aretha Franklin, Daniel Lanois, Chantal Kreviazuk, Shirley Bassey, The Funk Brothers, Johnny Mathis, Jeff Healey, Mary Wilson, Bernadette Peters, Marie Osmond, Ben Vareen, Hal Linden, Don Rickles, Joan Rivers, Bobby Vinton, Little Anthony and the imperials, The Temptations, The 4 Tops, The Platters, Maureen McGovern, Robbie Lane and the Deciples, The Coasters, Martha Reeves, The Spinners, Frankie Valli, Fabian and Bobby Ridell.
- Jason Logue, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Arrangements
- Colleen Allen, Alto and Soprano Sax
- Shiranta Beddage, Baritone Sax
- Steve Grey, Trombone
- David Quackenbush, Horn
- Jay Burr, Tuba
- Trevor Giancola, Guitar
- Lauren Falls, Bass
- Ted Warren, Drums
Here is Jason live at “The Rex“.
Photo credit; Brian Bray
Award winning trumpeter and recent graduate The Berklee Global Jazz Institute, Andrew McAnsh is currently involved in several creative groups and initiatives, as well as a composition society. Andrew has worked with with notable artists including Esperanza Spalding, Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, Bill Dobbins Terri-Lyne Carrington, George Garzone, Pat Labarbera, Googoosh, Larnell Lewis, Hilario Duran, and Bobby Shew at major international festivals such as Newport Jazz Festival, Panama Jazz Festival, Kobe Jazz Walk, Toronto Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival and many more. He has collaborated with Jack Dejohnette, Chris Potter, Joe Lovano, Dave Holland, Terence Blanchard, and the New York Voices during his studies at Humber College.
Andrew McAnsh is an artist in the prime of his career and claims the high ground of concentration and poetic insight to illuminate these transcendent works; these abstract tributes to life. His yearning timbre and gleaming palette make this an utterly mesmerising recording.
– Raul Da Gama
Check out: “Illustrations” “I Remember Clifford”
“Listening to the Amos Hoffman and Noam Lemish Quartet, it’s easy to feel like you’ve been transported to a musically intoxicating Garden of Eden” – The WholeNote
The Amos Hoffman & Noam Lemish Quartet offers an inspired blend of jazz and Jewish folk melodies. Amos Hoffman is an internationally renowned guitar & oud virtuoso and innovator; Noam Lemish is a multi-faceted, world-class pianist and composer. For years, Amos and Noam have been collecting Jewish melodies from different parts of the world including Kurdish, Yemenite, Moroccan, Ladino, Russian and Israeli songs. The quartet’s lyrical and vibrant reimaginings of these beloved melodies have been captivating audiences all across North America.
Hoffman and Lemish, both of whom have roots in Israel but have spent much of their adult life in North America. Together they create a refreshing and compelling sound, filled with vibrant sonorities, unique instrument combinations and compelling arrangements. The renditions are simultaneously faithful to the songs’ origins and rooted in the African-American and Afro-Caribbean musical traditions. The result is a joyous, uplifting celebration, texturally rich music, filled with groove, lyrical melodies and outstanding solos.
Amos Hoffman Guitar & Oud
Noam Lemish Piano
Justin Gray Double Bass
Derek Gray Drums & Percussion
Check out: ” Pardes”: Dror Yikra:
Please Note: Thursday night concert Doors open at 6:30 with concert at 8:00
Eric Alexander boasts a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. “The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today,” says Alexander. “Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson–the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that’s the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I’m still listening all the time to Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic information and find ways to employ them in my own playing.”
During the 1990s, after placing second behind Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander threw himself into the whirlwind life of a professional jazz musician. He played with organ trios on the South Side of Chicago, made his recording debut in 1991 with Charles Earland on Muse Records, and cut his first album as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings followed for numerous labels, including Milestone and others, leading to 1997’s Man with a Horn; the 1998 collaborative quartet session with George Mraz, John Hicks, and Idris Muhammad, Solid!; and, that same year, the first recording by One For All, Alexander’s ongoing band with Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Dave Hazeltine.
By now, Alexander has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; he guesses 80 or 90. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition.
In 2004, Eric signed an exclusive contract with the New York-based independent jazz label, HighNote Records where he has amassed a considerable discography of critically-acclaimed recordings. Most recent among them is “Chicago Fire” HCD 7262, “The Real Thing” with Pat Martino HCD 7278 and “Second Impression” HCD 7296. Eric’s most recent HighNote release, “Song of No Regrets,”(HCD 7311) was featured in Downbeat’s “Hot Box”. Eric continues to tour the world over to capacity audiences. Using NYC as his home base he can regularly be seen in the city’s most prestigious jazz clubs.
Bernie Senensky requires no introduction to the Jazz Room! He is a three-time Juno nominee, twice voted “Best Acoustic Pianist” in the Jazz Report awards and winner of a SOCAN award for “Best Jazz Composition”, Bernie Senensky has earned the reputation of being one of Canada’s premier Jazz artists, with 13 recordings under his own name, featuring top US & Canadian artists including: Gary Bartz, Ray Drummond, Eddie Henderson, Bobby Watson, Akira Tana, Harvie Swartz, Bob Moses, Gene Perla, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Marty Morell, Don Alias, Terry Clarke, Neil Swainson, Kirk MacDonald & Michel Donato.
Eric Alexander, Tenor Saxophone
Bernie Senensky, Piano
Morgan Childs, Drums
Dave Young, Bass
Check out: with the New York All-Stars “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” “Embraceable You”
This is the compact version of Tim’s 11 piece band, the ‘Clefs of Moher’ (Sun Life Uptown Jazz
Festival 2019) who will be releasing their Celtic Jazz inspired CD at the Jazz Room on February
7, 2020. Tim Moher (composer) and Rick Hutt (arranger) have created a catalogue of Celtic
Jazz originals, many of which will be performed at the Jazz Room. In addition to Tim’s signature
Celtic Jazz sound, the group will also be performing a variety of Paul Desmond tunes arranged
by Tim and his trumpeter, Rob Gellner and other originals from Tim’s previous CDs. This is a
group who usually pack the house, so get your tickets early!
Joining Tim (saxes) will be:
Shane Guse: Fiddle
Rob Gellner: Trumpet
Andy Macpherson: Drums
Greg Prior: Bass
David Cheon: Guitar
Paul Stouffer: Keys
Jim Edwards: Trombone
Listen to Tim in “Wicklow Mountain“.
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Kevin Breit is a Canadian guitarist, vocalist, and singer-songwriter from McKerrow, Ontario, Canada. His group, The Sisters Euclid, a quartet, formed in 1996 in Toronto. The members are, Kevin Breit, Ian DeSouza, Gary Taylor and Mark Lalama. The Sisters Euclid has been a fixture at the Orbit Room in Toronto for the past 13 years. Breit has worked as a touring guitarist or session musician with a variety of musicians including Cassandra Wilson, The Miller Stain Limit, Norah Jones, Michael Kaeshammer, Celine Dion, Marc Jordan, Molly Johnson, Harry Manx, Holly Cole, Rosanne Cash, Serena Ryder, the Rankins and Hugh Laurie. He also performs as a solo artist and as a member of the folk group Folkalarm. He was awarded the 2012 Juno Award for Best Instrumental Album as member The Stretch Orchestra. Breit has performed on recordings that have earned 13 Grammy Awards.
- Kevin Breit, Guitar
- Mark Lalama, Keyboards and Accordion
- Ian DeSouza, Bass
- Gary Taylor, Drums
Listen to The Euclid Sisters “The Times They Are Changing- 4 Shows“.
Toronto-born Jamaican-Canadian singer/songwriter/musician Joni NehRita has become a staple on the regional scene of KW/Guelph since relocating there a decade ago. She is known for steadily releasing great music & being an engaging performer. While her musical tastes are eclectic, she is best known as a soul/R&B artist and as a jazz vocalist.
The release of her 3rd album, Bloom showcases her best writing and production yet. The songs are infectious, poignant and groove hard. It is noticeably more “pop/funk” than her previous releases yet the themes of social consciousness and inner reflection that has connected her to her listeners remain. NehRita has a gift for writing well-crafted songs that are deeply personal. Much of her music hearkens back to a time when soul and funk music made you dance while also serving up social commentary and a call for change.
She shines brightly during her live show & demonstrates her strength in be able to reach and connect with an audience. You know she feels the music and she leads you into feeling it too.
Raji Sohal from CBC 3 Montreal may have put it best, “I can attest that in live performance her voice and stage presence are stellar and come off as endearingly natural. Joni had me hollering and cheering like I haven’t at an R&B show in a while.”
Joni NehRita– vocals, guitar
Max Senitt– drums, percussion
Tyler Wagler– bass
Thomas Hammerton– piano, keyboard
Abena Peprah– backing vocals
“Butterfly feat.” Penderecki String Quartet live (filmed by William Grift) “That’s the Truth” live on Canada AM
“If You Read the Signs” live at the Jazz Room
This performance is part of the WOMEN IN JAZZ series, sponsored by DIVA INTERNATIONAL, makers of the Diva Cup.
Remy Le Boeuf is a composer of modern American music and an improvising saxophonist. Le Boeuf’s music is rooted in the jazz tradition and overlaps into the modern classical realm drawing on various influences from Aaron Copland to Bjork. The saxophonist and composer has worked with a range of collaborators including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, HAIM, JACK Quartet, Knower, Linda Oh, and his own twin brother Pascal, with whom he co-leads the Grammy-nominated ensemble, Le Boeuf Brothers.
Le Boeuf has performed throughout the world including North America, Europe and Asia. He has received many honors and awards for compositions and performances including recognition from ASCAP and Downbeat magazine, both individually and as part of Le Boeuf Brothers.
Check out: “New Yorker- Speaking the Music of Jazz” “Imperfect Paradise” “Assembly of Shadows”