All-Canadian Jazz Festival - Performing Artists

All-Canadian Jazz Festival – Performing Artists

Friday | Saturday | Sunday

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 24

Carlos del Junco

Born in Havana and now residing in Port Hope, Carlos del Junco has been one of the pioneers of a new method of playing the diatonic harmonica. With a wide range of influences, he can quickly stray from a straight ahead blues groove into more adventurous roots-related territory which may include, jazzy, Latin, New Orleans second line grooves, or ska. He has recorded with Bruce Cockburn, Kim Mitchell and Holly Cole.

Carlos del Junco has been named Harmonica Player of the Year seven times during the 12-year history of the Canadian Maple Blues Awards. Toronto Star columnist Greg Quill wrote that he “vests the simple reed instrument with a dignity it hasn’t possessed since Dutch jazz harpist Toots Thielemans brought it to serious music concert halls in the 1960s.”

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 25

Shuffle Demons

The Shuffle Demons have been guaranteed crowd-pleasers for 25 years, whether the crowd is gathered on the street at Yonge & Bloor in Toronto, at music halls in China, or picking up horns to join a world-record-breaking, 900-member saxophone choir. With their witty vocals, wild costumes, and compulsively danceable tunes, the Demons are instantly recognizable on hits including “Spadina Bus” and “Out of My House, Roach.”

The band’s current membership is Richard Underhill, alto and baritone sax; Perry White, tenor and baritone sax; Kelly Jefferson, tenor sax; George Koller, bass; and Stich Wynston, drums.

Alex Pangman

Alex Pangman & Her Alleycats

Alex Pangman, “Canada’s Sweetheart of Swing”, came to fame with two CDs produced by the late Jeff Healey, winning a Songwriter of the Year award and a Vocalist of the Year nomination. Along with her love for the jazz and swing standards from the 1920’s and 30’s, she discovered – and was discovered by – the bluegrass and string-band scene, leading to a busy career in the clubs.

She had to take a long break from performing when her cystic fibrosis worsened and sapped most of her breathing capacity. She went through a double lung transplant in 2008, and rapidly recovered to the point that she could resume singing in 2009.

In the words of the Toronto Star, “It's time-travel magic whenever Alex Pangman breathes into a microphone and evokes the great jazz femmes of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.”

Terry Clarke

Terry Clarke Trio

Drummer Terry Clarke won the 2010 Juno for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year. The award caps an illustrious career that has included touring with pop group The Fifth Dimension, and working with Oscar Peterson, Rob McConnell, Helen Merrill and Lew Tabackin. His work is featured on more than 300 albums.

Terry performed at Monterrey Jazz Festival in 1965, and worked with Lenny Breau in 1970. His extensive musical contributions led to being invested in the Order of Canada in 2002, and he has been named National Jazz Awards’ Drummer of the Year six times.

Ross Wooldridge

Ross Wooldridge Tribute to the Benny Goodman Sextet

Ross Wooldridge is no stranger to Port Hope audiences, having played here with the late Jeff Healey and with his own band, Dixie Demons. He has twice been nominated in the Best Clarinettist category in the National Jazz Awards, and he also performs on saxophone, flute and piano. A gifted composer and arranger, he is Music Director of the Kings of Swing Big Band Show.

Reviewing his Tribute to the Benny Goodman Sextet, the Brantford Expositor wrote, “This superb sextet, where every detail mattered, was ably led by the impressive Wooldridge. He has complete control of his clarinet but never substitutes empty virtuosity for genuine dexterity. … His assured leadership comes from the carefully acquired knowledge of this music that he has so laboriously searched out and transcribed to make the Goodman era come to life.”

TD Canada Trust Young Jazz Showcase


Tim Hirtz	Matthew Chalmers	Kai Basanta	Justin Poon	Holt Stuart-Hitchcox	Daniel Ko

The TD Canada Trust Young Jazz Showcase brings together five or six of the finest high-school-age jazz performers from across the country. Under the direction of Humber College instructor Denny Christensen, the Young Jazz Showcase performs two sets at the Festival, leaving audiences with no doubt about the great future of jazz in this country.

Justin Poon
Justin Poon is 17 and attends Langstaff Secondary School in Richmond Hill. His earliest inspiration to pursue jazz came from a band whose members were Berklee School of Music alumni, and motivated him to follow in their footsteps. He has studied with Joe Manzoli (Young Jazz Showcase 2008), and has played with Kirk MacDonald, Jim Vivian, and Barry Romberg. Two years ago he joined the Humber College community program for jazz, and a year later was placed in the Senior Enriched Ensemble at Humber.

Holt Stuart-Hitchcox
Holt is 16 years old and has been playing bass for 11 years. He has been enrolled in the Humber College Community Music School in Etobicoke for most of his life. He has earned three Musicfest Honour awards and a Humber College tuition scholarship.

Tim Hirtz
Eighteen-year-old Tim Hirtz from Kelowna, BC, has studied piano since age 5. His jazz combo Cats Without Hats has played gigs in the Okanagan region for the past three years, and received gold for their performance at the 2010 National Musicfest. Tim also received a scholarship for Most Outstanding Pianist at the BC Interior Jazz Fest. He is now a first-year student in the Jazz Performance program at McGill University.

Daniel Ko
At 16, Daniel Ko is currently lead alto sax in Nepean All City Jazz Band. He received Outstanding Soloist award at North Texas Jazz Festival in 2009, and the Jazz Works Scholarship at the Capital Region Music Festival in Ottawa in 2008 and 2010. He is planning to release his first CD with guitarist Steve Groves, featuring his original compositions, in 2010.

Kai Basanta
Drumming since age 6, Kai Basanta of Killarney, BC, has played with various groups at such venues as The Orpheum, Theatre, Rogers Amphitheatre, Canada Place, Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel and The Vancouver International Jazz Festival. He is now in his first year at McGill University. This is his second year as a member of the Young Jazz Showcase.

Matthew Chalmers
Drummer, vibraphonist and composer, Matthew Chalmers currently attends Etobicoke School of the Arts. He has been studying at Humber College Community Music School since the age of three. Matthew has received Zildjian’s Most Outstanding Young Jazz Drummer Award at Musicfest Canada four times and the MIAC scholarship in 2010 for Most Outstanding Individual Instrumental Performer. He currently plays in his own quartet as well as other ensembles. This is his second year as a member of the Young Jazz Showcase.

Laila Biali

Laila Biali Trio with Guido Basso and Phil Dwyer

Since her last performance here in 2008, Laila Biali has appeared on the David Letterman show and recorded a DVD with Sting. She has been honoured by SOCAN as both Composer of the Year and Keyboardist of the Year.

Not limited to one genre, she moves seamlessly between all styles of music, displaying a keen jazz sensibility, the sensitivity and technical command required by classical music, and the strong rhythm and groove needed to play more pop and funk-oriented material.

Order of Canada member Guido Basso has been the flugelhorn player of choice for countless jazz ensembles for more than 50 years. Saxophonist Phil Dwyer is a frequent collaborator with Kenny Wheeler, but he has worked with artists as varied as Aretha Franklin, Gino Vanelli and Moe Koffman.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 26

TD Canada Trust Young Jazz Showcase

See above.

Amanda Martinez

Amanda Martinez’ sound blends flamenco rhythms, Afro-Cuban beats and Mexican folk music. For three years she also hosted a Latin jazz programme on JazzFM 91.

Her album Amor reached the top 10 on the iTunes World Music List, and Sola was named Best World Music Album at the National Jazz Awards

In 2008 she accepted an invitation to travel with guitarist Jesse Cook. The two played a sold-out concert at Massey Hall earlier this year. This summer she embarks on her first summer festival tour.

Marc Atkinson

Marc Atkinson Trio

Vancouver-based guitarist Marc Atkinson writes melodically captivating, sensually charged and technically awe-inspiring music. His trio has received standing ovations at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and at DjangoFest NorthWest.

Marc and the Trio have released four albums. Marc Atkinson Trio II was acclaimed as one of the top five albums in North America by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Marc Atkinson Trio IV contains 11 Atkinson originals.

Reviewer Joseph Blake wrote in the Victoria Times Colonist: “the guitarist produces a series of dazzling albeit often understated solos in a wide-ranging repertoire. … Gypsy, jazz, folk, country, blues and musical cultures from around the world shine through the trio's seamless instrumental jams.”

“Atkinson is a daring and inventive acoustic guitarist and a powerful force in the new roots/jazz movement.” – Greg Quill, Toronto Star

Dave Young

Dave Young Quartet

“To my way of thinking, Dave Young is one of the most talented bassists on the jazz scene,” said Oscar Peterson. He played for five years with legendary guitarist Lenny Breau, and he is equally at home in a symphony orchestra.

Dave Young has been recorded on the Juno-winning CD Fables and Dreams, with Phil Dwyer; and on duets with Oscar Peterson, Cedar Walton, and Kenny Barron. His latest CD is entitled Mean What You Say. For his Port Hope appearance, he will be joined by Kevin Turcotte on trumpet, Robi Botos on piano and Terry Clarke on drums.

He is a member of the Order of Canada, and winner several times over of the National Jazz Award's Bassist of the Year.

Brian Barlow Big Band with Heather Bambrick

Brian Barlow Big Band with Heather Bambrick

Drummer Brian Barlow is one of Canada’s most recorded musicians, and he has worked with Ringo Starr, KD Lang, and Ella Fitzgerald. He was the featured drummer for live stage productions including The Lion King, Rent, and Jesus Christ Superstar, and he worked with Rob McConnell's Boss Brass for 15 years.

Joining his Big Band is Heather Bambrick, Vocalist of the Year at the 2004 National Jazz Awards. In addition to teaching voice at the University of Toronto, Heather hosts JazzFM 91’s Saturday Afternoon Jazz, and serves as our emcee for the 9th All-Canadian Jazz Festival.