Skip to content

Oakville Jazz Festival 2013: Musical Line Up Biographies for Saturday

7.MG1606
7.MG1606

Fine Grind

Fine Grind is a fun, upbeat acapella quartet. Performing frequently at special events across the Greater Toronto Area, this foursome's mix has a distinctive pop flavour belting out old favourites as well as top 40 hits.

High Rendition Jazz

High Rendition Jazz is an award-winning assembly of high school aged jazz musicians in the Halton area of Ontario, Canada. Our vision is to be a recognized high performance youth jazz band, making our communities a better place to live by playing great jazz. This is fulfilled not only through the exceptional musical capabilities of our musicians, but also through the volunteers and parents whose dedication and hard work behind the scenes enables these kids to keep doing what they love – playing great jazz.

Iain Leslie Band

I have been playing guitar for ten years. I play in all styles, but my focus and passion is jazz. I have been taking private guitar lessons since I started playing. I am currently studying with David Occhipinti and Geoff Young (both are guitar instructors at the University of Toronto and Humber Collage) in Toronto. In addition to playing guitar I also sing and play the bass. I was the guitarist for the Thomas A. Blakelock Senior Jazz Orchestra. While in this ensemble, we were awarded two gold medals at The Golden Horseshoe Music Festival and a gold and silver medal at Music fest Canada’s national competition. I was also the recipient of the 2007/2008 award for excellence in jazz performance from Thomas A. Blakelock high school.

Jaffa Road

Based in Toronto Jaffa Road is an award-winning, world music group made up of some of Canada’s most exciting and innovative interpreters of inter-cultural music. The group has created a unique sonic landscape that draws easily and organically from the worlds of sacred and secular Jewish songs, Arabic and Indian music, modern jazz, rock, and dub. In doing so the group creates a union between acoustic and electronic, secular and sacred, ancient and modern. Members of Jaffa Road have performed and recorded with many highly regarded influential musicians in the Canadian and International pop, rock, jazz, and world music scenes.

James Brown

James Brown is one of Canada’s most talented and versatile Composer/Guitarists. His playing draws influence from both Classical and Jazz traditions and has been praised for his fluent technique, lyrical tone, and daring melodic invention.

James has studied with a number of international artists including John Abercrombie, Mick Goodrick, Leo Brouwer, and Norbert Kraft. He has appeared with many of Canada’s leading Artists including Don Thompson, Terry Clarke, Mike Murley, Dave Restivo, Roy Styffe, Richard Underhill, and Rob Piltch.

He has also performed with The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Eric Idol , Toronto Philharmonia, Sound Streams Canada (with The Hilliard Ensemble), Art of Time Ensemble and CanStage.

Jen Chapin

Jen Chapin's music is urban folk soul - story songs that search community and shared meaning powered by the funk and improvisation of the city. Critics have hailed her work as "brilliant...soulfully poetic" NPR, "Thoughtful...worth savouring" People, "Addictive" Boston Globe. Jazz Times has called her "a first-rate storyteller."

Red Peppers (the)

The Red Peppers Dixieland Jazz Band, formed in the classic style of Eddie Condon and Louis Armstrong, has been wowing jazz fans since it's inception in 2001 with hot, swinging Dixieland.

The band is led by drummer John Volpe and includes some of the finest jazz players in Toronto. Musicians like Roy Green, Al Cox, Andrej Saradin, Dave Johnston, Peter Brown, Jim Nevins, Dan Douglas, Mike Polci, Manfred Koch, Peter Turner, Harry Timmermans, Nick Van Weerdenberg, Mike Danton, Adam Saunders, Norm Stewart, Neville Barnes, Harris Lusher, Tony Zorzi, Mike Allen, Vince Volpe, Ron Johnston, Keith Walton, Mauro Belotto and others have all played with the Red Peppers at one time or other. The music is ‘hot’ and hard-driving, swingin’ jazz. You will be hard pressed to keep those feet from tappin’.

Rob Reed Trio

Led by pianist Robert Reid, this very popular trio create an exciting brand of jazz specialising in their own interpretations of well-known standards and jazz classics, with Mike Porter-Ward on double bass and Rod Brown on drums.

Sammy Figuero - Latin Jazz Festival

Sammy Figueroa has long been regarded as one of the world's great musicians. As one of the world's leading percussionists he has played on countless records, providing the rhythmical framework for hundreds of hits. Well-known for his versatility and professionalism, he is one of the few percussionists equally comfortable in a multitude of styles, from R & B to rock to pop to bebop to Latin to Brazilian to New Age. As one of New York's most sought after session players Sammy played on countless albums, jingles and film scores and appeared often on The David Letterman Band and the Saturday Night Live Band. He has recorded and toured with Miles Davis, the Brecker Brothers (for 12 years!), Sonny Rollins, Michel Camilo (who wrote the tune 'And Sammy Walked In' in his honor), Chaka Khan, David Bowie, and Mariah Carey (in her multi-million selling MTV Unplugged). Sammy's famed sense of humor, ebullient personality, and open-heartedness is famous within the music industry and has further empowered him in his connection with musicians and audiences alike.

IMG_1239
IMG_1239

Shyann

Shyann was born in Montreal, raised in Toronto, Ontario and grew up in a diverse musical environment. She trained extensively as an operatic singer with renowned vocalist and educator Eleanor Calbes. Eventually her interests expanded to jazz and soul music, and she has evolved into a seasoned songwriter and performing artist. Recently she placed into the top finalists of the 2012 Canadian Radio Star National Songwriting Competition with the song ‘Green Mellotron’ – featured on her upcoming album. The song placed third for ‘Most Views’ and sixth place for ‘Song Favourites’ out of hundreds of submissions. In addition to her songwriting successes, the ‘making-of’ short film for her upcoming album INTO THE GROUND was selected to be screened in both the 2012 Mississauga Independent Film Festival and the 2012 Hamilton Film Festival – an excellent way to make an entrance on the Canadian music scene.


What's next?


Reader Feedback