Starting in November, 2011, the National Arts Centre will again present five jazz masterclasses connecting leading jazz faculty at the Manhattan School of Music with music students in Ottawa and New York City. The sessions, in partnership with the Manhattan School of Music, will use broadband videoconference technology to connect teachers and students in real time with high fidelity audio and video.

This is the seventh season of Manhattan on the Rideau. This year's artists will be:

• Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - John Riley (drums)
  
• Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - Vijay Iyer (piano)
  
• Tuesday, January 17, 2012 - Dave Liebman (sax)  (Liebman has appeared several times before in the masterclasses)
  
• Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - Donny McCaslin (sax)
  
• Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - Peter Eldridge (vocals)
  

The sessions will be held at the NAC Fourth Stage (Elgin at Queen) from noon to 2 p.m. Admission is free. Seating is limited, and on a first-come, first-serve basis.

A masterclass is a one-on-one lesson in which a master musician teaches a selected student or ensemble under the watchful eyes of fellow students and members of the public. The audience can learn from the master along with the talented student in the spotlight. Each masterclass involves 2 to 3 students in succession followed by questions-and-answers.

Listen to a previous Manhattan masterclass: Theo Bleckmann with local singer Renée Yoxon.

updated 2011.09.09: corrected date to Tue. Dec 6

"The melody is what's going to keep you on track. Not counting bars, not visualizing chord symbols, but hearing the melody. You can't go wrong: if you  always know where the melody is, you'll always know where you are."
   – Roddy Ellias, speaking to students at a workshop at the Carleton University Jazz Camp, Friday, August 12, 2011

The melody: that's a commitment that both guitarist Roddy Ellias and pianist Brian Browne share in their music. And that's what Ellias says they will be emphasizing when they perform, together with Montreal bassist Michel Donato, this Saturday evening at Café Paradiso.

They will play standards: "Just some nice standards. A few unusual ones, and some regular ones. We figure it really doesn't matter what we play, it's how you play it."

All three musicians share a similar attitude to music. With Browne, Ellias said, "when it comes to playing standards, I think we have a very similar  approach and that's basically what I went over in the workshop the other day, too. The basics: melody, playing off the tune, trying to play music."

And both he and Donato are 'ear' players. "I know a lot of theory and everything, but we both like playing. We're both listeners and play off each other  and like good rhythm, good chords."

The three will form a "real classic trio", like those of Oscar Peterson, Jim Hall, or Nat King Cole, with the guitar becoming more like a horn. "You stay out of each other's way: if [the piano is] in a high register, I play the low register. You try to not duplicate what the other's doing."

Read more: Roddy Ellias, Brian Browne, Michel Donato: emphasizing the melody

The Montreal Jazz Festival announced its winter series August 16. Two of its concerts overlapped the Ottawa Jazz Festival's winter offerings, and there were several others which will also reach Ottawa or Gatineau by other means (Michael Kaeshammer, Al Di Meola). (However, Sophie Milman seems to be Montreal-only so far.)

But the Montreal tickets for the SF Jazz Collective were substantially less expensive: $37.89 in Montreal ($31.50+ taxes/fees), against $57.50/$50.50 + $5  in Ottawa.

Tickets for the Ari Hoenig Quartet were more expensive: $34.47 in Montreal  ($28.50 + taxes/fees) versus $22 + optional fees in Ottawa.

Of note, the Ottawa Jazz Festival is offering $7 off on SF Jazz Collective tickets bought before Sept. 12, and the collective will be appearing in a theatre with reserved seating in Ottawa, as opposed to general admission in Montreal. But in Montreal, you'll be able to have a beer or drink with the show, if you like that. One might also expect a slightly different show, given the different environment (think NAC Studio versus 4th Stage).

It's not likely to be worth your while to save a few dollars by rushing to Montreal (unless you really like beer with your music!) but the differing price structures involved are interesting.

Jerry Granelli, who will bring his trio to the NAC Fourth Stage on October 12, was interviewed on Q on CBC Radio on August 10.

The Halifax-based musician started things off with a solo drum performance, then talked about his days on the San Francisco jazz scene in the '50s and '60s; his path to Buddhism; and his new record "Let Go."

Later in the show, special guest Charles Spearin (of Broken Social Scene, Do Make Say Think, and his own solo renown) joined Jerry for a live improvisation.  It was the first time they'd ever played together – and the first live improvisation on the show in Q's history.

You can hear the interview here.

Jesse Stewart and Patrick Graham
Remic Rapids Park, Ottawa
Sunday, July 30, 2011

Percussionists Jesse Stewart (Ottawa) and Patrick Graham (Montreal) presented an improvised concert of "rock" music on a fine Sunday evening adjacent to the stunning Balanced Rock Sculpture Project by artist John Ceprano.

Besides rocks, the musicians played an unusual variety of percussive and wind instruments that were visually appealing in their own right. Patrick Graham performed on his custom-made triangle with a vibrato that echoed the changing waves on the river, while visually reflecting both the cohesiveness and stark edges of Ceprano's rock sculptures. Jesse Stewart played his Waterphone in sympathy with the Ottawa River. Both also played Graham's "windcatcher" - a string instrument that is resonated by swinging it through the air. Not to be forgotten, more traditional frame drums also made audible appearances.

The performance was completely acoustic. Performed at ordinary volumes, it encouraged the many listeners to turn up their hearing. The level of quiet for an outdoor rock concert was striking at times, and indeed, essential for the musicians' improvisations. Demonstrating that improvisation is also about listening and not just playing, they interacted with each other, and reacted with their instruments to the natural sounds of the riverfront stage: a person walking on the rocks, and the birds, for example. The audience was induced to listen to their natural surroundings in concert with the improvised music.

Read more: An improvised rock concert

Carleton University Jazz Camp starts on August 7, 50% larger than its inaugural year in 2010.  Last year, OttawaJazzScene.ca published an in-depth story about the first year of camp.  Today, we're presenting more photos of the first year of camp, by OttawaJazzScene.ca photojournalist and publisher Brett Delmage.

Win free concert tickets! Carleton University Jazz camp has generously donated four pairs of tickets for their evening concerts this week to be won by our weekly newsletter subscribers. Don't forget to enter

View the 2010 Carleton University Jazz Camp photos

Read more: Carleton University Jazz Camp (from the vault)

It's a little after 8 p.m. on a sultry June evening, and a steady stream of people is entering the Carleton Tavern.

The tavern is an institution in its Hintonburg neighbourhood and doesn't need to show off. The tables and chairs are wooden, scarred, and comfortable, and packed together. The food is burgers and fries, and fish and chips. The servers are in constant motion, carrying trays full of beer and food

But tonight, and on the third Thursday of each month, the people they're serving are there for another purpose. They're toting saxophones, or drum sticks, or  trumpets. At the south end of the main room, a drum kit is being assembled, monitors are being tested, and keyboards are being moved into the best alignment

It's almost time for the final JazzWorks jazz jam for 2010-11 season to start

By the time this month's host band, Restez à l'écoute, starts playing at 8:30, almost two-thirds of the tables are full, well back into the room. And more people  continue to arrive for the next hour. That was typical of the entire year, says jam organizer Peter Liu, who took on responsibility for organizing the jams this year

"Attendance ... has been steadily climbing over this past year, and then two months ago we had broken our previous record with over a hundred people. It's been really popular and people are really coming out and enjoying it and wanting to be part of it. It just makes me really happy."

Read more: JazzWorks jams feeling the pressures of success

Django Libre got listeners out of their seats at the Rendez-Vous Rideau Jazz festival Stage on June 27, with their strongly swinging versions of standards. Their one-hour set, which included All of Me, Django's Tiger, Bie Mir Bist du Shone, Nuages, Oh Lady Be Good, Troublant Bolero, Sweet Georgia Brown and others kept a trio of sharply-dressed swing dancers busy on the 'dance floor'. The audience responded with a standing ovation and a call for an encore – but at the Rendez-Vous Rideau Stage, when your time is up, it's up, and so listeners had to be satisfied by buying all the CDs that the group had brought with them.

The were joined at the Rideau Centre show by Richard Page on clarinet.

View the photo gallery

Read more: Django Libre gets listeners out of their seats at Rendez-Vous Rideau Jazz Stage

Nicole Ratté is expanding the jazz repertoire in a new way. She's taking Québecois songs, and "dressing them in jazz".

At Les Brasseurs du Temps on Monday, July 4, she'll be singing the songs which the francophone community in Québec grew up with: by Robert Charlebois, Jean-Pierre Ferland, Michel Rivard, and Beau Dommage. But the jazz arrangements, by pianist Jean-Pierre Allain, will be completely new.

As she talks about her latest project, she presents an even bigger smile and enthusiasm than she normally does, something that she always seems to have a generous amount to share. This music, she said, is "part of our [Québecois] culture; it's in our skin. It goes straight to our hearts."

Some of the songs she learned in childhood: "One song was written the year I was born. I tried to pick songs all the periods, except the latest. I'm listening too much to jazz [lately], so I don't relate to the new songs. I know that my crowd, too, is going to be just like me. They know Claude Léveillée who just died: I have one song from him."

Ratté said she was glad J.P. Allain did the arrangements, because he was less familiar with the songs and could imagine them in new arrangements – although she still had an idea of what she was looking for. "One of the songs I'm going to sing I heard a million times [in the last] 30 years, so for me it's hard to imagine it differently, but J.P. never heard it."

The show is called "Nicole Jazze le Quebec", and will feature Ratté with long-time collaborators Allain and bassist Normand Glaude. It will include a wide variety of songs, with "different tempos and atmospheres. You cannot have 20 ballads. You cannot, even if your favourite singer is Robert Charlebois, you cannot have five songs from him. It's got to have a good balance between different eras, different styles, different singers."

Read more: Nicole Ratté dresses Québec songs in jazz