Music Opens the Mind Jazz Music Series 2019

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Music Opens the Mind Jazz Music Series

PROARTS @NOON CONCERTS PRESENTS

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Who: The ProArts@Noon Concert Series Presents:
What: The Music Opens The Mind Jazz Music Concert Series
Where: Cathedral Church (corner of 7 Ave and 1 Street SE)
When: Various Wednesdays – April 24 through to October 02, 2019; concert time 12:10pm
Tickets: Free to the public

The ProArts@Noon Concert Series is pleased to announce a unique series of four concerts featuring Jazz music artists and small ensembles.
Jazz is a  music genre  that originated in the  African-American  communities of  New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in  blues  and  ragtime . Jazz is seen by many as “America’s classical music”.

Music Opens the Mind Jazz Ensemble’s Kevin O’Connor has been playing saxophone for the Razzama Jazz Big Band for close to twenty years. Kevin is also the originator of Music Opens The Mind, which encourages the development of a life interest in music, recognizing that music is
a broad field, with many skills and opportunities that do not require the ability to play an instrument or join a band.

Music Opens The Mind recently awarded Calgary’s ProArts Society funding to undertake the 2019 Jazz Music Concert Series, which will feature an eclectic cross section of jazz styles.
This special series will be part of the ProArts@Noon weekly schedule of Wednesday concerts.

Now in its sixteenth season, the ProArts@Noon Concert Series is a free, noon hour concert series presented by the ProArts Society; who rent the historic Cathedral Church in the heart of Calgary’s Cultural District for their weekly concerts, every Wednesday, all year ‘round.
THE 2019 MUSIC OPENS THE MIND JAZZ MUSIC CONCERT SERIES:

1. April 24 Tricia Edwards Duo, jazz piano and Latin percussion
2. July 24 Music Opens the Mind Jazz ensemble
3. Sept 25 Frank Rackow Jazz ensemble
4. Oct 02 Jon McCaslin Jazz ensemble

Artists Biographies

1. April 24 Tricia Edwards Duo, jazz piano and Latin percussion
   Tricia Edwards’ seeks to incorporate many different “languages” into her musical expression, with her formative years spent training and performing in the classical realm, while more recent years
   found her playing in the jazz idiom, and her current passion being the exploration of Latin music.
   Studies in jazz resulted in the release in 2008 of her debut jazz recording “Joyspring.”
   Her sophomore recording “Intaglios”, released January 2018, sought to blend her three musical passions for classical, jazz and latin genres and met with a great reception, “Intaglios”was awarded a Gold Medal for album and composition in September 2018 from the Global Music Awards and won MusicYYC’s Best Jazz Recording of the Year for 2018.
   Tricia will be appearing with veteran Latin percussionist Raul Gomez Tabera.
2. July 24 Music Opens The Mind Jazz Ensemble 
   The Music Opens The Mind Jazz quartet will perform a variety of well-known and well-loved jazz tunes, with particular attention to the saxophone.  Between songs, saxophonist Kevin O’Connor will speak briefly about the origin of the saxophone, and some of the challenges faced and overcome by its inventor, Adolphe Sax. Featuring Dave Edgar (saxophone), Paul Wells (keyboards, bass), Kelly Kruse (drums) and Kevin O’Connor (saxophone, narrator).
3. Sept 25 Frank Rackow Jazz Ensemble
   A founding member of Calgary’s KlezMerovitz band, Frank Rackow also leads the Klezmer/Middle Eastern fusion group, The Black Sea.. A graduate of music programs at Concordia and McGill Universities, he has performed with jazz and world music ensembles at festivals and clubs across Canada. Frank is an active clinician and teacher on both saxophone and clarinet and is also involved in choral music as the founding conductor of Vocal Latitudes, a world music community choir in Calgary.
4. Oct 02 Jon McCaslin Jazz trio 
   In the spring of 2002 JoncCaslin’s completed his Master’s in Jazz Studies at McGill University where he studied jazz drumming, improvisation and composition.
   In January 2003 Jon released his debut CD, “McCallum’s Island”, which features his quintet and contains an exciting collection of cCaslin’s original compositions. During March of 2003 Jonathan was the recipient of a fellowship from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and attended the “Betty Carter Jazz Ahead” residency in Washington, D.C. From 2004 until 2006, Jon toured North America, Asia and Europe with the high-energy, critically acclaimed music production troupe “Barrage”. He is currently based in Calgary, Alberta where he maintains a busy performing and teaching schedule across Canada. www.jonmccaslinjazzdrummer.blogspot.com