Guitarist eager to expose aboriginal kids to jazz

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JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ENT- ( - see Morley's story)- Jazz musician Jeari Czapla-JOE BRYKSA/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS- Feb 04, 2010

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Disterheft (left) will perform with a mystery pianist Tuesday at the Park Theatre. Czapla (below) is nominated for an Aboriginal Peoples Choice Award for his new album Dear Leonardo.

Guitarist Jeari Czapla embraces the two strongest influences in his life -- his aboriginal heritage and jazz -- when he becomes the first jazz performer at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards this week in Winnipeg.

Not only is Czapla pleased to be nominated for his new CD, Dear Leonardo, he sees the performance as a chance to expose aboriginal youth to jazz.

"They don't think of jazz," Czapla says. "It's important they learn another genre other than hip hop, which speaks to gangsters.

Aboriginal jazz needs to be in the forefront of people's minds," he says in a telephone interview from his St. Andrews home. Jazz falls somewhere behind powwow, hip hop, country, rock and blues, the guitarist says.

"I hope my nomination and performance will help young aboriginals realize there is another musical avenue," he says.

Czapla's recording, his fourth, is nominated in the best instrumental CD category, the only jazz album in the category, he says. He will perform Thursday at the awards ceremony.

The seventh annual Manito Ahbee Festival runs Oct. 31 to Nov. 4 at MTS Centre and other venues; tickets are available at Ticketmaster.

The RBC Oskii Awards Night is Thursday at 6:30 p.m., Fort Garry Hotel, by invitation only, and the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards are Friday at 7 p.m., MTS Centre: Tickets $37.45 at Ticketmaster.

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New York bassist and Canadian expat Brandi Disterheft hits the city tomorrow in support of her new CD, Gratitude, and she has added a little mystery to her Jazz Winnipeg-sponsored show.

Disterheft will perform on bass and vocals, Morgan Childs will be on drums and there will be a mystery piano player she can't reveal yet, Disterheft told Jazz Winnipeg.

While that might catch your attention, Disterheft is more than enough of a draw. On her new disc, on the Justin Time label, the bassist composed six of the 10 tunes and has a warm tone and great command of her instrument. The recording includes trumpet, saxophone and flute, but Disterheft is the attraction and you'll hear more of her in a trio.

Disterheft performs Tuesday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m., at the Park Theatre. Tickets are $18 in advance at jazzwinnipeg.com, 204-989-4656, or in person at the Jazz Winnipeg office (007-100 Arthur St.) and the Park Theatre.

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The Hot Club of Detroit keeps the Gypsy jazz sound of Django Reinhardt alive on Nov. 10 in the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series.

Led by guitarist Evan Perri, the band includes French singer Cyrille Aimee, a third-place winner in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition in 2010, from Samois-sur-Seine, Reinhardt's hometown.

The band's new CD, Junction, includes saxophonist Jon Irabagon -- a bit of a renegade and great player, who made his name with the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, who helps keep the Reinhardt canon and spirit current.

The Hot Club of Detroit performs Saturday, Nov. 10, at 3:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Tickets, $38, are available by calling 477-7534 or at www.radyjcc.com/ticketcentral.cfm

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It's hard to listen to live music in Winnipeg without running across drummer Curtis Nowosad, and now you can listen to him on his debut CD, The Skeptic & the Cynic, which he is releasing Nov. 8, 9 p.m., at the Park Theatre. The recording is a set of jazz covers of artists such as Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Black Star and 2Pac, performed by Nowosad and a great lineup of Jimmy Greene on tenor saxophone, Derrick Gardner on trumpet, Will Bonness on piano and keyboards, Steve Kirby and Julian Bradford on bass, and guests Larry Roy on guitar and Taylor Eigsti on piano.

The release party band will include Gardner, Kirby, Bonness and Roy and new U of M jazz studies instructor Craig Bailey on saxophone. Nowosad says the show will include a rare all vinyl soul-jazz DJ set by Steve St. Louis.

Tickets are $10 at The Park Theatre, Music Trader (97 Osborne St.), Jazz Winnipeg, parktheatervideo.com, or by email at know.a.sad.music@gmail.com

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Another bright young drummer, Lucas Sader, also has a debut CD release set for November -- a tribute to the second great Miles Davis quintet.

Appollo: Tribute to the Miles Davis Quintet by the Lucas Sader Project features Sader, trumpeter Derrick Gardner, saxophonist Paul Balcain, pianist Paul De Gurse and bassist Karl Kohut. It will be released Thursday, Nov. 22, at the West End Cultural Centre at 8 p.m. where the band will play selections from the CD and new compositions and arrangement by Sader, accompanied by pianist Will Bonness and singer Eric Propp.

Tickets, $12 students, $15 advance, and $20 at the door, available at www.ticketweb.ca, West End Cultural Centre and Music Trader (97 Osborne St.).

chris.smith@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 29, 2012 D3