Walker, Quinlan, Overs, Beddage and Doxas at TD Winter Jazz Fest
Petr Cancura
Published on February 3, 2015, 10:43am
Nancy Walker Quintet
Nancy Walker Quintet will be performing on Feb 6th at 7pm at the National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage
ottawajazz.wpengine.com/nancy-walker-quintet
You may remember Nancy Walker (nancywalkerjazz.com) from the house band at the Ottawa Jazz Festival’s Late Night Jam Sessions for a number of years with John Geggie and Nick Fraser. It’s an honor and a pleasure for the Jazz Festival to present Nancy’s own group – the way she sees and hears the world. What you will get on this fine evening, the 6th of February, is a collection of the who-is-who in Toronto with a guest from Montreal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoRDIEXAgOI
Nancy is one of the country’s leading pianists, she can back any singer, like Emily-Claire Barlow; collaborate with the most elaborate, such as Kirk MacDonald; or just play standards till the morning hours as she has done on many a late night at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. One of my favorite things about Nancy’s playing is how lush and warm her sound is on the piano, this is not easy to get. She simply sounds great overtime I hear her… a consistency that is also not easily attained.
To top it off, Nancy is not shy to surround herself with some serious heavies! Ted Quinlan and Kieran Overs (kieranovers.com) are veteran A-list players in Toronto. I mean Kieran has played with Chet Baker and Zoot Sims… this is some deep connection to the roots of jazz! Here is a young Kieran playing with Rob McConnell and Ed Bickert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtmicTzViw
Ted is at the helm of the Humber Music Department and has played with everyone under the sun in Toronto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBLBs-vFJsAShirantha Beddage (shiranthabeddage.com) is becoming more and more prominent on the Canadian jazz scene as a all around woodwinds master, it will be great to have this wiz in Ottawa.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsJ7USIEgxg
Rounding out the group is Jim Doxas, the Montrealer who is known to back up Oliver Jones amongst many others. Jim has also recently released a fantastic debut solo recording with a trio.