How To Listen To Jazz | Music of Bud Powell + Bill Evans with Will Bonness

Back by popular demand, we're thrilled to announce the return of our How To Listen To Jazz series.

One part history lesson and two parts musical performance, this series of How To Listen To Jazz presents local jazz performers in themed concerts that focus on composers and instruments from the rich tradition of jazz music. Two musical sets, each centred around a specific composer, will be interspersed with educational anecdotes, stories, and historical context to help develop the audience’s ability to appreciate and understand the music and its history.

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to learn how to listen to jazz with some of Winnipeg’s favourite musicians!

Presented by The Asper Foundation

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Winner of the 2022 JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year (solo), and Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2022 Western Canada Music Awards, Will Bonness was called “one of finest jazz pianist of his generation” by Monk Competition winner Jon Gordon. He has been active on the international jazz scene for two decades and has performed at many of the major jazz festivals in Canada and the United States, as well as in the world’s most prestigious venues, with such luminaries as Jon Gordon, Avishai Cohen, Quincy Davis, Jimmy Greene, and Derrick Gardner. Locally, he can often be seen performing with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. Will has four releases to his credit: Subtle Fire (2009), Halcyon (2016), Change of Plans (2020), and Is This a Dream? (2023).

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American jazz pianist and composer. A pioneer in the development of bebop and its associated contributions to jazz theory, Powell's application of complex phrasing to the piano influenced both his contemporaries and later pianists including Walter Davis, Jr., Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Barry Harris.

William John Evans was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continue to influence jazz pianists today.