Welcome to the Artistic Director's Guide

I first heard Christian Scott on the radio about three years ago. The track being played - from his Anthem CD - caught my attention right away: here was a new, young trumpeter playing very cool, very funky music. So when I had the opportunity to see him in Toronto as part of the IAJE Conference in January, 2008, I jumped. It was a great show - his quintet (featuring Toronto native Matt Stevens on guitar) grooved for the duration of the hour-long set.

Barry Romberg is, quite simply, one of the most exciting drummers on the local jazz scene. He plays with an energy and intensity that is hard to ignore regardless of whether he's playing in a traditional jazz quartet, in a tribute to the music of Bruce Cockburn, or in his own contemporary jazz ensembles. He always seems to be having a great time on the bandstand - fully interacting with the other musicians in the group, and being ever so devious...playing with the time feel just enough to keep everyone on their toes.

The No Smoking Orchestra (TNSO) has been called "a Gypsy techno-rock band" and I think that's a great label: imagine combining all of the best, most exciting parts of the gypsy music tradition (Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and their contemporaries) with the energy and spectacle of techno and rock music, and you'll begin to understand what it's like to experience a TSNO show. And what exactly does "Gypsy techno-rock" sound like? Check this out:

I think the most exciting thing about Dave Douglas is that he is impossible to pin down - just when I catch up to his most recent project, he's on to something new and, invariably, different. But whether he's playing in a jazz trio or a brass quintet, or performing a live soundtrack to a silent film, Dave Douglas is at the upper echelon of international jazz performance, pushing boundaries with his writing and playing, and always sounding great.