Volume 28 Issue 4 | February - March 2023

JAZZ NOTES
The Soft-Seat Beat
A Tale of Three Halls
COLIN STORY
JOHN WATSON
Terri Lyne Carrington
Of the many things that music audiences have regained
in the 2022/2023 concert season, the most valuable
may be the very concept of a “season” in and of itself.
No longer must we sit, nails bitten to the quick, waiting
for the inevitable notification that the concert – that very
special concert to which we’ve looked forward for so long
– has been suddenly and unceremoniously cancelled in the
wake of the latest round of lockdown regulations.
Now, well on the other side of our first post-COVID holiday season,
we can confidently purchase tickets, mark dates in our calendars and
rest assured that nothing will come between us and an evening of
beautiful music (except the usual calamities: snowstorms, professional
turmoil and the grim realization that we’ve become our parents).
Terri Lyne Carrington in town
One of the unexpected joys of this year has been the return of the
post-secondary music-program concert as a major event. Toronto’s
major classical and jazz programs have a full itinerary of events on
the books, taking place both at the schools themselves and at many
of the city’s main art-music venues. Students from the University
of Toronto’s jazz program perform regularly on Monday nights at
The Rex as part of their small-ensemble credit, students of all ages
regularly perform in small and large ensembles at U of T and free
masterclasses happen most weeks, featuring local and international
musicians coaching students and performing. Each year, however,
U of T also brings in a visiting artist for a week, a musician of some
international renown to work with students, host masterclasses, and
perform in a culminating concert. This year, that artist is drummer
Terri Lyne Carrington.
A Berklee professor; a veteran of bands led by the likes of Dizzy
Gillespie, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock; the recipient of
multiple Grammy awards and nominations (including two separate
entries in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category at this year’s
upcoming ceremony): Carrington has consistently worked at the
centre of the jazz world since the beginning of her decades-long
career. At this stage in her career, she is as invested in mentoring
the next generation of jazz musicians as she is in performing; she is
the founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and
Gender Justice, the artistic director for Berklee Summer Session’s
Women’s Performance Program, and she plays as regularly with young
musicians like esperanza spalding, Matthew Stevens and Kris Davis.
After two days of masterclasses – both of which, in the late afternoon
on March 6 and 7, appear to be open to the public – the even
better news is that you can check out Carrington in concert with the U
of T Jazz Orchestra at 7:30pm on March 8 at U of T’s Walter Hall. What
to expect: an evening of exceptional drumming; a band that will likely
be inspired, driven and enthusiastic about playing with a rhythmsection
luminary; and a lot of undergraduate whooping.
Cécile McLorin Salvant
On the subject of award winners: at 8pm on March 30, Cécile
McLorin Salvant performs at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall on
the heels of her 2022 Nonesuch records release, Ghost Song. Selected
by Glenn Gould Foundation Prize-winner Jessye Norman in 2019, to
receive the Protégé Prize that goes with the Glenn Gould Prize, Salvant –
a composer, singer and visual artist – has been in the concert-hall spotlight
since winning the Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition in 2010.
(Though still pretty much universally called the Monk Competition,
the award is now known as the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz’s
International Competition.) Amongst Salvant’s other accolades: three
Grammy awards, DownBeat Critics’ Poll Awards and a 2020 MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship. Salvant’s extraordinary technique works in
14 | February & March, 2023 thewholenote.com