Walter Hall, 80 Queen's Park
Free
Biographies
The Hart House Jazz Ensemble is an active and vibrant band made up of members from different colleges and campus communities united in one common interest: a love of music. Members balance their lives and studies around numerous other commitments but still take the time out to play in the ensemble. Performing at the Arbor Room and The Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar at the end of term as well as at festivals in the Greater Toronto Area, the ensemble conducted by bandleader Ernesto Cervini has won praise from critics and audiences alike. Auditions for all members take place at the beginning of every school year following an open rehearsal.
The University of Toronto Jazz Orchestra (UTJO) is now in the sixth year under the leadership of Gordon Foote. The band is quickly becoming one of Canada’s finest university jazz orchestras, and is the flagship group of the Jazz Studies Program at the University of Toronto.
The 21-member ensemble is part of the UofT Jazz Program, which offers Bachelor's, Master's and DMA degrees in Jazz. The UTJO works hard to produce performances that are musical and exciting, with precision and energy. Their repertoire spans many decades, and pays homage to the rich jazz orchestra tradition. The Jazz Degree curriculum also requires students to compose and arrange music, which has the ensemble performing music with a unique UofT flavour.
In the fall of 2016, the ensemble released a CD, Sweet Ruby Suite: the music of Kenny Wheeler, featuring Norma Winstone, voice, and Dave Liebman, soprano saxophone. Ric Bang of Jazz Scan wrote: “its elegance is mesmerizing; you’ll want to hear it again and again….. The University of Toronto clearly is a music school to be reckoned with.” Jack Bowers wrote: “…first rate...Those who admire Wheeler's point of view—and there are many—should be heartened by what the UTJO and its special guests have accomplished.”
The first recording under the direction of Gordon Foote, Reflections (2013), featuring the music of Assistant Professor Mike Murley, who was also the guest on the disc, was reviewed by Jack Bowers of All About Jazz (www.allaboutjazz.com). In that review he said: "To describe the album as impressive would be an understatement. The UTJO is as good as or better than almost any ensemble you'll hear at that level… Reflections is a superb album, teeming with high energy and good humor. Gordon Foote, it seems, has found a congenial new home in Toronto, and the UT Jazz Orchestra is in the best of hands."