Media Release
For immediate release
April 26, 2005
Hugh Fraser, Dave Douglas, Muhal Richard Abrams headline Jazz at Banff 2005
Still one of the best-kept secrets on Canada’s jazz scene, The Banff Centre hosts its annual month-long celebration of orchestral and improvisational jazz this spring, with concerts by a combo of top-draw musicians between May 11 and June 11. New York-based trumpet player Dave Douglas, Canadian jazz trombonist and composer Hugh Fraser, pianist and legendary vanguard composer Muhal Richard Abrams, and dozens of other great musicians are in Banff for the Centre’s annual jazz workshops, and they’ll be treating fans to a month’s worth of shows in traditional arrangements and original jazz.
The series kicks off with a jazz orchestra concert led by Hugh Fraser on May 13, then swings into an orchestra gig headlined by Abrams on May 21. On the 28th, Dave Douglas is on stage with Mark Dresser on bass, pianist Vijay Iyer, Don Byron on clarinet, and Dylan van der Schyff on drums. On June 4, Douglas jams with Jeffrey Parker on guitar, Mike Zilber on sax, and Andrew Downing on bass. The series wraps up June 11 with Douglas and a couple of percussionists, Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez, Greg Osby on saxophone, and the Instant Composers Pool from the Netherlands – percussionist Han Bennink, bassist Ernst Glerum, and pianist Misha Mengelberg.
Weekday jazz junkies can hit The Club, on the lower level of The Banff Centre’s Theatre Complex, an intimate, licensed, non-smoking venue. On the evenings of May 12, 14, 18, 19, 24 to 27, 31, and June 1 to 3 and 7 to 10, at 8 p.m., participants in the workshops will be joined by visiting musicians for by-donation impromptu jams, and the music moves to the patio outside the Centre’s Music & Sound building for free al fresco noon-hour gigs on May 25, June 1, and June 8.
The Banff Centre’s jazz program was launched in 1974 by Canadian greats Oscar Peterson and Phil Nimmons, who began with a week-long educational program for emerging Canadian jazz artists. In less than three decades, it has grown into a mature, internationally acclaimed program at the leading edge of developments in jazz. Today, Dave Douglas heads up the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, while Hugh Fraser directs the annual Jazz Orchestra Workshop.
Individual tickets for Jazz at Banff concerts are available through the Banff Centre box office at (403) 762-6301 or 1-800-413-8368. Holders of the $75 Banff Summer Arts Festival Arts Lover Pass can get into all jazz events free.
For more information on scheduling and visiting musicians:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/events/jazz/2005/
For downloadable, print-ready photos of Jazz at Banff:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/media_room/images/music_and_sound/jazz_2005
Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475
