 JUNE 18, 2015 - MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE 2015 TD Halifax Jazz Festival expands to indoor venues with an exciting lineup of performances at Alderney Landing Theatre and Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. (Halifax, NS) New this year, the 2015 TD Halifax Jazz Festival presents six shows at two of the area’s premier indoor venues -- four shows at Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth, beginning Wednesday, July 8, and two shows at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Dalhousie Arts Centre, beginning Thursday, July 9. Alderney Landing Theatre performers include Brian Blade, Ranee Lee Quintet with the Blue Engine String Quartet, The Kenny Werner Trio and students from the Creative Music Workshop. The Rebecca Cohn Auditorium hosts Joey DeFrancesco Quartet with Robi Botos Quartet Feat. Phil Dwyer, and Michael Kaeshammer with Bill Stevenson’s Nine Steps Band. Brian Blade performs Music from *Mama Rosa* at Alderney Landing Theatre, Dartmouth, Wednesday, July 8 at 7:30 PM. The multi-talented veteran is already widely respected in the jazz world as the drummer, composer and leader of Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band, which has released three albums during its decade of existence. He is also known as the drummer for many heroes of the music world, including Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Wayne Shorter, Seal, Bill Frisell, and Emmylou Harris. A personal record from respected jazz drummer and composer Brian Blade, Mama Rosa gives audiences a taste of Blade's introspective singer-songwriter side—it's intimate, tender and soothing. Ranee Lee with the Blue Engine String Quartet performs at Alderney Landing Theatre Friday, July 10 at 7:30 PM. Montreal’s Ranee Lee really does it all; she’s an award-winning actress, songwriter, playwright, author, and respected educator. Her commanding pipes have earned her a spot as one of Canada’s best-known and most popular jazz vocalists. For this special performance, Lee teams up with Halifax’s chamber music masters, the Blue Engine String Quartet. Composed of Symphony Nova Scotia’s Jennifer Jones, Anne Simons, Alexandra Bates, and Hilary Brown, the Blue Engine String Quartet have been collaborating and performing with a sprawling list of musicians since 1997 -- from Denise Djokic, Philippe Djokic, Lynn Stodola and Peter Togni to Jill Barber, Jenn Grant, and Mary Jane Lamond. Kenny Werner Trio performs at Alderney Landing Theatre Sunday, July 12 at 7:30 PM. Ten years ago, world-class pianist and composer Kenny Werner made his first appearance at the Halifax Jazz Festival. Fans described the concert as "magic," and no doubt it was. Known for his prolific output of compositions, recordings and publications, Werner's creativity continues to impact audiences around the world. Quincy Jones has said this artist is, “Perfection, 360 degrees of soul and science in one human being. My kind of musician.” Werner received the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship Award for No Beginning No End, a musical journey exploring tragedy and loss, death and transition, and the path from one lifetime to the next. Hearing Werner’s trio live in an intimate and sonically crafted venue is a rare treat that will be nothing short of magical. Students of the Creative Music Workshop (CMW) perform Sunday, July 12 at Alderney Landing Theatre, 1:30 PM. The grand finale of the 11 day Creative Music Workshop (CMW) is a FREE show. CMW offers a place where student musicians and a faculty of internationally known musicians come together each year to explore the endless possibilities of improvisation. Each concert will be fresh and on the edge, premiering new written music, collaborations between faculty and students, and offering a showcase for CMW students to share what they have been creating in a community environment. This series is co-presented with Prismatic. Alderney Landing Theatre, located at 2 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth. Free parking is available at the adjacent parking lot after 6:00 PM. Tickets for these performances are available online at www.ticketpro.ca , over the phone at 1-888-311-9090 or at the Alderney Landing Box Office located on the 2nd level of the building, above the market, and directly below the pedway that connects Alderney Landing to Alderney Gate (library). The Box Office Monday to Friday, 9:15 AM to 5 PM. At Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Thursday, July 9 at 7:30 PM, Grammy nominated Joey DeFrancesco and his Quartet take the stage along with Robi Botos Quartet feat. Phil Dwyer, presented by Fountain School of Performing Arts, Dalhousie University. A night of innovative fast fingers and masterful key-playing finds Philly's Grammy-nominated king of the organ Joey DeFrancesco and Hungary-born, Toronto-based elite pianist Robi Botos sharing a stage. Joey DeFrancesco’s emergence in the 1980s marked the onset of a musical renaissance. Organ jazz was a form of music that went into hibernation from the mid-70s to the mid-80s, but it was DeFrancesco—a Philadelphia-based jazz organist, trumpeter and vocalist— who ignited the flame once again with the sound of his vintage Hammond organ and Leslie tone cabinet. Now a Grammy-nominated artist with over 30 recordings as a leader and numerous collaborations with the masters of modern jazz in his legacy, DeFrancesco deservingly takes his place with Fats Waller, Wild Bill Davis and Jimmy Smith in the lineage of jazz organ. Robi Botos is a jazz pianist of Hungarian descent who has quickly joined the ranks of Canada’s elite jazz musicians after moving his family to Toronto in 1998. Botos was mentored by the great Oscar Peterson, and is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades throughout his career, including the 2007 National Jazz Award for “Keyboardist of the Year” and first place at the 2008 Great American Jazz Piano Competition. On Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium hosts gifted singer and songwriter Michael Kaeshammer with Bill Stevenson’s Nine Steps Band. An incendiary piano player, both on stage and off, Keashammer has an uncanny ability to take ‘a bit of musical this’ and ‘a touch of musical that’ and create a sound that is uniquely his own – a singular brand of pop-tinged jazz that’s expressive, warm and incredibly catchy. Kaeshammer’s performances, on record and on stage, are an invitation to join the party. He doesn’t play at you. He plays with you. A night with Michael and his band isn’t the kind of show where you just sit, watch and applaud politely every now and then. Their goal is to entertain, inform and include you. Bill Stevenson’s Nine Steps Band with Tom Easley and Geoff Arsenault has emerged as one of the strongest pillars of Atlantic Canada’s music community. Collaborating for over 20 years, this talented local trio of household names is known for its sharp and energetic blues-based jazz. Stevenson, Easley, and Arsenault have an impressive collection of accolades between them—from East Coast Music Awards to Canadian Maple Blues Awards and performances with the who's who of jazz, roots and blues—and thousands of kilometres of touring behind them. The Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Dalhousie Arts Centre, is an all ages venue located at 6101 University Avenue. Tickets are $40, and are on sale online at artscentre.dal.ca, at the Box Office located in the lobby of the Dalhousie Arts Centre, or by telephone at (902) 494-3820 or 1-800-874-1669. Parkades are located in the Marion McCain Building on Seymour Street, across from the Arts Centre, and behind the Kenneth C. Rowe Building between Seymour and Henry Streets. The Marion McCain Building parkade has a Pay and Park Dispenser. To avoid a parking ticket, the display card must be clearly visible inside your car's windshield. Both parkades are open to visitors evenings from 6:30 PM until 1:30 AM. Since 1987 the non-profit organization the Halifax Jazz Festival has presented a diverse range of musical and educational activities including the 2015 TD Halifax Jazz Festival, July 8-12. Follow Halifax Jazz Festival on Facebook and Twitter @HFXJazzFest Media Contact: Kimberly Sinclair, TD Halifax Jazz Festival (902) 350-3968 kimberly@spincount.com
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