Jazz Artists 2010

Recognized as one of only a handful of influential jazz musicians to have shaped many of today’s new jazz artists, Ellis Marsalis is both an accomplished and skillfully-original pianist with an extraordinary talent as a jazz educator. He has been credited with making New Orleans an incubator of modern jazz, playing hard bop and post-bop when it was considered underground music and emphasizing the bebop of Charlie Parker to his students during the early 1970s. Regarded by many as one of the premier modern jazz pianists in America today, Marsalis has enjoyed a career spanning close to forty years, in which he has excelled as musician, educator, mentor and scholar. The name Marsalis is well known in the world of jazz and Ellis is the patriarch of New Orleans’ First Family of Jazz, as father to internationally acclaimed musicians Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason, all of whom have established prominent positions in the jazz world.

This year Guido will be performing with Sinal Aberto, an exciting new Brazilian quintet featuring some outstanding musicians from Brazil and Canada. Vocalist Luanda Jones brings a fabulous jazz approach to a repertoire of classic Brazilian songs by artists such as Antonio Carlos Jobim and Chico Buarque. A powerful singer/songwriter, Luanda has been captivating audiences with her unique blend of
jazz-inflected vocals and stylized guitar harmonies.

Lorraine Desmarais is much-admired as an outstanding jazz pianist and composer. Her original works, performed in solo or trio formations, have earned her invitations to appear at numerous jazz festivals and venues worldwide. She has recorded seven albums, and as a highly versatile and exceptionally creative performer, has been invited to work with Québec pop artists Sylvain Cossette and Jim Corcoran in various stage productions.

Ranee Lee was born in Brooklyn, but moved to Montreal in 1970 at the age of 18. Before beginning her career as a singer, she worked as a dancer and played drums and tenor saxophone in various jazz bands in the city. As a multi-talented singer, actress, writer, and television host Ranee Lee is renowned for her ability to channel the grand dames of jazz. She gave an award-winning performance on stage and screen as Billie Holiday, and paid pitch-perfect homage to Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald in the musical and double album Dark Divas. Ranee has also won a Dora Mavor Award

Mark Eisenman is one of just a handful of top, 'in-demand' jazz pianists based in Toronto. He is a musician of great clarity and discipline with a tremendous flair for wide-ranging form and expression, often seen in his dazzlingly-distinctive piano solos. Born in New York City but Toronto based since 1972, Mark has performed with some of the most eminent Canadian and American jazz artists, including Ed Bickert, Nat Adderley and Woody Shaw.

Brian Barlow was born in Belleville, Ontario. His mother was a singer and dancer and music has always played a big part in Brian's life. He first appeared on CBC television at age 10 performing a drum solo as part of a family act. At age 15 he left school and went on the road with country singer Tommy Hunter. Around that same time Brian began studying music theory, harmony and arranging with the late Gordon Delamont. It was a relationship that lasted over six years.
Brian had intended to make a living as an arranger but his career took a different path and he spent three decades in the Toronto recording studios as one of Toronto's most sought after drummer/percussionists. He is one of Canada’s most recorded musicians, playing on over 450 albums with a very diverse group of artists, including: Ringo Starr, Anne Murray, Moe Koffman, Phil Woods, Holly Cole, Randy Bachman & Bruce Cockburn. Brian has performed in concert with, Diana Krall, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Bobby McFerrin, Aretha Franklin, Gino Vannelli, & Harry Connick Jr., to name a few. For fifteen years Brian was the percussionist with Rob McConnell & The Boss Brass. While he was a member of that ensemble they were nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning that prestigious honour in 1995.
These days Brian is much in demand as an arranger and producer. His work can be heard on two recent CD's by trombonist Russ Little, 'Snapshot' and 'Footwork', as well as the recently released 'One Hot Summer Night' with the Brian Barlow Orchestra, recorded live at the Regent Theatre as part of the 2006 Prince Edward County Jazz Festival. Click to hear the Brian Barlow Orchestra live at the 2006 Prince Edward County Jazz Festival.

Canadian Jazz Quartet (CJQ)
Guitarist Gary Benson, vibraphonist Frank Wright, bassist Duncan Hopkins and percussionist Don Vickery together make up the Canadian Jazz Quartet, which has been treating audiences to some of the finest mainstream and original jazz compositions for over a decade. The group are well known on the Toronto jazz scene regularly playing clubs, festivals and concerts. CJQ was chosen by Jazz FM 91.1 to perform in concert in January of 2004 at the Toronto Science Centre as part of the sounds of Toronto Concert Series.

Russ Little - A veteran of some of jazz history's most illustrious big bands including both the Woody Herman and Count Basie Orchestras, musician / conductor / composer / arranger Russ Little's enduring career spans more than four decades at the forefront of the North American entertainment industry. Through the early '70s, Little performed in Rob McConnell's renowned Boss Brass, while also pursuing an enviable career as conductor / composer / arranger for the CBC, CTV and Global Television Networks in Canada. He wrote and conducted for NBC, ABC, General Motors, NFL Football, and the famed SCTV comedy series. He is a founding member of Lighthouse, Canada's preeminent rock orchestra, a band with which he continues to perform.
Russ Little was named National Jazz Awards Jazz Trombonist of the Year in 2007, and nominated for the same honor again in 2008. After a series of triumphant appearances at leading Ontario jazz festivals throughout the summer (including a solo stint at the prestigious Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, opening the Prince Edward County Jazz Festival with the Russ Little Quintet, and starring at the Port Hope All-Canadian Jazz Festival to rave reviews), he appeared before a crowd of thousands as a featured player in David Clayton-Thomas’s hit concert at the 2008 Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. He was commissioned by JAZZ.FM91 to produce and conduct a 17-piece big band ‘Tribute to Tommy Dorsey’ to launch the radio station’s 2008 ‘Sound of Jazz’ live concert season at The Old Mill Inn in Toronto. The resulting concert was sold out in just weeks following its announcement, and the October performance met with standing ovations.