ARTISTS
Jenn Bojm
Duet vocals on Plenty of Money and You, harmonies on Rain and 100 Years From Today
Georgia
Straight
Bandcamp
Jenn Bolm is a versatile, up-and-coming singer-songwriter based in Vancouver, where she holds down solo gigs with bass-playing partner Colin Cowan and with post-folk outfit, Jenn Bojm and Khingfisher (that being fellow singer-guitarist Craig Mechler), doing nearly forgotten songs associated with Richard and Mimi Fariña. This clear-toned soprano is also an accredited clinical counselor, so a great person to have around when live venues keep disappearing every day. Or simply when you need to hear a voice full of warmth and character.
Chris Davis
Trumpet on 42nd Street, Temptation and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
YouTube
VSCO
School of Music
YouTube
Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, trumpet genius Chris Davis can play like Lee Morgan in a cool, Blue Note style or go hot like Louis Armstrong in a New Orleans setting. But he’s also been putting his own modern spin on everything, playing salsa, funk, bebop, and big-band music with artists as varied as Cory Weeds, Zapato Negro, Joe DeFrancesco, and Nikki Yanofsky since moving to Ladner, B.C., in 2003. Five years later, he won CBC’s Galaxie Rising Star, and since 2013, he’s been helping form young minds by running the music program at Delta Secondary School.
Dalannah Gail Bowen
Vocals on Love For Sale
Website
YouTube
YouTube
A dynamic veteran of Canada’s blues, roots, and soul scene, Dalannah Gail Bowen is known for her powerful voice, commanding stage presence, and support for younger artists of all kinds. A true elder of the West Coast scene, with her Afro-Canadian and First Nations heritage proudly to the fore, this musical stalwart has helped stage countless charity programs, including the annual Blues for Christmas events at the Commodore Ballroom, and wonderfully eclectic shows (often with her bass-playing partner, Owen), such as East Van Morrison, with local musicians retweaking tunes by Van the Man. In 2015, she was named a Master Blue Artist in the international Blues Hall of Fame.
Luke Doucet
Lead guitar and harmony vocals on Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Website
Wikipedia
Guitar
Player
Known as a killer guitar-slinger for Sarah McLachlan (without forgetting his surf-rockin’ band called Veal), the Halifax-born, Winnipeg-raised Luke Doucet came into his own with original songs on Blood’s Too Rich and several superb, twang-heavy records with the band named after his main guitar, White Falcon. Singing and playing in tandem with equally talented partner Melissa McClelland, Luke’s main outlet is now the prize-winning duo called Whitehorse, which finds the twosome playing and singing their hard-driving tunes on a stage full of instruments. Their latest album is 2015’s No Bridge Unburned.
Jim Byrnes
Vocals on 42nd Street and 100 Years From Today
Website
Wikipedia
YouTube
A singer, guitarist, actor, and all-around performer of overwhelming authority, Jim Byrnes is a consummate bluesman and musical raconteur with an unparalleled track record in the U.S., Canada, and abroad. Born in gritty St. Louis, Missouri, Jim made Vancouver his home in the mid-1970s, and has been its chief ambassador for the blues ever since, while also making equally convincing forays into country, swing, and even show tunes. A killer guitarist and raconteur with a gravelly baritone voice, this born performer had zero trouble segueing into acting, with leading character parts on series like Highlander, Wiseguy, Neon Rider, and Da Vinci’s Ciity Hall, as well as many roles in motion pictures and plays. He’s been the host of his own nationally syndicated TV variety show and, of course, can’t be kept off the radio, with Roundhouse Radio his latest adventure in blues-tinted deejaying. JB’s most recent album, produced by old touring pal Steve Dawson, is St. Louis Times, celebrating his Missouri childhood and earliest musical heroes.
Chloe Feoranzo
Clarinet on Comes Love and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Website
YouTube
Bandcamp
Still in her early 20s, clarinet wizard Chloe Feoranzo cut her teeth playing in Dixieland bands throughout the U.S., and won numerous youth awards in her native California, and also had the chance to jam with modern-jazz greats like Wayne Shorter and Dixieland revivalists all over the U.S. before heading off to university. Also a dab hand with the ukulele and tenor sax, and a budding singer as well, she’s been touring in recent years with the western-swing band of singer Pokey LaFarge, appearing on may TV and radio programs, such as A Prairie Home Companion and The Late Show With David Letterman.
Michael Friedman
Vocals, arrangement, and guitar on Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Website
YouTube
YouTube
Dividing his time between Canada and Germany, singer-songwriter Michael Freidman grew up in Vancouver and Cold War-era East Berlin, where his father went to study choral conducting. After returning to Vancouver (where his family was known for hosting such traveling luminaries as Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and Leon Bibb), he got a gig composing for CBC-TV, started working in the folk trio FFM, and kept developing his own songs for solo voice and acoustic guitar, increasingly focusing on the unusual tunings that would make him a mainstay of guitar festivals (alongside such string-pullers as Don Ross and Don Alder) and teaching workshops. Michael’s latest CD, the facetiously titled Random Acts of Tuning, produced by Kerry Galloway and featuring Peggy Lee on cello, was recently released.
Robben Ford
Vocals and electric guitar on Comes Love and Fear Itself
Website
Wikipedia
YouTube
One of the world’s top guitarists, bar none, Robben Ford defies category. The lifelong Californian, now based near Santa Barbara, got his education with blues masters Gary Smith, Charlie Musselwhite, and Jimmy Witherspoon. In the 1970s and ‘80s, he toured with artists as varied as Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, and Miles Davis, and has since kept up musical relationships with fellow genre-benders such as Larry Carlton, with whom he has recorded several live dates. With roughly 20 albums under his name, he continues to astonish with his versatile chops, which sometimes embrace hard rock, singer-songwriter melodicism, and spare funk, as on 2013’s Bringing It Back Home, which combines all his interests in one unvarnished album.
Hugh Fraser
Trombone on Love For Sale and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Website
Vancouver
Jazz
Wikipedia
Canadian
Encyclopedia
A trombone player’s ‘bone player, Victoria-born Hugh Fraser has played and studied with a litany of greats, including Dave Holland, Jaki Byard, Dave Liebman, Don Thompson, and Kenny Wheeler. And he has led his own outfits, most notably the Hugh Fraser Quartet, which won a Juno in 1988, and the long-running Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation, or VEJI. After helming more than 15 albums, his latest is 2012’s Concerto.
Cecile LaRochelle
Vocals on Mood Indigo and Gone With The Wind
Website
CDBaby
As a singer, Cecile LaRochelle has backed countless artists while living in Florida, California, Texas, New York, and Nashville. In Vancouver, she is best known as a prized vocal coach whose patience, playfulness, and contagious musicality have helped nurture hundreds of other performers. She is also a busy choir leader, whose groups have been enjoyed at numerous Jazz Vespers in Vancouver churches and elsewhere.
Clive Goodinson
Vocals on Let’s Face the Music and Dance
Pixton
UK-born Clive Goodinson became known for his quirkily original songwriting and smoothly controlled tenor voice in the Vancouver alternative-music scene of the 1990s. He released one nifty EP before moving to lovely Vancouver Island and pursuing parenthood as well as innovative computer-software design with his partner, Daina Goodinson. Their main invention, a click-and-drag comic-book art system called PIXTON, was just purchased by the Ontario public-school system!
David Liebman
Tenor saxophone on Gone With The Wind and soprano sax on Let’s Face The Music and Dance
Website
All Music
YouTube
Officially dubbed an American Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011, saxophonist supreme David Liebman blazed new trails—especially on the soprano sax—with Miles Davis in On The Corner and other funk-based projects before distinguishing himself with classically inflected, composition-heavy recordings and tours with artists like Richie Beirach, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Mike Nock, McCoy Tyner and many others. As Artistic Director of the International Schools of Jazz, and a veteran of master classes all over the world, he has directly affected several generations of top musicians.
Nina Miranda
Vocals on Flamingo
Website
Wikipedia
YouTube
Born in Brazil, and raised in the mountains above Rio de Janeiro, Nina Miranda grew up in London, England and drew on both musical cultures (and the art of both painterly parents) in numerous bands, including the popular Smoke City, which yielded the worldwide hit “Underwater Love”—itself used for a famous Levi’s campaign directed by Michel Gondry. A dynamic stage performer, she has sung with artists as diverse as Sting, Daniel Jobim, Nitin Sawhney, Jah Wobble, and Bebel Gilberto, whose recording of Nina’s song “Tanto Tempo” was an international hint. She recorded with other groups, including the cool collective Da Lata and ambient bands Zeep and Shrift, released on San Francisco’s groove-minded Six Degrees label, and she’s currently working on her first solo CD, of mostly original compositions, made flesh by top musicians versed in African, Brazilian, and English-pop traditions.
Harry Manx
Slide guitar on I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore
Website
Wikipedia
YouTube
A restless innovator on slide guitar and all manner of stringed instruments, Harry Manx is world famous for his fusion of folk, blues, and Indian elements. Born on the Isle of Man, he moved to Canada as a child and later bummed around Europe and Japan, where he got seriously exposed to Indian music, and to the mohan veena, the 20-string, guitar-like instrument he alternates with banjo, dobro, and cigar-box guitar. After more study in India, he returned to Canada, eventually settling in Salt Spring Island, where he has his own studio and, one imagines, a whole lot of replacement strings. Harry has recorded 14 albums, the most recent of which is 2015’s aptly titled 20 Strings and the Truth.
Brad Muirhead
Euphonium on Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Website
YouTube
YouTube
A big man with a lot of brass where it counts, Vancouver’s Brad Muirhead is your man for horns at the bottom end of the orchestral spectrum. As part of his own groups, such as the rockin’ Brass Roots and free-jazzy Primal Orbit, and larger ensembles, like The Now Orchestra and Hugh Fraser’s VEJI, he has hauled his tuba, sousaphone, bass trombone, and slightly smaller euphonium—here taking the bass part in our New Orleans-styled number—all over Europe and North America. (He’s got himself some muscles by now.) An active arranger, performer, and educator, he has launched numerous projects under his company monicker, Crass Brutes.
Jeff Narell
Steel drum and percussion on Rain
Website
iTunes
YouTube
A master of the Caribbean steel drum, Berkeley, California-based Jeff Narell has been fine-tuning his pan work since the age of 11, while growing up in New York, where his social-worker dad introduced Jeff and younger brother Andy to the new world of tuned steel drums, invented by Caribbean musicians with the effluvia of World War II. As adept on all manner of lain and African percussion, Jeff has lived in Hawaii and toured the world, performing and recording with artists like Bobby McFerrin, George Benson, and The Grateful Dead. He has contributed to many film and theatre scores and is a mainstay of music festivals in Trinidad and elsewhere. Through the San Francisco Symphony Education Department, this avid and outgoing music teacher has brought pan music to literally thousands of students and amateur players. His eclectic new solo CD, Sirocco, is now available on iTunes.
Paul Myers
Duet vocals on Plenty of Money and You, harmonies on Rain and 100 Years From Today
Wikipedia
Bandcamp
YouTube
A writer, broadcaster, humourist, and force to be reckoned with in all forms of social media, Paul Myers is also an accomplished guitarist, singer-songwriter, and untethered electronic experimentalist, as heard here. Born on Toronto and now living in Berkeley, California, across the Bay from good ol’ San Francisco, he’s also an influential writer, having penned musical biographies of Long John Baldry, Todd Rundgren, and The Barenaked Ladies, appearing in documentaries about those and other artists. He’s also part of an active power-pop duo called The Paul and John (with fellow singer-guitarist John Moorman), and their most recent album, named after one of SF’s nicer neighbourhoods, is Inner Sunset.
Jordan Officer
Acoustic slide guitar on Mood Indigo
Website
Wikipedia
YouTube
One of the most compelling guitarists of today, this thoughtful Quebecer became widely known as the breakout star of The Susie Arioli Band Featuring Jordan Officer. His spare, cutting sound, marshalling sounds of the big Gibsons and tiny amplifiers of the swing era, helped sell a quarter-million albums and countless jazz-festival shows over a 12-year period. Since heading out on his own, Jordan toured France and moved to New York City, the better to turn up some rockabilly heat on his blues-tinged playing. He subsequently headed back to Montreal, which recently saw the release of his latest solo album, Blue Skies.
Colleen Rennison
Vocals on Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Wikipedia
Black Hen Music
No Sinner
A soulful singer and magnetic performer equally at home belting out blues or modern rock ‘n’ roll with her band No Sinner (a palindrome for her last name), Colleen is also a highly accomplished actor. Starting before the age of seven, she appeared in many TV series, commercials, and motion pictures. She won a Gemini award at the age of 13, and later moved to New York to further her training. Now back in Vancouver, she has been busy recording with studio wizard Steve Dawson and country-blues hero Jim Byrnes. In 2013, she starred in Ben Ratner’s Deep River, playing, you know, a troubled rock star.
Paul Pigat
Acoustic and electric guitars on Plenty of Money and You, 100 Years from Today, and We’re In The Money/Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Website
YouTube
YouTube
An unrivalled master of swing, blues, rockabilly, and Chet Atkins-style guitar, Paul Pigat is like 12 guitarists in one. A Gretsch endorsee who is equally at home on a Telecaster or mahogany parlour guitar, Paul has Travis-picked and blues-bended his way through countless gigs with singers Jakob Dylan, Neko Case, Carolyn Mark, he is a touring mainstay Jim Byrnes and The Sojourners, whose latest album he also produced. At the same time, he’s rarely had a break from his primary solo vehicle, the rockabilly freight train known as Cousin Harley. And he has a slightly mellower side project called Boxcar Campfire, in which he gets to indulge his sometimes surprisingly scholarly love for, well, every kind of music there is.
Tom Pickett
Vocals on Temptatio
YouTube
A master of stagecraft, Tom Pickett has starred in countless musical theatre works, both Broadway-based and R&B-oriented, and has played supporting characters in motion pictures, including Love Happens, Personal Effects, and Percy Jackson and The Olympians. Tom grew up in Berkeley, California (making that university town home, at some point, to at least four of this album’s participants), toured the world with musicians in the U.S. Navy, was part of the jazz an theatre scene in London, England, before settling in B.C., where he’s been a mainstay of musicals such as Five Guys Named Moe and Bah, Humbug!, which has also featured Jim Byrnes over the years. Tom’s also a highly valued educator, passing on what he learned from his father, a doo-wop singer in The Original Four Aces.
Tim Tweedale
Pedal-steel guitar on Flamingo
Tim began his journey with the ukulele as a seven-year-old in Vancouver and has been hooked ever since. A wiz on dobro, bottleneck guitar, and all slide-worthy string instruments, he’s best known for his celestial pedal-steel playing, as demonstrated here, on the challenging “Flamingo”. As a pro player, he has recorded and toured throughout North America and Europe with bands Headwater, Viper Central and Sarah MacDougall. Tim has a passion for teaching, sharing the music he loves and inspiring students to discover their unique relationship to music. Especially for the son of a minister, he also has a wicked sense of humour.
The Sojourners
Lead vocals on I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore and harmonies on Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Website
Black Hen
Myspace
A gospel-minded trio at home in the blues, folk songs of all stripes, protest tunes from ears past and present, and down-home church music, The Sojourners currently consist of mainstays Marcus Mosely and Will Sanders plus versatile younger singer-songwriter Khari Wendell McClelland—Vancouverites all, but originally hailing from Texas, Louisiana, and Michigan, respectively. Having recorded and toured extensively with guitar great Steve Dawson, they have more recently been featuring our pal Paul Pigat on electrifying axe duties. Each singer also fronts compelling solo projects, with Marcus best known for his long-running Gospel Choral workshops.
Ron Sexsmith
Vocals on Rain
Website
Wikipedia
Allmusic
A singer and songwriter for the ages, Canada’s beloved Ron Sexsmith has written too many killer songs to list here, but tunes like “Hard Bargain” and “Secret Heart” have been covered by stars as varied as Feist, Emmy-Lou Harris, and Rod Stewart. This restless inventor has 14 studio albums under his own name (Carousel One is the latest), along with many other contributions to other artists, including Kurt Swinghammer and Lori Cullen, on their recent Sexsmith Swinghammer Songs. He was the subject of the documentary Love Shines and his songs have appeared in movies and TV series. Ron says that Bing Crosby is his all-time favourite singer.
Jesse Zubot
Violin on Rain, Plenty of Money and You
Website
Wikipedia
YouTube
Based in B.C.’s beautiful Britannia Beach, fiddler supremo Jesse Zubot came to prominence alongside guitarist Steve Dawson in the Juno-winning Zubot and Dawson. He’s been part of bands like the “post-everything” Fond of Tigers and Great Uncles of the Revolution, and played on sessions and stages with folks as varied as Evan Parker, Dan Mangan, Kelly Joe Phelps, Kathryn Calder, Stars, Henry Kaiser, and The Be Good Tanyas. Named Producer of the Year at the 2015 Western Canadian Music Awards, our own JZ has helmed studio work for artists such as Alpha Yaya Diallo, Ndidi Onukwulu, and sensational throat singer Tanya Tagaq. The versatile violinist has also won kudos and awards for his atmospheric soundtracks to films including Two Lovers and a Bear, Koneline: Our Land Beautiful, and Hector and the Search for Happiness.
Geoff Hicks
Drums on Temptation, Rain, I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore, With Plenty of Money and You and Let’s Face the Music and Dance
Website
YouTube
YouTube
One of the most versatile drummers working anywhere today, Vancouver’s Geoff Hicks is the go-to guy for roots, rock, swing, and blues. The Manitoba-born beatmaster has more than 50 recordings in his discography, and has performed frequently with B.C.-based artists like Barney Bentall, Bob Kemmis, Craig Northey, and Bocephus King, as well as many of the players featured on this album, including Jim Byrnes, The Sojourners, and Harry Manx. Geoff has been part of the Colin James Band for more than a decade, and is also a talented actor and voice-over artist—all that on top of being one of the nicest and most well-read guys around.
Raphael Geronimo
Percussion on 42nd Street, Flamingo, Comes Love and Gone With The Wind
Noteable
Rumba Calzada
YouTube
Bandleader, composer, frontman, and percussionist of many colours learned a lot about Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms from his late father, Boying Geronimo, who was a key figure in opening up then-quiet B.C. to outside sounds. Raph furthered his studies in Havana and New York City, and subsequently performed with artists as varied as Chris Tarry, Delhi 2 Dublin, Soul Stream, Vince Mai, Silk Road, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Vancouverites, as well as international jazz festivalgoers, know him best as leader and musical director for the band Rumba Calzada.
Dan Parry
Drums on 42nd Street, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Gone With The Wind, and Flamingo
A versatile drummer, composer, and producer, Dan resides in the sunny Okanagan where he stays active producing, engineering and drumming. His studio, called Sparrowhead Music, operates as an audio-instruction facility as well as a hub for local and international recording acts. He also has a thing for barbecue, which never hurts.
Website
Wikipedia
Simon Kendall
Accordion or melodica on Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Comes Love, and Let’s Face the Music and Dance
Website
YouTube
Johannes Grames
Bouzouki on “Temptation”
YouTube
Along with younger siblings Panos and Dinos, plus drummer Randall Stoll, Johannes (pronounced Yonas) was part of the longstanding Grames Brothers, a core piece of the Vancouver music-scene firmament. One of the most versatile guitarists (and guitar teachers) in town, Johannes also plays the bouzouki, a lute-like instrument, in various Greek traditional and rebetika bands. He’s also an avid golfer, winning top honours in paralympic competitions in Canada, the U.S., and South Africa. In 2015, he was nominated for Sport B.C’s Master Athlete of the Year Award. He likes chess, too.
Rene Worst
Acoustic bass on 42nd Street, Flamingo, Comes Love, Gone With The Wind, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Temptation, Let’s Face the Music, Rain, I Ain’t Got No Home, and Love For Sale
Website
YouTube
YouTube
It would be easier to list the jazz greats the very upright Rene Worst has not played with. But aside from his groundbreaking work with the fusion band Skywalk, as player and producer, and ongoing travels with his partner, Vancouver’s beloved singer-pianist Jennifer Scott, our busiest bass player—who was actually born in New Guinea—managed to fit in gigs over the years with Chet Baker, Joe Pass, Rene Rosnes, Don Thompson, and Freddie Hubbard, along with many other jazz greats. Among other recent recordings, Rene has two collections of duets with pianist Miles Black.