Jazz at The Registry
– end of the 5th season
Festival of Jazz, as the concert was called, consisted of 3
well-know and much admired artists: duo of Kevin Ramessar and
Matt Lima, Tim Louis Trio and Dave Wiffen Quartet. It is hard to
decide which one was the most engaging as the audience applauded
and no one left until the concert ended at 11 p.m.
Ramessar played at The Registry last winter and a warm
welcome was awaiting his performance. Tim Louis is
triple-talented: a singer, songwriter and pianist. He is elegant
in his charm and style, his 2009 CD “Untrue” a fine collection
of original compositions, full of energy, hunger and unexpected
depth. Dave Wiffen Quartet is a wonderful combination of a
singer (who is Dave himself), a pianist – Nancy Walker, -
Kieran Overs and Ted Warrens who also has his own
quartet. Although this was the last concert of the season we
were assured the artists will come back, be it next time at The
Registry or for that matter to The Jazz Room in Waterloo. Which
brings me to ...
The Grand River Jazz Society
A new venue is coming to our cities – The Jazz Room in Waterloo.
The plan is to offer jazz concerts on a regular basis twice a
week, on Friday and Saturday nights at the Huether Hotel in
Waterloo. The initiative came from Stephen Preece, a music
aficionado of both classic and modern, who had it in mind for a
while. The arrangement with Huether Hotel has been firmed up,
the stage constructed and the space designated for about 130
people. The plan is to feature local artists on Fridays – and
apparently Larry Larson, Dave Wiffen, Tim Louis and Andrey
Tikhonov have already been booked – and out-of-town musicians
from Toronto and beyond on Saturdays.
The flyer of the inaugural season was distributed last Saturday
at the packed Jazz Festival concert at the Registry. It sure
looks like there is plenty of interest: the Registry Theatre
sold out each time they held the concert, the city of Waterloo
parking lot was full of enthusiasts during July’s Jazz Festival.
The full list is available on
www.kwjazzroom.com.
Looking forward to it!
Other musical events worth noting:
Nota Bene period orchestra is celebrating their tenth
anniversary in October with a selection of works featured in
previous concerts. There are plans for 3 concerts in 2011-2012
season.
KW Chamber Music Society is closing their year in June with
quintets of Mozart and Beethoven with James Mason on Oboe and
Peter Shackleton on clarinet. June 1st marks the start of 6
concerts of Quartetfest and others will follow. The super
tickets are on sale, the list of Summer and Fall concerts are
available on www.k-wwcms.com
or by picking up flyers at a variety of locations including
Vincenzo’s.
Coming in July is the Waterloo Jazz Festival and in August the
Blues Festival in Kitchener. It is hard to believe how music
rich this community is! Enjoy it!
Irena Syrokomla reviews arts, entertainment, the
performing arts such as theatre, musicals, stage performances.
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