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Browsing: Jazz

Omar Sosa. Photo: Jon Razinger

Review | Vancouver, Get Up and Dance with SUBA Trio

By Kaitlyn Chan on 17 March 2026 Concert Reviews, Jazz, Piano, Strings, Vancouver, West, World Music

“There are three things you have to do as a professional performer,” said kora-player and singer Seckou Keita during SUBA Trio’s concert at the Chan Centre (March 13). “One, make the audience smile. … Two, make the audience dance. … Three, make the audience cry. Tears of joy!” While I may not have cried, I couldn’t help smiling and dancing throughout this dynamic and cross-cultural event. SUBA Trio—Seckou Keita, Omar Sosa and Gustavo Ovalles—delivered a memorable night that left the audience buzzing and eager for more. As the lights dimmed, one’s eyes were drawn to the various instruments on stage:…

Newswire | Rémi Bolduc Launches New Album at LE STUDIO TD

By Newswire on 27 February 2026 Jazz, Montreal, Newswire

Montréal, Monday, February 2nd — Renowned jazz saxophonist Rémi Bolduc announces the release of his new and twelfth album on Thursday, April 9, titled Le Bolduc Groove Quintet. This highly anticipated release marks a new milestone in the career of one of the most influential figures on the Canadian jazz scene. To celebrate the occasion, an album launch concert will take place the same day at LE STUDIO TD, in the heart of Montréal’s Quartier des spectacles. Rémi Bolduc will be joined by Chantel de Villiers on tenor saxophone and vocals, Nick Semenykhin on guitar, Ira Coleman on double bass, and Rich Irwin on drums. Tickets are available at the regular price of $24, and $15 for students and seniors aged 65…

Calidore Quartet Photo: Marco Borggreve

Lebrecht Weekly | American Tapestry (Signum)

By Norman Lebrecht on 23 January 2026 Jazz, Lebrecht Weekly

At the end of a week of abusive American power, the last thing I wanted to hear was sentimental Americana squeezed out by a string quartet based in Delaware. There’s a reason companies list in Delaware. It has 2 percent tax, business-friendly courts and no questions asked. Unreal. Still, you never know what a recording will reveal. This one plays out four unrelated styles. Samuel Barber’s first string quartet is known for its mournful middle movement, Barber’s Adagio. The outer movements are rich in tunes. Every American composer envied Uncle Sam Barber’s gift for melody. Jazzman Wynton Marsalis raids New…

Taurey Butler & Ranee Lee

Review | A Charlie Brown Christmas at Salle Bourgie

By Amanda Wong on 18 December 2025 Concert Reviews, Jazz, Montreal, Vocal

We know “Christmas Time is Here” in Montreal when the Taurey Butler Trio comes back to play their annual Charlie Brown Christmas concert at Salle Bourgie. For the 11th time, Taurey Butler on piano, Morgan Moore on double bass, and Wali Muhammad on drums performed the classic score from A Charlie Brown Christmas, composed by Vince Guaraldi. Member of the Order of Canada and Juno winner Ranee Lee also joined the trio to serenade us with three songs. Vince Guaraldi was an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote much of the popular music associated with the Peanuts TV specials.…

André Leroux with Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal

Review | Orchestre national jazz de Montréal’s Extraordinary Charlie Parker with Strings

By Amanda Wong on 1 December 2025 Concert Reviews, Jazz, Montreal, Orchestral

Every once in a while, I’ll attend a performance that hits all the right spots and leaves me buzzing for more. Jazz evokes a sense of longing for an era I wasn’t even alive for. I’ve never been the best at differentiating between all the different jazz subgenres, but I am a sucker for orchestral jazz. Charlie Parker’s 1955 orchestral-bebop fusion album Charlie Parker with Strings gets the nostalgic orchestral jazz right just the way I like it. Superlative concerts can be the most difficult to write about. I hate to say “you just had to be there,” but some…

Newswire | 13th Edition Of 21C Music Line-Up Announced

By Newswire on 11 November 2025 Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Contemporary, Jazz, Newswire, Piano, Toronto

Toronto, ON, November 11, 2025 – This season the 21C Music series, now in its 13th edition, includes five concerts in late January and an additional one in May 2026. The series features music composed mostly during the 21st century, which often crosses boundaries and genres. With this newly-minted music, audiences have an opportunity to experience fresh new sounds and ideas from the greatest musical minds of today and experience works by Canadian as well as international composers, and musicians who are mining new musical territories, breaking down barriers, and introducing us to new virtuosic music creations. In total, the Festival will include more than 7 premieres: 2 world (Alison Yun-Fei…

Benjamin Deschamps. Photo: Bruno Guérin

Benjamin Deschamps: Taking Jazz Above and Beyond

By Félix-Antoine Hamel on 10 November 2025 Jazz, La Scena Online, Scena Jazz

At a relatively young age, saxophonist Benjamin Deschamps has already garnered some impressive credentials: Révélation Jazz for Radio Canada/CBC in 2017–18 and winner of the TD Grand Jazz Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2019. Since 2014, he has released three albums under his name (with a quartet, a quintet and a sextet), and two more with the No Codes collective, where he is joined by his former mentor at McGill University, Frank Lozano. For the 2025–26 season, Deschamps is artist-in-residence for Jeunesses Musicales Canada (JMC). The saxophonist will present three different concert projects at JMC’s Joseph-Rouleau Hall in…

Katarzyna Musiał. Photo: Agnieszka Stalkoper

Report | Festival Stella Musica: Celebrating a Decade of Women’s Voices

By Adrian Rodriguez on 7 November 2025 Classical, Contemporary, Jazz, Montreal, Piano, Vocal

Since its founding, the Stella Musica Festival has been dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women in music and the arts, weaving connections between styles, cultures, and eras. For its 10th edition, under the artistic direction of pianist Katarzyna Musiał, the Festival offered an intimate evening where virtuosity, discovery, and shared emotion came together. On Oct. 26, the warm acoustics of Montreal’s Salle Claude-Léveillée created the perfect setting for a program that moved fluidly from classical repertoire to jazz, contemporary works, and world-music influences. The small room was packed, with the audience only a few meters from the performers, able…

Review | Diverse Program, Homogenous Band: Women Jazz Composers with ONJ

By Amanda Wong on 5 November 2025 Concert Reviews, Jazz, Montreal

Women have long had fewer opportunities and have been overlooked in the male-dominated jazz industry. Jazz grew in popularity in the late 1800s, at a time when some men were still proclaiming that women were innately unable to produce music and art as creatively as men did. When women started to become more involved in the early 1900s jazz scene, it was mainly in the role of featured vocalist. Names like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald are synonymous with ‘women in jazz,’ particularly in their capacity as singers, but how much does the average person know about the women who…

Nadia Labrie : When the Flute Takes Up Jazz

By Justin Bernard on 3 October 2025 Classical, Interviews, Jazz, Winds

Thanks to Picnic Suite, a new digital album released in August by Nadia Labrie, listeners have been able to discover another work for flute, guitar and jazz trio with piano by French jazz pianist and composer Claude Bolling. This is the third instalment of a project dedicated to the composer who died in 2020—a project that will culminate in the release of a box set of three recordings to be released by ATMA Classique on Nov. 24, bringing together his complete works for flute. Labrie’s latest album is part of the Flûte Passion series, which began in 2018 and has…