Count Basie drummer sure to get toes tapping with WJO

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/10/2009 (6188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Count Basie knew how to make toes tap — in fact he insisted upon it when leading any of his stellar bands over his long career — and the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra plans the same for your feet.

A former Basie band drummer, Butch Miles, and Winnipeg singer Gary Grosvenor will join the WJO in The Best of Basie for two shows Sunday.

The WJO, which is starting its lucky 13th season, is a good vehicle for the Basie brand of blues-drenched big band music. The orchestra can play as tight as a tattoo suit, yet maintain that loose feel which was a hallmark of Kansas City in its heyday.

Basie helped drive the big band era, an era whose sound is instantly conjured when you hear One O’Clock Jump or Jumpin’ at the Woodside, as you will on Sunday.

The WJO performs at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Tickets, $28/$15, available at www.winnipegjazzorchestra.com, 632-5299 and McNally Robinson Booksellers.

“ö “ö “ö

Montreal pianist Yves Léveillé opens the second season of Jazz Winnipeg’s jazz innovators series on Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Park Theatre.

Léveillé has recorded four albums for the respected Quebec jazz label Effendi and leads a band dedicated to playing his compositions.

The pianist will perform here with saxophonists Frank Lozano and Roberto Murray, trumpeter Aron Doyle, bassist Marc Lalonde and drummer Ugo di Vito.

Toronto quintet Drumheller continues the series Feb. 25. The band is described as drawing from jazz (from traditional to avant-garde) and also from their own diverse experiences in free improvisation, folk, notated music, punk and groove music.

Tickets for jazz innovators concerts are $18 in advance, $22 at the door, available by phone at 989-4656, in person at the Jazz Winnipeg office (007-100 Arthur St.) and the Park Theatre.

Jazz Winnipeg’s Nu Sounds Series, which features local artists at the Park Theatre, enters its fourth season on Nov. 29 with guitarist Marco Castillo leading a quartet with Gilles Fournier on bass, Scott Senior on drums and percussion and Marc Arnould on keyboards.

The band performs a repertoire of jazz standards and pop songs, including songs by the Beatles, all played in Brazilian rhythms.

Bassist Steve Hamilton is up next, on Jan. 10, with a performance of what he describes as ”new standards.” Hamilton leads a band of saxophonist Jimmy Greene, pianist Will Bonness, percussionist Scott Senior and drummer Curtis Nowosad, in playing music by some of today’s greatest composers, including Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Garrett, Jaco Pastorious, Kenny Wheeler, John Scofield, and E.S.T.

Other Nu Sounds shows:

“ö Feb. 7, bassist Jesse Dietschi and his Double Quartet; a string quartet and a jazz quartet combining elements of acoustic and electric instruments, orchestration and improvisation, and both Western European art music and jazz elements.

“ö Mar. 14, pianist Will Bonness, in his trio with bassist Julian Bradford and drummer Curtis Nowosad, will perform original and popular songs infused with sounds and beats from around the world. The trio loves to blend new and old sounds, and you can expect to hear anything from bebop to hip hop to avant garde.

“ö Apr. 18, singer Amber Epp returns from a three-month trip to Cuba to study piano and Latin rhythms. She’ll perform with her group Amber Epp In Rhythm.

“ö May 16, features a first-time collaboration by Winnipeg female jazz composers Janice Finlay, Michelle Grégoire, Lianne Fournier and Danielle Baert entitled Collaborate… Create… Compose! It will feature new music from each composer, including at least one piece inspired by and incorporating a communal collection of musical elements contributed by the individual performers at the start of the project.

Tickets: season $60 (save $12), individual show tickets: $12 advance, $15 door

“ö “ö “ö

You’ve seen drummer Bob Watts playing around town with his trio of Bert Johnson on piano and Bob (Moose) Jackson on bass. Now The Bob Watts Trio is releasing a CD, Jazz That Swings, Vol. 1, on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the Park Theatre, 7:30 p.m., admission is free.

The 10-tune disc is, as its title suggests, full of jazz standards from Night and Day to Body and Soul to Misty. But it includes a couple of pieces that don’t normally surface in standards sets: Oliver Nelson’s Stolen Moments, and All Blues from the Miles Davis masterpiece recording Kind of Blue. And it is those two compositions that stand out.

The CD is available at McNally Robinson and Gallery Lacosse.

chris.smith@freepress.mb.ca