The Blue Note Retrospective highlights the music of the Blue Note record label and some of it’s more recognizable compositions from the 50’s to the 60’s, what could be described as it’s heyday. The music blended a mixture of Hard Bop and the emerging popularity of Soul jazz creating a new genre of music we now refer to as the “Blue Note Sound”. The Bluenote retrospective features music by Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Kenny Durham, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd, Joe Henderson and others. The band celebrates the history of the Blue Note era with respect and dignity as it is the basis for most modern jazz that came after it.
Alex Dean, one of Canada’s foremost jazz saxophonists, has been a mainstay of the Canadian music scene for many years. He has played and recorded with Gil Evans, Kenny Wheeler, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr., Phil Nimmons, the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alex held the tenor saxophone chair with Rob McConnell’s Grammy award winning Boss Brass and, the Juno award winning Rob McConnell Tentet. He has collaborated extensively on C.D’s as side man with Canadian and American Jazz Artists. The Alex Dean Quartet/Quintet recordings include the newly released At this Point (November 2010), Dreamsville, Both Feet, and Kaitlyn’s Waltz. Kaitlyn’s Waltz was voted Best Jazz CD of 1994 by The Jazz Report and one of the Top Ten Jazz CD releases by New York’s Village Voice. He was also voted Jazz Musician of the Year by the Toronto Star.
Personnel:
Alex Dean-saxophone
Brian Dickinson-piano
Ted Warren-drums
Pat Collins-drums
Brian O’Kane-trumpet
Check out: “At This Point”
