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All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope Ontario Canada

Press Release
May 19, 2008

Danny Marks and All-Star Blues Revue open 2008 Festival with free concert

Blues veteran Danny Marks has signed on to open this year’s All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope, playing a free admission concert on Friday September 19.

Danny Marks’ career stretches back to the late 60s, when he was hired as guitarist for the chart-topping band Edward Bear. Over the past 40 years he has toured and recorded with Stephen Stills, Ronnie Hawkins, Rita Coolidge, Bo Diddley, and many other artists.

For the last 20 years Marks has been equally well known for his radio work, on CBC’s Basic Black and as host of the TV show Stormy Monday and radio show Bluz.FM.

His wide-ranging talent, and his many connections in the Canadian music industry, contribute to the success of the Danny Marks All-Star Blues Revue, which will bring a who’s who of Canadian blues talent to Port Hope’s Memorial Park.
The Friday night party will begin at 6:30 with the first of three sets by Marks’ crew, but the park will open at 5 pm with lots of food and drink available before the music starts.

Festival music director John McGuirk says the show “will cover the whole range of blues – traditional blues, country blues, western blues, rhythm & blues – from the beginning right up to rock ‘n roll.”

The Festival is now in its seventh year, and details of the weekend programme are being finalized. As in past years, the Festival will showcase a wide range of Canadian jazz talent, presenting more than a dozen of the country’s finest ensembles.

McGuirk says the selection process was especially difficult this year, because more than 150 groups sent in submissions. “There were people I’ve idolized for years, who I’ve had to turn down, because we’ve had so many great musicians eager to play here,” he says.

The free opening concert on Friday night is one way of saying thanks for the home-town support of a musical showcase. “We’re looking forward to seeing lots of our neighbours come out to the Park for a crowd-pleasing show,” says McGuirk.


Press Release
September 10, 2007

A Musical Celebration in Memory of Doug Riley
Saturday, September 22, 8 pm; $40

It was to be an intimate trio performance, with matchless keyboard artist Doug Riley sharing the stage with vocalist Dione Taylor and saxophonist Mike Murley. But within days of Riley's untimely death on August 27, an all-star cast of Riley's friends and admirers had signed on for what promises to be a rousing, worthy celebration of Doug’s myriad contributions to Canadian music.

The stellar line-up includes members of Taylor’s band - David Restivo on piano and Hammond B-3 Organ, Ted Quinlan on guitar, Joel Haynes on drums, and Jim Vivian on bass. They will be joined by Kevin Turcotte on trumpet, Perry White on alto sax, and Gord Myers on trombone. The group was brought together through the intensive work of Dione Taylor’s manager Sandy Mamane.

Riley’s talents led him beyond jazz into blues, R&B and classical music, and beyond performance into composing, arranging and producing. Our concert will reflect this awesome versatility, featuring some of Riley’s own contributions and some of the many genres he had mastered.

The concert will highlight Riley’s contributions to Jazz, R&B, Soul and Blues. This will be a musical celebration of the man known simply as Dr. Music.

Tickets for this unique event, which are expected to sell out before the Festival weekend, are available online at www.allcanadianjazz.ca, and by phone at 905-885-1938.


Press Release
August 29, 2006

Music students will play with Canada’s finest jazz veterans at All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope

Several dozen talented musicians from local schools will have the opportunity to play with the country’s finest musicians, during the fifth annual All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope.

The Festival activities begin with a whole afternoon of student workshops on Friday, September 22. On Friday evening, Trinity College School Jazz Ensemble plays an opening set for the “Two New Voices” concert. Saturday afternoon’s schedule includes a set by the award-winning Colborne Public School band.

Students from other provinces will also take the stage on Saturday. The TD Canada Trust Young Jazz Showcase, made up this year of musicians from Manitoba and BC, will play two sets. These five musicians were chosen through audition tapes sent in by students from across Canada. Also on the bill is the Christopher Willes Quintet, led by a University of Toronto student who credits his past participation in the Young Jazz Showcase with kicking off his jazz career.

The Friday afternoon workshops this year expand the educational component of the Festival. Festival programmer John McGuirk says the workshops took shape after discussions with Dan Walker, music teacher at East Northumberland Secondary School in Brighton. Walker met with other music teachers in the Kawartha Pine Ridge District, and came back with a “wish list” for the workshops.

The workshops will be led by Calgary musician Arnold Faber, whose band Vibré plays a concert on Sunday. Vibraphonist Faber is a twenty-five year veteran of the Canadian jazz scene. In addition to composing and band-leading, he regularly conducts music clinics for Yamaha Canada.

Two members of the Paul Read Orchestra, which closes out the Festival on Sunday evening, are also participating in the workshops. Sax player Quinsin Nachoff, who currently teaches at the University of Toronto, has been nominated for three National Jazz Awards. Trumpet/flugelhorn player Jim Lewis has led several jazz big bands.

While these workshops go on in Port Hope’s Memorial Park, Humber College music teacher Mark Promane will be leading the Young Jazz Showcase members in their rehearsals, and the Trinity College School musicians will be polishing their Friday night set.

The Festival’s youngest official participants will have their time in the limelight on Saturday afternoon. The Colborne Public School Band, currently led by teacher Chad Morford, was only started three years ago, but the students’ dedication paid off rapidly. In 2005, the group of fifth- to eight-graders took a silver medal at MusicFest Canada, and in May 2006, the school took home a gold medal from the nationwide competition in Ottawa.

Students of all ages have their opportunity on Saturday morning with the “Blow Your Own Horn” parade. In advance of the parade, trumpeter Kevin Clark, originally from New Orleans but now living in Toronto, will lead a workshop on this year’s official parade tune, “Just a Little While to Stay Here.” (The music is downloadable from the Festival website.) The workshop begins at 10:30, in St. John’s Church on Pine Street, and the parade begins at 11:30 a.m at the corner of Pine Street and Walton Street.


Press Release
July 15, 2006

All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope opens with 'Two New Voices'

The All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope has a track record of signing rising stars just as they burst into international prominence, and this year’s festival-opening “Two New Voices” concert carries on that tradition.

Kellylee Evans and DK Ibomeka both released new CDs this spring, and the rave reviews for the CDs have been followed by enthusiastic cheers at major summer jazz festivals.

Kellylee Evans currently hails from Ottawa, and she made a big splash last month at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. CBC’s Ontario Morning cited her performance as one of the “Five Must See Concerts” for the summer. She appears on CTV’s national program Good Morning Canada on July 29 and 30, and only a month after her Port Hope concert, she is booked for the Kennedy Centre in Washington, DC.

That’s a heady schedule for someone who just “got serious” about jazz in 2002. She says a near-death experience from an allergic reaction spurred her to focus on what was truly important in her life – music. In addition to singing, she read widely on creativity and songwriting, work that paid off with her current album, which features 11 of her own songs.

As Joyce Corbett wrote in The Live Music Report review of the CD’s launch party, “what is so remarkable about Kellylee’s songs is their beautifully-written, intelligent lyrics.” Corbett also praised “the smooth, strong voice of which she seems to have complete control. Kellylee Evans moves effortlessly from note to note, savouring the vibrations of those she chooses to hold onto.”

Clearly, the judges at the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition in New York agreed – they awarded Evans second place after listening to 160 talented competitors.

The second of the Two New Voices, DK Ibomeka, has had an equally meteoric rise. The son of Nigerian immigrants to Canada, at six foot seven Ibomeka is a towering figure with enormous stage presence.

While studying chemistry and psychology at McMaster University a few years ago, he discovered Ella Fitzgerald, whose voice, he says, “called to me in a way that no other voice has.”

He soon signed up for the vocal studies program at Humber College, and took advantage of as many open mike stages as he could find. It didn’t take long for his natural talent to be noticed.
Geoff Chapman of the Toronto Star wrote: “I first heard him on a typically storm-battered night at [Toronto’s] Distillery Jazz Festival, but he was more than equal to the challenge, swinging and scatting hard – and caressing ballads. It’s no wonder he’s been compared to Joe Williams of Count Basie band fame.”

“His voice is big, his range is big, and he is big ... but it’s not his stature that you’ll remember after a performance, but the way he can project a song,” Chapman says.

DK Ibomeka is featured in the Summer Serenades series at Dundas Square in Toronto this month, as well as in a Nathan Phillips Square concert in August. He also performed at Trafalgar Square in London with Peter Appleyard on Canada Day.

The Two New Voices concert in Port Hope will be opened by the Trinity College School Jazz Ensemble.

Tickets for the concert, on Friday September 22 at 7:30 pm, are $30.


Press Release
May 1, 2006

Montreal piano legend Oliver Jones headlines Port Hope jazz festival

Montreal-based pianist Oliver Jones will bring his trio to the Saturday night concert tent at this year’s All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope in September.

This year’s festival will also feature increased involvement by youth, from Northumberland County and from across Canada, festival programmer John McGuirk says.

Now in its fifth season, the All-Canadian Jazz Festival has earned a solid reputation among fans and musicians alike, McGuirk says. After he took over as programmer this spring, he was pleased to hear from many veteran musicans who were eager to perform in the friendly, small-town setting of Port Hope’s Memorial Park.

Oliver Jones is the first musician to be slotted into a weekend schedule that is rapidly filling out, McGuirk says. The concert is scheduled for Saturday evening, September 23.

Jones’ musical career now spans six decades. He grew up just a few blocks from Oscar Peterson’s home, and he often sat on the porch of the Peterson home listening to Oscar practise. Oscar Peterson’s sister, Daisy Peterson Sweeney, was his first teacher, and his first night-club appearance happened when he was just nine years old.

In 1964 Jones and his wife moved to Puerto Rico, where he worked as musical director for popular Jamaican singer Kenny Hamilton for 16 years. In 1980, he returned to Montreal to pursue jazz full time.
Jones has frequently been asked to open the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. In his most recent appearance there, he played his first public duet with Oscar Peterson.

In 2006, Jones was voted Keyboardist of the Year in the National Jazz Awards, and his album with Ranee Lee was voted Jazz Album of the Year.

Jones is known for his lightning-fast technique, solid articulation, powerful lyricism and rollicking rhythms. For the All-Canadian Jazz Festival show, he will be accompanied by bassist David Young (Bassist of the Year, 2006 National Jazz Awards), and drummer Normand Villeneuve.

In his first season as programmer for the Festival, Wesleyville resident John McGuirk is drawing on decades of involvement with Canada’s musical communities. After attending Bowmanville HIgh School, McGuirk completed a Master of Music degree at University of Toronto. For the next 31 years, he taught music in the public and independent schools at all grade levels.

McGuirk is married to Joan Nichols. They recently returned to live in Wesleyville, where Joan’s family has roots which stretch back over several generations.

Working for the All-Canadian Jazz Festival is a wonderful way to contribute to the local cultural scene while drawing on his lifelong love of music, McGuirk says. He promises more programming announcements as soon as additional bookings are finalized.

Press Release
March 7, 2006

The annual All-Canadian Jazz Festival Port Hope is in launch mode for its fifth season, states Board Chair, Lou Pamenter.

Programming and promotion have already started for the September 22-24, 2006 weekend. The "blues" will be more integrated into the program this year with some outstanding Canadian performers. The weekend will continue to have all concerts and events in Memorial Park as the park site proved so successful last year.

Under the management of an active Board of Directors and Festival General Manager, Christa Bisanz, various committees have had planning meetings for the 2006 Festival.

David Acomba, founder of the Festival, says "I feel the Festival format and organization are firmly established and it's time for me to pull back and return fulltime to my profession as a producer/director in television and film. There are now about 200 volunteers who have the necessary skills, experience and enthusiasm to put on the event. I'm looking forward to continuing on as an unpaid advisor to the organization."

Everyone involved with the Festival acknowledges the generous support of community donors (individuals and businesses) and of government agencies that has helped forward another important cultural event in Northumberland County.

"We're very excited about this, our fifth Festival - watch for program notes in the next few weeks" says Lou Pamenter.

 

INQUIRIES:

For General Inquiries:
Christa Bisanz, General Manager
Tel: 905-885-1938
admin@allcanadianjazz.ca

 




   

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