WJO takes the Highway for season opener

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This article was published 18/10/2024 (687 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s an introduction that has been years in the making.

On Saturday night, celebrated Cree playwright Tomson Highway will meet the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra onstage for the first time. It’s a genre-jumping collaboration inspired by a handful of brief performance crossovers between Highway and WJO associate director Neil Watson beginning more than a decade ago.

“Anybody who comes into Tomson Highway’s orbit is immediately struck by his warmth, No. 1, and beyond that his unbridled enthusiasm for the music and for the performance,” says Watson, who will be conducting the concert.

“He has a sort of youthful exuberance for everything and that’s what stuck with me, perhaps even more than the music — which I really enjoyed.”

After experiencing it for himself in rehearsals, Watson knew he wanted to give Winnipeg audiences a chance to feel that passion first-hand.

When pitched on the idea, Highway, who is a talented classical pianist, was keen to support but hesitant about performing with a jazz band.

“I said, ‘What I really want is for everybody to just hear you talk about the music,’” Watson says, adding he hopes to convince the multi-hyphenate artist to play one or two numbers.

The concert will include eight songs from Highway’s extensive catalogue, including from plays The Rez Sisters and The (Post) Mistress, and his country music album, Cree County.

Between songs, Highway will act as MC, sharing stories about growing up in northern Manitoba, his wide-ranging career and extraordinary life, which his biography describes as “a magic carpet ride of the very first order.”

Watson whittled the setlist down from an original 40 possible songs and worked with local musicians to rearrange the music for a big jazz band setting.

“If you think of an authentic Nashville country song, to turn that into a big band chart really requires a creative leap. From the ground up, we rebuilt these songs as jazz big band tunes. Tomson has never heard his music like this,” Watson says of reimagining Cree Country.

Peruvian-Canadian vocalist Patricia Cano — a longtime collaborator of Highway’s — will be singing with the orchestra.

“We’re putting her to work. She’s going to sing in Cree, she’s going to sing in French, she’s going to sing in English and she’s going to sing in Spanish,” Watson says.

Saturday’s concert will be the orchestra’s first in the new Desautels Concert Hall at the University of Manitoba; Highway is a graduate of the university’s faculty of music. He will be speaking at the concert hall today at 12:30 p.m; the talk is free and open to the public.

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For its 2024-25 season, the WJO has focused on diversity — of voices and musical styles.

“(We wanted) to line up with our mission and vision, which is to be really connected to the community and focus on inclusion and equity,” artistic director Richard Gillis says.

In November, the orchestra teams up with local jazz singer Kelly Bado, along with guests from the city’s African community. In February, Charito, a Tokyo-based Filipino jazz vocalist, comes to town for a Valentine’s Day concert, followed in March by a Women’s Day concert and jazz symposium. In April, Winnipeg vocalist David Grenon explores the music of Frank Sinatra and famous LGBTTQ+ jazz artists.

The season wraps with a tribute show to rock ’n’ roll divas, including Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner.

Past pop music tribute events have been well-received by WJO audiences.

“There’s so much you can do with it,” Gillis says, adding the orchestra is always open to programming suggestions.

“We’re always thinking of that intersection between jazz, between classical, between pop. With the range of sounds you have with brass and with woodwinds and with rhythm sections, there’s just so many possibilities.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

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