Memories of… 2010 Workshops

Description

Join Heather Bambrick as she takes you through the paces of Jazz Vocalizing, from tone placement and timbre, to swing feel and improvising.  Work out your voice and your creativity!!

Biography

Heather Bambrick, winner of the 2004 National Jazz Award for Vocalist of the Year, is in demand as a performer, educator, and broadcaster.  The native Newfoundlander is a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, and is currently on faculty both at U of T and Humber College.  She has performed with international Jazz artists, including Phil Nimmons, Kenny Wheeler, Guido Basso, Darmon Meader, Peter Appleyard, John Lamb, and Rob McConnell.

Heather has recorded with numerous acts, including the Royal Jelly Orchestra, Carol Welsman, the Caliban Quartet, and The Beehive Singers.  Her own debut CD It’s About Time (2003) was nominated for Best Jazz Recording at the 2004 East Coast Music Awards and is enjoying international praise and radio airplay.  Her follow-up recording Those Were The Days is has also been nominated for Best Jazz Recording at the 2007 East Coast Music Awards.  She is a guest vocalist (along with theatre great Rudy Webb) on a new release featuring the music of Irving Berlin and award winning actor, musician, and songwriter Irving Dobbs.

On stage, Heather is a consummate entertainer, performing for standing room only crowds at venues across Canada and in the US and bringing audiences to their feet at some of the country’s most prestigious music festivals.  Her live shows are a combination of timeless songs, brilliant musicianship, and Heather’s unique sense of humour – all adding up to pure entertainment.

Heather’s voice has been heard throughout North America on radio and television commercials, as well as on film and television soundtracks.  Since 2001, Heather has firmly entrenched herself in the world of broadcasting, hosting the highly popular “Sunday Afternoon Jazz”, on Canada’s only all-Jazz radio station, Jazz FM91.  Heather was honoured with Broadcaster of the Year awards at both the 2005 and 2007 National Jazz Awards.

Visit Heather on line at: www.heatherbambrick.com

Description

This dance workshop is for all-ages and levels, beginners are welcome.

Salsa dancing mixes African and European dance influences through the music and dance fusions that are the roots of Salsa, essentially Puerto Rican and Cuban Son.  This workshop gives the students an introduction to the rhythm and basic steps of the popular dance of salsa, basic turns are introduced as the students develop the steps and confidence to dance in Latin nigh-clubs.

Biography

Workshop leader, Betty Colón has over 20 years of dance and teaching experience.  She is trained in ballet, choreography, ballroom contemporary and Latin dance.  Betty is the leader of Toronto’s “Salsa for Singles and The Salsa Social Club” - a novel way to meet great people through Latin dance.  Learn how to dance and develop confidence and self-esteem while enriching your life.  She has has taught modern and Latin American dance to children and adults alike at Toronto Dance Theatre, Toronto Board of Education and different dance school and clubs around the city.  Betty’s Mission - to help celebrate Toronto’s cultural diversity and create a mosaic of individuals who share an entertaining experience while enjoying what each has to offer in this world.

Description

Do It Yourself: The New Roadmap to The Canadian Music Industry

In this seminar, Jaymz Bee will share his observations on the state of the music industry, focusing primarily on the independent jazz scene.  The lecture will leave plenty of room for Q&A, and will deal with CD production, marketing, media and live concerts.

Biography

Jaymz Bee is currently a producer and on-air host at Jazz FM91 and has worked for various record companies in the past two decades, including his position as President of Leisure Lab (BMG) and Timely Manor (Fontana North-Universal).  Jaymz is also founder of Happy Fingers Music (publishing) and Bullhorn.ca (publicity and promotions).  Artistically, Jaymz was leader of the funk-rock circus Look People, and currently performs and manages The Royal Jelly Orchestra (jazz) and Bonzai Suzuki (pop).

Description

Guitarist, Composer, Arranger and Band Leader, Michael Occhipinti performs in a number of styles and uses a broad palette of sounds including electronics.  For this workshop, he’ll discuss his own experience learning (and continuing to learn) the guitar and the areas that he thinks most developing guitarists need to work on.  Guitarists are welcome to bring their instruments as the clinic may involve some playing.

Most of the songs that jazz musicians refer to as “standards” started out as popular songs, and today many musicians are looking to everything from the Beatles to Joni Mitchell to Nirvana and Radiohead to develop their own songbooks.  Michael will introduce the concepts of how musicians can approach arranging pop into jazz for those who are interested in creating their own arrangements.

Biography

Guitarist/composer and arranger, Michael Occhipinti is an eight-time JUNO Award nominee and winner, including a 2009 nomination for his latest recording The Sicilian Jazz Project. The Sicilian Jazz Project showcases the inventiveness of Michael’s writing and his broad palette of guitar sounds, and his group will be performing world-wide in 2009, with concerts in Mexico, the U.S., across Canada, and Italy.

From the outset of Michael Occhipinti’s career, he has focused on creating original music, and in 1994 he formed the 16-piece ensemble NOJO with pianist/composer Paul Neufeld.  All five of the group’s recordings have been JUNO nominated (including the band’s 1995 debut which won the award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

In 2000, Michael Occhipinti released the acclaimed and JUNO nominated recording Creation Dream -The Songs of Bruce Cockburn featuring Michael’s ambitious arrangements of music by one of Canada's best-loved songwriters.  In October 2008, National Public Radio in the U.S. named Creation Dream as one of six Canadian CDs (alongside piano genius Glenn Gould) Americans should know about.

Michael Occhipinti is the Artistic Director for the CAMMAC Ontario Music Centre Summer Music Camp and teaches jazz combos at the Royal Conservatory of Music.  Michael is a guest clinician at colleges, universities and high schools across Canada. Michael Occhipinti has been profiled on Bravo’s Arts and Minds, CBC television’s On The Arts, CBC radio’s On Stage and Jazz Beat, CTV’s Mike Bullard Show and TV Ontario’s Studio 2.

www.michaelocchipinti.com

Description

Join Canadian jazz drumming veteran, Norm Marshall Villeneuve as he takes the group through the fundamentals and nuances of jazz drumming.  Norm will talk about practice, theory and “what it takes”.  He will also spend part of the workshop reminiscing about the Canadian Jazz Scene and some of the wonderful artists he has worked with in his 50 plus year career.

Biography

Born in Montreal, Norman Marshall Villeneuve has been playing the drums since the age of nine.  Determined to make a living as a musician in his early twenties, Villeneuve toured Quebec with various groups playing everything from jazz to rock and R&B.  Since then, he has become an iconic Canadian jazz player.  For over 30 years, Villeneuve has made his home in Toronto where he has earned a reputation as a father figure to the younger generation of players.  Villeneuve has played with a virtual legion of jazz greats including Duke Ellington, Junior Mance, and Oliver Jones.  His 2002 CD, Norman Marshall Villeneuve's Jazz Message with Dave Restivo, Kieran Overs, Jake Wilkinson, Ken Fornetran, and Shawn Hykwist, continues to enjoy critical and fan acclaim.  Villeneuve continues to delight fans as a permanent member of the weekly trio for Lisa Particelli’s “Girls Night Out” at Chalkers Pub in Toronto.

Description

This workshop is about the monumental advances in shooting live events and concerts.  Kris and Bill will share the highs and lows of photographing the past twenty years - everyone from James Brown to Beyonce, what it’ s like working as a couple, how to get an image that has a life span, how to set up the new digital cameras for best results and tips on how to take better photos for Facebook and social networking sites.

Biography

Kris King

Photographer Kris King has specialized in ’live’ concert portraits for over 25 years, an official photographer for the TD Toronto Jazz Festival for many years; King’s photographs have appeared on CD covers, websites, billboards and in books, magazines and newspapers.

King has participated in solo and group exhibitions as well as concert photography workshops.  She has been nominated several times for the ’Jazz Photo of the Year’ Award from Jazz Journalist’s Association.  In June 2009, King won the ’Jazz Photo of the Year’ Award from Jazz Journalist’s Association.

King is the editor and publisher of eJazz Travel on-line magazine.  She is also co-owner and administrator of the National Jazz Awards Canada and was copy editor of the Jazz Report Magazine for 20 years.  She is also co-owner, interviewer and videographer for eJazzTV.

She is a current contributor to JazzTimes on-line community, All About Jazz and eJazz News as well as a contributor to print publications such as Ensemble Travel and the now defunct Jazzman (France) and Planet Jazz (Montreal).

King is a member of Jazz Journalists Association, Editorial Photographers and Canadian Association of Journalists.

Bill King

Bill King was born and raised in Jeffersonville, Indiana and move to Toronto, Canada in 1969.  A musician by trade King has garnered three Juno nominations – a Maple Blues Award – Two National Jazz Awards for Producer of the Year and Jazz Photographer of the Year.  He’s produced and arranged numerous recordings including his discovery Sophie Milman who sold over 100,000 of her debut.  His broadcasting stints include Q107, CKFM, Jazz.FM91.1, CIUT and the syndicated Jazz Report Radio network.  He’s co-founder and publisher of the Jazz Report Magazine.  Through the 19 year life of JRM he wrote numerous articles and conducted hundreds of interviews.  His photos have appeared in the Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, Toronto Sun, Downbeat Magazine, Jazzizz, Jazz Times - books, magazines and CD covers.  King served four years heading the jazz committee for the Junos.

GET UKED with Rye n Ginger!

All ages, something for everyone – even if you don’t have a ukulele (yet!)…

Bring your Ukulele and an appetite for an evening of sing-along, play-along fun with Rye n Ginger - and members of the very popular Corktown Ukulele Jam.

Rye is Toronto singer/songwriter David Newland, and Ginger is multi-instrumentalist Steve McNie.  Together, they’re the guys behind torontoUKES who produce a variety of ukulele activities including the Corktown Ukulele Jam, Uke Nite!, cujamWEST, Ukulele Speakeasy concerts and workshops all over the city and beyond.

If you haven’t been to one of these unique events, this is your perfect opportunity to get a sense for why they’re getting so much attention and why the ukulele is such a perfect way to “put a little analog back into the digital world we live in”.

Come ready to learn a little and play a lot… whether you know 3 chords or 30, our guarantee is on fun!

Don’t have a uke?  You come too!  Our bet is that by the time you leave, your next stop will be a local music store.

Want to beat that rush?  torontoUKES.com features a comprehensive list of where to pick up a uke in advance, along with info on all of the cool uke-centric stuff these guys have got going.

Description

This dance workshop is for all-ages and levels, beginners are welcome.

Merengue is the national dance of the Dominican Republic, and also to some extent, of Haiti.  This course will give you the basic steps of Merengue and a dance routine will be introduced to allow students to dance with confidence on the dance floor.

Biography

Workshop leader, Betty Colón has over 20 years of dance and teaching experience.  She is trained in ballet, choreography, ballroom contemporary and Latin dance.  Betty is the leader of Toronto’s “Salsa for Singles and The Salsa Social Club” - a novel way to meet great people through Latin dance.  Learn how to dance and develop confidence and self-esteem while enriching your life.  She has has taught modern and Latin American dance to children and adults alike at Toronto Dance Theatre, Toronto Board of Education and different dance school and clubs around the city.  Betty’s Mission - to help celebrate Toronto’s cultural diversity and create a mosaic of individuals who share an entertaining experience while enjoying what each has to offer in this world.

Description

So, you know you can sing, and dance, you took years of lessons!!  And act?  Well, how many hours did you spend posing in front of the mirror.  You’re ready to hit the big stage and WOW that audience, but the number of venue available for new talent to learn the craft of Entertainment are drying up.  And standing on stage singing song after song with little or no patter will leave you lying in the dust as a career blows by you and attaches itself to somebody else who knows how to “Deliver”.

So the question is, when you get that shot, “How do I make sure I stand out from all the other singer/dancer/actors who are fighting for attention?”

Bruce Davidsen has most of the answers you are looking for.  Over 40 years as a producer/promoter gives him the tools to be able to change your presentation skills…….INSTANTLY.

This is an interactive master class.  Come ready to participate and take some chances.  In 120 minutes you will involve yourself in learning some life changing skills.  Don’t come if you’re going to sit on your hands and pretend you know everything.  Come ready to Laugh!!