Sunday Jazz
The Capital City Syncopators
April 23rd, 2pm $15 door
The stellar Capital City Syncopators will take the stage with some toe tapping, head bobbing, swinging music to lift your spirits. Journey back to the Prohibition era with this great band and relive the era of hustlers, gangsters and flappers dancing to the sound of hot jazz played in the speakeasies. This Victoria based band led by Avram McCagherty features some of the finest musicians on the island.
Ryan Oliver
April 30th, 2pm $15 door
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Juno-nominated Saxophonist Ryan Oliver developed his artistry in the creative fires of Amsterdam and honed his craft in Toronto. Over several years he realised his dream of joining thousands of saxophonists at crowded jam sessions in the jazz metropolis of New York City, before returning to BC and the natural beauty of Vancouver Island. For over 15 years, Oliver has toured the world with legendary Canadian jazz group The Shuffle Demons and has performed with a who's who of the Canadian jazz scene. He has been nominated for the Prix De Jazz at the Montreal Jazz Festival and for this year's Western Canadian Music Awards: "Jazz Musician of the Year".
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Angela Verbrugge
May 7th, 2pm $15 door
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Angela Verbrugge is a Canadian west coast-based jazz vocalist, lyricist and composer who "possesses a winsome, brightly-burnished, pliable voice, ample emotional intelligence, considerable songwriting skills, and conspicuously good taste" (JazzTimes).
Angela is influenced primarily by the swing era, vintage musicals, and bebop. She has appeared at the Victoria Jazz Festival, the Fort Langley Jazz and Arts Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, and top jazz clubs internationally such as Pizza Express London (Soho) and leading venues in Istanbul.
Graham Villette
May 14th, 2pm $15 door
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This home grown hot quartet is proud to bring you an afternoon of music featuring compositions by jazz greats like Tad Dameron, Thelonious Monk, and Victor Feldman. Nanaimo-based drummer Villette, a graduate of the VIU jazz programme, heads the band featuring a trio of well known
V.I. players:
Nick Peck - Keys
Kosma Busheikin - Guitar
Ken Lister - Upright bass
Monik Nordine
May 21st, 2pm $15 door
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The Monik Nordine Trio has been featured from Stockholm to Vancouver and consists of Nick Peck on Hammond organ and Miles Fuller on drums playing some funky soul jazz in the spirit of the Sonny Stitt and Don Patterson collaborations of the 1970’s. Monik is a saxophonist and vocalist who recently returned from an expedition to Trinidad where she formed a new collaboration with sitarist Mungal Patasar. She has toured with Hugh Fraser’s band VEJI and recently completed a residency in Stockholm, Sweden.
Nick Peck is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and composer, primarily known as a jazz pianist and organist who has performed across Canada and Europe. Since 2013, he has resided in British Columbia, Canada where he is frequently found playing with many talented colleagues up and down the Canadian west coast.
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Greg Bush Sextet
May 28th, 2pm $15 door
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Trumpeter, arranger, composer, Bush heads up a group of some of the finest musicians on the island for an afternoon of hard swinging jazz.
Greg is currently professor of music at Vancouver Island University where in addition to conducting the VIU Wind Ensemble he heads the trumpet studio, teaches Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Composition, Instrumental Conducting and Pedagogy. Originally from Montreal, Greg holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University and a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from McGill University. Greg is the former Director of Jazz Studies at Abilene University in Texas and has been on faculty at McMaster University, Mohawk College (Hamilton, Ontario) and Red Deer College (Red Deer, Alberta). He has performed in jazz clubs, concert halls and jazz festivals across Canada, Australia, Fiji, Germany and in Switzerland at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival. Greg's solo CD release is entitled "Cause and Effect" and features his original compositions.
Susannah Adams
Music has the power to transform lives, ignite our passions and help us to become more fully alive.
It is my intention to rouse us out of our collective slumber and help us to engage in meaningful connections.
Come and dive into my world of sacred creativity.
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There is a certain magic that is created when song is gifted from the heart.
Music transcends beyond the busy mind, transporting us back into our sentient selves. Back to a place of deep remembering.
I revel in weaving these intimate spaces of connection.
At music festivals or concert halls, at family gatherings or around the fireside, come and experience the magic.
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The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away
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This is often how I am described as being, a fearless performer.
Of course, I am not without fear. Believe me, I have plenty of them. I simply have a compulsion to continually take myself to that edge and step right over it. Dive right in.
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For I have learned it is there, in the places that scare me, that I become more fully alive.
I discover what it is to trust, and I learn how to fly.
With this love of living on the edge, Jazz has been the natural genre for me to immerse in and develop my sense of musicality.
I have built my foundation riding on the waves of free improvisation and co-creation, making music in the moment, going wherever the wind blows me.
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Edie DaPonte
Anyone who has seen her perform will know that Edie Daponte brings the element of surprise to every show! Her range and repertoire travel far and wide crossing musical genres and spanning multiple decades and languages. She's equally at home in an intimate lounge setting or on an outdoor festival stage, having established a reputation in the music scene of Vancouver Island and Western Canada as a dynamic and engaging performer.
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Edie brings passion, playfulness and an evident love of performance to her live shows. Vancouver Island Music Awards awarded Edie with "Jazz Recording of the Year" in 2017 for her original song "Island Rain" and nominated her as "Vocalist of the Year" in 2016. Edie's original song "Ride the Wind" was nominated in the Traditional category for the 2017 International Portuguese Music Awards (IPMA). "Young at Heart" was nominated in 2016 for Best Album - Jazz with Vocals by the Independent Music Awards.
Emotive, playful and passionate, Edie's voice lends itself perfectly to the wide range of music she loves to feature in her shows. She moves seamlessly from Jazz to Bossa Nova, Blues to Fado, switching between English, Portuguese, Spanish and French numbers with ease.
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Edie has performed at festivals including the Victoria Jazz Festival and the Vancouver Latin Festival and toured theatres across Vancouver Island and BC. You'll often find her accompanied by talented musicians, Joey Smith on guitar and Karel Roessingh on piano. Together they create a wonderful atmosphere, engaging audiences large and small, drawing them in, and rewarding them with classic numbers they love to hear.
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Nick La Riviere
Singer-songwriter Nick La Riviere is an accomplished trombonist who has toured internationally with bands such as the Juno award winning Paperboys, Michael Kaeshammer, 54-40, and Adonis Puentes. He’s been a special guest with such bands as Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies), The Temptations, and Nikki Yanofsky. As a freelancer, he’s one of Victoria’s busiest musicians. He has house gigs at Bard & Banker on Thursdays, Darcy’s Pub on Sundays, and Pagliacci’s every 2nd Sunday (before Darcy’s). Aside from the house gigs, he’s booked with plenty of other shows in and outside of Victoria… there’s always a lot going on.
Nick’s own project, The Nick La Riviere Band, takes its influence from modern New Orleans music… not the older dixie music some people think of when they hear ‘New Orleans’, but the fun, horn heavy music people are partying to there now. The music is all about having a good time, keeping the energy high the whole show, and moving your feet. Nick’s originals are like if Trombone Shorty met Ben Folds – wild horn solos, piano based grooves and melodic vocals. The band also plays their own take on tunes by great artists like Professor Longhair and Sly and the Family Stone. Featuring 3 vocals, trumpet, sax, trombone, guitar, piano/synth, bass, drums – and sometimes conch shells or wine glasses, the 7 piece band delivers a big powerful sound. The music is all about having a good time, keeping the energy high, and moving your feet.
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