Faculty adds two pieces to U of M jazz puzzle

Steve Kirby is building a formidable jazz band (OK, so it's really a jazz faculty) with the addition of saxophonist Jimmy Greene and pianist George Colligan to the University of Manitoba music faculty's staff.

And Kirby, the faculty's director of jazz studies, has the enviable dilemma of trying to choose between two dream candidates for the drum chair recently vacated by Terreon Gully. E.J. Strickland and Greg Hutchinson, both excellent drummers, will spend some time teaching at the U of M this fall as they look at the faculty and the faculty looks at them, Kirby says.

"They both want the position," Kirby says, noting Gully moved back to the United States because of family and professional commitments.

Strickland performed here in 2008 with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane at the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, and Hutchinson is familiar from his work with saxophonist Joshua Redman, among many others.

And, to round out the band/faculty, Kirby also is looking for a trumpet professor but it is too early in the hunt to name possible candidates, although he has had interest shown by top-notch musicians.

He describes the faculty jobs as "unique positions in a unique community" and candidates need the academic and musical qualifications and the personality to live in harsher climate than they are accustomed to.

Greene and Colligan, who will be assistant professors in the faculty, are on the job and have moved to Winnipeg with their families.

Greene, who will teach saxophone, big band and composition, taught at the faculty at various times last year and "that gave him the bug" to teach here full time, Kirby says.

Kirby, a bass player, knows Greene and Colligan from his New York City days and has performed with them both. Colligan, known primarily as a pianist, is also a strong drummer and trumpeter, Kirby says, and he'll take on the drum students this academic year as well as teach piano.

The U of M jazz studies program is only a few years old but has been able to attract top musicians to teach here. Kirby describes it as a "more of a boutique" operation compared, say, to McGill University in Montreal, which has had a jazz program much longer and which used to be a program of choice for students from Manitoba. McGill teaches a Canadian sound and tradition, Kirby says, while "We're rooted in the U.S. tradition, the drumming and rhythm concept of the U.S. tradition."

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If you like your sax soulful, the opening concerts of the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series featuring Houston Person fronting a band with pianist Gerald Clayton, drummer Lewis Nash and bassist Steve Kirby are just the thing.

Billed as Triple Treat because it features three musicians who have pleased Asper series audiences before: Person in March 2007 (with Nash); Nash in April 2008 with John Faddis; and Clayton in March 2008 in the Clayton Brothers band with bassist father John and saxophonist uncle Jeff. Kirby, of course, has performed too many times to count.

Houston et al perform Saturday, Sept. 26, at 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 27, at noon. Tickets at www.radyjcc.com or 477-7510.

The Asper series lineup includes singer Karrin Allyson, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1; John Pizzarelli Quartet, Nov. 21 and 22; piano greats Kenny Barron and Mulgrew Miller, March 6 and 7; and vibraphonist Stefon Harris with Steve Kirby's Oceanic Jazz Orchestra, May. 2.

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If you favour unusual musical match-ups, you might like the Gilles Chabenat and Jean-Marc Padovani Duo (hurdy-gurdy and saxophone respectively) tomorrow at Mardi Jazz, 8:30 p.m., at Centre culturel franco-manitobain as part of the Jazz à la Française series.

Haven't heard of a hurdy-gurdy since the song The Hurdy Gurdy Man by folk singer Donovan in 1968, and weren't quite sure what it was anyway? Let Wikipedia explain: The hurdy-gurdy (also known as a wheel fiddle) is a stringed musical instrument in which the strings are sounded by means of a rosined wheel which the strings of the instrument pass over. This wheel, turned with a crank, functions much like a violin bow, making the instrument essentially a mechanical violin.

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Guitarist Keith Price releases his debut CD, Breakfast of Champions, Friday, Sept. 18, 8 p.m., at the Park Theatre. His quintet is described as exploring "spontaneous composition music." The 25-year-old guitarist cites influences as diverse as Lenny Breau and Neil Young, and if you've heard him play around town you know how well he plays.

Tickets, $15, from www.jazzwinnipeg.com or 989-4656.

chris.smith@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 14, 2009 d5