Pianist Ron Paley is a legend; he’s got the trophy to prove it

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This article was published 14/10/2014 (4372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SO, it’s official: Ron Paley is an icon in our music community.

That’s not news to anyone who has heard and seen Paley leading his big band for 38 years, heard him in smaller groups or solo, or who has been mentored by the pianist and composer.

However, on Oct. 5, Paley was handed the Heritage Award at the BreakOut West Western Canadian Music Awards at the Club Regent Event Centre in Winnipeg.

Paley, who heard a month ago he was to get the award, was surprised and pleased by the honour that marks “all the work I’ve done.”

The Heritage Award, whose recipient is chosen by the search committee in the host province, looks for someone with “a demonstrated, outstanding body of work over a long period of time — a real icon in the community,” a BreakOut West official says.

Paley, at 63, fits the bill. He began playing accordion at seven, was a working musician in bands in university and founded his namesake big band in 1976.

Any number of longtime local musicians have performed in Paley’s orchestra over the years, and many still do. It is considered both a good gig and training ground by younger musicians.

So many have passed through the big band or played with Paley in other configurations that the pianist can’t even guess at the number.

 

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Drummer and educator Steve Houghton has put together some seldom-heard arrangements of music by Oscar-winning composer John Williams for the season-opening set of concerts by the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, Matters of Time.

WJO artistic director Richard Gillis describes Houghton as an experienced musician with a lot of skill.

“He is well-known among educators as a drummer and as a teacher,” says Gillis, a trumpeter and professor in the University of Manitoba faculty of music.

“I’ve known him forever,” adds Gillis, noting he was a university student when the two met.

Houghton was based on the West Coast and performed with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Gary Burton, Joe Henderson, Arturo Sandoval and Toshiko Akiyoshi, Gillis says.

That was after he won acclaim at 20 with Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herd.

Houghton is a professor of percussion and jazz at Indiana University and presents clinics and master classes to students around the world in locales such as China, New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan.

His discography includes a release of Williams’ charts for big band and quintet. Gillis said Houghton suggested the Williams’ arrangements, including something from My Fair Lady, for the WJO shows.

Jon Gordon will be featured as lead alto saxophonist and Derrick Gardner will join the trumpet section for the concerts.

The orchestra will perform a big band arrangement of one of Gordon’s compositions.

The WJO will perform Matters of Time on Saturday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 26, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Tickets, $35 for adults, $15 for students, are available at winnipegjazzorchestra.com.

Meanwhile, the WJO is also putting the finishing touches on its third album, Gillis says.

The recording, to be available for the orchestra’s Dec. 14 concert, is called Suite Messiah and features music from Handel’s Messiah.

 

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Canadian jazz/pop singer Jill Barber brings the shine of Fool’s Gold to Winnipeg on Nov. 10 as part of a Canadian tour featuring music from her sixth studio album.

On her new album, Barber explores musical styles from country to jazz and Motown.

“What I love about Motown is that musically, it knows exactly how to deliver a message: with a strong backbeat, punctuated by horns, a driving bass line and an immediate pop appeal… I wanted to write some killer songs with this approach and give myself and my band a chance to rock a little,” Barber says on her website.

Barber is expected to perform two or three songs from her previous French recording, Chansons, as well.

Barber performs Nov. 10, 8 p.m., at the West End Cultural Centre as the second show of Jazz Winnipeg’s fall concert series. Tickets are available at jazzwinnipeg.com, 204-989-4656, Music Trader, 97 Osborne St., and Into the Music, 245 McDermot Ave. for $35, or $40 at the door.

chris.smith@freepress.mb.ca