Coming up this Sunday, September 29th at 7:00pm at the Fort Garry Hotel, Jazz Winnipeg will be presenting their third installment of How to Listen to Jazz Series.
This is a terrific series that is back by popular demand. One part history lesson, and two parts musical performance. How to Listen to Jazz presents local performers in themed concerts that focus on composers and their instruments from the rich tradition of jazz. Two musical sets, each centered around a specific composer, will be interspersed with educational anecdotes, stories, and historical context to help develop the audience’s ability to appreciate and understand the music and its history.
This Sunday’s show is all about the bass. It will center on one legend of jazz, bassist Ray Brown and one current jazz giant, bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding.
Performing and talking about these two bassy giants will be Winnipeg bassist Lindsay Woolgar. Originally from Edmonton, Woolgar now lives in Winnipeg and can be seen performing on both upright and electric bass in many forms of music. Lindsay is a member of Winnipeg-based bands Juvel, French Class, and the Grey Jays and has recorded and toured with artists such as Ben Sures, Matt Foster, Billie Zizi, Bobby Dove and Jess Rae.
She is the perfect person to perform and present music inspired by Ray Brown and Esperanza Spalding. This show coming up on Sunday is going to be amazing!
Both Brown and Spalding have been huge influences on Woolgar's playing and career.
Woolgar grew up listening to a Verve compilation of Ray Brown tunes that was compiled by another legendary bass player Christian McBride. The name of the disc was Ultimate Ray Brown. As Woolgar says, “That was a formative record that got me into playing and listening to jazz. Because of that disc, those tunes were some of the first tunes I transcribed and some of the first tunes I really dug into. I love Ray Brown’s sound. I love how he propels the band. I love how he is always a little bit on top of the time. It creates such a joyful propulsive feeling...that is what I am trying to emulate when I am playing a walking bass line.”
The music of Esperanza Spalding was introduced to Woolgar when she heard Spalding’s self-titled album Esperanza in around 2009. Woolgar was completely blown away by the disc and was lucky enough to come to personally know and learn from Spalding.
In 2013 Woolgar took part in the Banff International Jazz Workshop, where Spalding was teaching. Spalding would end up writing a piece for Woolgar to sing and play. As Woolgar explains, “There Must be a Reason...this is a song she gave me when I was at the workshop. She wrote it while we were there. I have never performed it and there is no recording of it because she wrote it for me to play and sing. I am going to be playing that on Sunday night for the first time.”
There are going to be several tunes of both Ray Brown and Esperanza Spalding that Woolgar and her band will be performing. This music will add to the lecture part of the performance, where Woolgar will discuss the importance of these two greats of jazz.
Joining Woolgar on stage will be Kevin Waters on drums, Carter Graham on piano, Niall Cade on saxophone, and singer Gabriela Ocejo.
This is going to be a fantastic lecture and performance, and Woolgar has some easily attainable goals for the audience. “I hope they [the audience] get a little bit more appreciation of the bass and the job that it does, and I hope that it inspires them to check out some records by Ray Brown and Esperanza Spalding. I love playing the bass. I just want to share that with the people of Winnipeg and whoever comes out and sees this gig.”
There is sure no better way to enter the world of jazz bass than by entering the sonic realms of these two spectacular musicians!
For more information of Jazz Winnipeg's presentation of "How To Listen to Jazz: The Music of Ray Brown and Esperanza Spalding" with Lindsay Woolgar click here
