Bass

It has not taken Esperanza Spalding long to emerge as one of the brightest lights in the musical world. Listeners familiar with her stunning 2008 Heads Up International debut, Esperanza, and her best-selling 2010 release Chamber Music Society, were well aware that the young bassist, vocalist and composer from Portland, Oregon was the real deal, with a unique and style-spanning presence, deeply rooted in jazz yet destined to make her mark far beyond the jazz realm.

Concerts

Esperanza Spalding Radio Music Society

Thu Jun 28 8:00pm

Mainstage Concerts

Buy Ticket: Ticketmaster

$42.50 includes HST

Toronto Star Stage at Nathan Phillips Square

Justin Gray is a rising star acoustic and electric bass player, composer and band leader in the international music scene. His main influences include jazz, North Indian classical and contemporary music.

Bootsy Collins is best known as the bassist for Parliament/Funkadelic and leader of Bootsy's Rubberband in the late 70's.

Bootsy got into music long before he became a part of Parliament/Funkadelic. Growing up in Cincinnati OH, he started playing guitar and bass at an early age. When he was 14 he led a band that did recording sessions at Kings Records with Charles Spurling.

Amid endless choices, the sound of a Dave Holland bass line compels attention. A master of tone and rhythm, the bassist, composer, and bandleader is now in his fifth decade as a performer and his music possesses a rich and kaleidoscopic history. His path has led him from the frontiers of free improvisation to his modern ensembles that fully embody the Sam Rivers-instilled philosophy of “playing all of it.” The Wolverhampton, England, native got his big break from Miles Davis, with whom he played during the trumpet legend’s epochal Bitches Brew period.

Dave Young (Bass) with Kevin Turcotte (Trumpet), Perry White (Sax), Gary Williamson (Piano) and Terry Clarke (Drums).

Multiple award-winning bassist, composer and Order of Canada recipient, Dave Young, is, without a doubt, one of Canada's most valuable and beloved musical exports. Whether performing as part of a symphony, or as an integral member of an iconic jazz trio (with the likes of the late Oscar Peterson), or leading any of his dynamic ensembles, Dave remains a total musician, with artistic soul in abundance.

1993 Juno Award - "Best Mainstream Jazz Recording"
"Acoustic Bassist of the Year" - 1996, 1997 & 1998
"Musician of the Year" - 1997 & 1998
"Bassist of the Year" - 2003 & 2004

Bassist, composer, author and educator Mike Downes has earned a reputation as one of Canada's finest jazz artists.

The third new release, Halcyon Science 130410 (Barnyard 323), features the electroacoustic improvisation quintet of Evan Shaw (alto saxophone), Nicole Rampersaud (trumpet), Jean Martin (drums and laptop), Wes Neal (double bass), and Tomasz Krakowiak (percussion). This studio recording is made up of intelligent and inspired compositions by Shaw and Rampersaud, and deft ensemble improvisations that draw on the lateral influence of science fiction as readily as they do that of their most obvious (but far from sole) musical forbear, jazz.