Beverly Taft
Although she loves the sweet melodies and hot rhythms of this music, Beverly's main goal is to communicate the essence of the song and its story to audiences. She's always learning more about the music and lyrics of the jazz age, and what they have to teach us about life and love. These ideals - and 21st century life experience - inform her own lyric writing, in her song-writing partnership with guitarist Nathan Hiltz.
She's performed at a wide range of venues at home and as far afield as Japan, including: The Rex Jazz & Blues Bar, The Dominion on Queen, The Distillery Historic District, The Gladstone Hotel, The Montreal Bistro, U of T's "Friday Jazz at Oscar's" Series, and jazz festivals in Barrie, Markham, Muskoka, Orangeville, Orillia, Peterborough, Southampton, and beyond, as well as The Celebrate Toronto Street Festival, and the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, to name a few. Recent highlights include a six night run for Beverly's quartet in the Canadian National Exhibition Wine Garden, and a feature performance with guitarist Tony Quarrington in the Fresh Wednesdays Concert Series at City Hall.
Beverly's repertoire spans five decades and a few continents, and in addition to leading her own "straight ahead and swingin'" jazz combo, she's involved in several different musical ventures, including "The Bossa Nova Project", "Murata, Quarrington and Taft", "Beverly and her Swell Fellas", and a french music group that she calls "Les Chansonnettes".
You might also catch Beverly singing arrangements of swing and blues standards with Mitch Beube's 9 piece Swing Band as well as the York Jazz Ensemble (YJE). Both groups feature stellar horn sections, fun arrangements (including some commissioned by Beverly for these groups), and a polished stage show. Beverly joins the Mitch Beube Swing Band in Muskoka in the summer months, where they've performed at venues like Bigwin Island, The Gravenhurst Opera House, The Muskoka Lakes Golf and Country Club, and The Rene Caisse Theatre. In Toronto Beverly performs with YJE throughout the year at various public venues and private events, and she's also sung with the 18 piece Megacity Big Band, as well as Jaymz Bee's Royal Jelly Orchestra.
A dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, Beverly made her Los Angeles debut to a full house at Orange County's Spaghettini Restaurant with L.A. players Ron Levy (piano) and Bruce Lett (bass player for Jack Sheldon) in spring 2006. Later that year, she travelled to San Francisco to perform at the San Francisco Design Center, for Microsoft's year-end party. In fall 2007, and again in spring 2008, Beverly performed with the Michael Royal Trio at the East Village Cabaret in Sarasota, Florida. In late spring 2008, Beverly and violinist San Murata toured Japan with Kyushu-based saxophonist Ken G, performing eight shows in seven cities, in seven days. Since then, Beverly has written lyrics for one of Ken G's original songs, and she also featured Ken G with her band at several gigs at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival in '09, and was joined by him in 2011 when he returned to Toronto for the Jazz Fest. In Spring 2010, Beverly travelled to Paris to prepare for a Jazz Fest show with Les Chansonnettes. In December 2011, she's back to San Fran to perform for a Microsoft party, this time with a speak-easy theme, at the gorgeous Regency Center Ballroom, accompanied by sax, trombone, trumpet, piano, bass & drums.
Beverly's first CD, "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" (now sold out), described as a "charming collection" by the National Post, received worldwide airplay - from Argentina to Tasmania! - when it first came out, and can still be heard on radio, thanks to Jazz FM 91.1, and CBC Radio across Canada.
In addition to public performances, Beverly is busy providing entertainment for private and corporate clients as well as charitable organizations throughout the city. Read more about Beverly's entertainment services here, You'll also find photos, audio and video here, but the best way to experience Beverly's interpretations of this music is to come to a live show.
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