No easing the tempo for versatile rocker plugged into North American music scene

The late James Brown was commonly referred to as the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” but a Winnipeg-born musician has been giving the legendary soul artist a run for that title.

On New Year’s Eve, Canadian rock band Toque, featuring Brent Fitz on bass guitar and vocals, will perform live at the Club Regent Event Centre. Early the next morning, Fitz, who is originally from St. James, will board a flight to Las Vegas, where he and his wife Chrissy, a native of Edmonton, have lived since the early 2000s. There he will make final preparations for Ikons of Rock, a tribute show he’s co-producing that will begin a residency at Las Vegas’s Hard Rock Café on Jan. 8.

The multi-instrumentalist returns to Winnipeg in February to play drums with Streetheart, for that group’s Feb. 13 concert, again at the Club Regent Event Centre. Following that, Fitz will enter into rehearsals with Triumph. The Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees recently enlisted his services on keyboards for their much-anticipated 50th anniversary North American tour, which kicks off April 22, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. All of that and he just helped wrap up a new album by Slash of Guns N’ Roses fame — with whom he’s worked on-and-off since 2010 — which is due in stores sometime in the new year.

Sure, it sounds like a hectic schedule, except he’s always enjoyed staying busy, says Fitz, seated in a Portage Avenue coffee shop during a recent visit to the city to check up on his 86-year-old father Mervyn, and to perform with Streetheart at a private event held at the RBC Convention Centre.

Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg names this year’s scholarship winners

Not unlike with sports, scholarships and competitions are the lifeblood of classical musicians, especially in their career’s first years.

Winnipeg has a a few of note, one of which is the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg’s annual scholarship, which has just sounded the trumpets for this year’s winners. Together, they take home in $11,500 in prize money.

“The WMC has a long history of supporting young musicians in their pursuit of a performance career,” board member Millie Hildebrand tells the Free Press.

“Our scholarships go a long way, not only in assisting them financially, but in lending them confidence that they are on the right path.”

Free Press music critics weigh in with their top releases of 2025

There were thousands and thousands of full-length albums released in 2025.

We didn’t hear them all, but here are our critics’ picks of their favourites of the year.

John Kendle’s top 10 pop/rock albums1. Florence + the Machine — Everybody Scream (Polydor)

After a miscarriage and subsequent life-saving medical intervention, British singer-songwriter Florence Welch spent time examining the primordial essence of existence, took stock of her life and re-emerged with an album of profoundly personal music that exorcised her rage, grief and torment.

Improv band Mundane Problems finds humour in day-to-day issues

The musical improv group Mundane Problems didn’t start out with a Festivus-themed show.

AI-generated content wrongly accuses fiddler Ashley MacIsaac of being sex offender

HALIFAX - Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac says he may have been defamed by Google after it recently produced an AI-generated summary falsely identifying him as a sex offender.

The Juno Award-winning musician said Tuesday he learned of the online misinformation last week after a First Nation north of Halifax had confronted him with the summary and had cancelled one of his concerts planned for Dec. 19.

“You are being put into a less secure situation because of a media company — that’s what defamation is,” MacIsaac said in a telephone interview, adding he was worried about what might have happened had the erroneous content surfaced while he was trying to cross an international border.

“If a lawyer wants to take this on (for free) … I would stand up because I'm not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last."

Jazz festival weaves royal lineup for 2026

Tickets for the 2026 Winnipeg International Jazz Festival are on sale, with the festival’s first two headliners unveiled: the Miles Electric Band (MEB) and Jason Marsalis Quartet.

The MEB plays at the Burton Cummings Theatre on June 21; Marsalis and his quartet perform June 19 at the Desautels Concert Hall at the University of Manitoba.

Both acts are of jazz royal lineage.

This coming year would have been Miles Davis’s centennial year, so tribute concerts abound right now. But the nine-piece MEB mounts more than just a tribute, featuring members of the crew who helped Davis push his sound in a revolutionary electric direction.

The Canadian Press Newsmakers of the Year, past and present

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney is The Canadian Press 2025 Newsmaker of the Year.

Here is a list of those who have held the title in the past, awarded through an annual survey of senior editors in newsrooms across Canada:

2025: Mark Carney, politician

2024: Pierre Poilievre, politician

Juno-winning rapper bbno$ stepping away from music over online negativity

Canadian rapper bbno$ says he's stepping away from the music industry over what he says is a constant stream of online negativity.

Earlier this month the entertainer from British Columbia posted on social media he'd stop making music "for the foreseeable future."

The Juno-winning rapper told the Fear& podcast this week he likes to stay positive, but has faced bullying online and says he isn't a fan of the negativity.

Bbno$, whose real name is Alexander Gumuchian, says there's no harm in stepping away, but was indifferent on whether he'd return to music, saying he'll be doing a lot of self-reflection in 2026.

Some soundtracks have become synonymous with the season

Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker score isn’t the only one that has become popular outside of its original context.

Canadian shorts and ‘Frankenstein’ creatives make the 2026 Oscars short lists

A short film about a young Toronto jazz musician grappling with anxiety is among the Canadian projects one step closer to an Oscar nomination.

"Butterfly on a Wheel," directed by London, Ont.'s Trevor Morris, has been shortlisted for best live-action short film, officials announced Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the stop-motion animated fable “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” by Montreal’s Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, made the cut for best animated short film.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released short lists for 12 categories for the 2026 Oscars, including movies in consideration for best documentary, international feature and the new category of best casting.

The Queen of Disco: Donna Summer is posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (AP) — There are giants, and then there is Donna Summer. The Queen of Disco and then some, known for such timeless tunes as “Love to Love You Baby,” “I Feel Love,” “Bad Girls,” “Dim All the Lights,” “On the Radio” and “She Works Hard for the Money,” has been posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the hall said.

Summer, who died in 2012 at age 63, was welcomed into the Songwriters Hall on Monday at a ceremony at The Butterfly Room at Cecconi’s in Los Angeles. It was led by Academy Award-winning songwriter Paul Williams. Summer's husband, Bruce Sudano and their daughters Brooklyn Sudano and Amanda Sudano Ramirez were in attendance.

“Donna Summer is not only one of the defining voices and performers of the 20th century; she is one of the great songwriters of all time who changed the course of music,” said Williams in a statement. “She wrote timeless and transcendent songs that continue to captivate our souls and imaginations, inspiring the world to dance and, above all, feel love.”

Summer's smooth blend of R&B, soul, pop, funk, rock, disco and electronica launched numerous chart-topping hits in the ‘70s and ’80s as well as three multiplatinum albums. She won five Grammys. She was unstoppable — both as a performer and a writer.

Opera’s yuletide production delivers on grand scale

The Little Opera Company’s never been this big.

Since its founding in 1995, the independent chamber opera organization has prioritized what artistic director Spencer Duncanson calls “bite-sized” productions, typically telling stories from start to finish in 100 minutes or less.

For The House Without a Christmas Tree, that window of time remains consistent, but the company has engaged more performers than ever before for its flagship annual production: a cast of five principles, an ensemble of 15 singers and an 18-piece orchestra will take the stage this week for a three-night stand at the Desautels Concert Hall.

Originally commissioned for the Houston Grand Opera in 2017, The House Without a Christmas Tree begins when a woman named Addie Mills (Lara Secord-Haid) passes by a holiday window display in downtown Manhattan, drawing her back to the Christmases of her childhood, when the complex grief of young Addie’s (Sara Schabas) father (Toronto’s Dion Mazerolle) called for subdued yuletide celebrations for the whole family. Other principals include Donnalynn Grills as Grandmother Mills and Ashley Schneberger as Addie’s best friend Carla-Mae.

Anne Murray weighs the highs and lows of a big year, and her unexpected new album

TORONTO - Anne Murray still can't believe her good fortune over the past year.

Around the time the legendary East Coast songbird marked her 80th birthday last June, she noticed her schedule seemed especially busy.

Despite being nearly two decades into retirement, the calls were pouring in from music industry well-wishers, some of whom asked if she would attend celebrations of her career, which had shaped so many of theirs.

"I never want to do anything," Murray chuckled while sitting backstage before a recent Nashville tribute show in her honour.

New Music: Fontine, John O’Gallagher, Skylark Vocal Ensemble

The opening, fuzzed-out guitar chords of this album’s title track serve notice that there’s more to Fontine Beavis than she revealed on her debut EP, Yarrow Lover.

Eurovision champion Nemo returns the winner’s trophy to protest Israel’s inclusion

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss singer Nemo, who won the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, has said they will return the winner's trophy because Israel is being allowed to compete in the politically troubled pop music competition.

In an Instagram video, Nemo held the microphone-shaped glass ornament and said “today I no longer feel like this trophy belongs on my shelf.”

“Eurovision says it stands for unity, for inclusion and dignity for all people,” Nemo said in the post Thursday, adding that Israel’s participation, given its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza, shows those ideals are at odds with organizers’ decisions.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Friday, song contest director Martin Green said: ““We’re saddened that Nemo wishes to return their trophy which they deservedly won in 2024.”