Jessie Ryan / Joanna Majoko

Jesse Ryan & Joanna Majoko at Hugh's Room, 296 Broadview. 

Door at 7pm, Show at 8pm

$25 in advance, $30 at the door

Trinidadian-born Jesse Ryan is a saxophonist and composer with a keen interested in the connections between jazz and afro-Caribbean musical traditions and communicating transcendent ideas through his music.

His compositions are ambitious and his enchanting sound tells, that he is set to take Caribbean jazz out of its niche of ethnic fusion, and into the mainstream.

Ryan’s JUNO-nominated debut album Bridges is “…an aural explosion of stellar musicianship, that incorporates his explorations of his own cultural roots, expertise in the modern jazz idiom and elements of the sacred, embellished with joyful Trini flourishes. — Medium Magazine, 2020.

He’s the 2020 recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award - an award that puts a spotlight on emerging jazz musicians with a keen sense of the grand tradition behind jazz music, while putting their own stamp on the genre and the Toronto music scene with their unique style and approach.

Ryan grew up in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago surrounded by a rich heritage of music and is the grandson of one of the islands’ calypso veteran, the late Clifton Ryan, aka the “Mighty Bomber”.

Ryan studied at Berklee College of Music, Boston and Humber College, Toronto where he received a B.Mus. Degree in Contemporary Music. He has performed performed and recorded with Rachel Therrien, Amhed Mitchel, Larnell Lewis, Joy Lapps-Lewis, Daniel Barnes, Jojo Bowden, and Alex Bird. He’s been commissioned as a composer by the Nathaniel Dett Chorale to write the Virtues Suite for jazz quintet, string quartet and chorale.

Ryan’s curiosity about the saxophone and musical development inspired him to create the Keep Taking Ground Saxophone Podcast - a new and exciting podcast for the professional and aspiring professional saxophonist, that features conversations with in-demand and award-winning saxophonists from around the world and across jazz and contemporary styles.

Also featured at this show special guest Joanna Majoko.

For many Canadian music fans, the name Joanna Majoko is a familiar one: the Toronto-based vocalist, composer, and bandleader has established a reputation as one of Canada’s most exciting young singers. Majoko has been a regular presence on the bandstand with some of the country’s top musicians, including Jane Bunnet and Maqueque, David Clayton-Thomas, of Blood, Sweat and Tears, and Larnell Lewis, of Snarky Puppy. Majoko has also been the recipient of a number of notable accolades, including Emerging Jazz Artist at the 2021 Toronto Arts Foundation awards, Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2019 ByBlacks People’s Choice Awards, major grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council, and FACTOR, and has been a master class artist at Humber College and the University of Toronto.

This performance is part of a curated series supported by Ontario Creates. Jesse Ryan's performance has been curated by Michael Occhipinti as one of five in a series of "Canadian Originals in Jazz."

 

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