International Jazz Day: Caity Gyorgy

ABOUT CAITY GYORGY

Caity Gyorgy:

Caity Gyorgy (pronounced George) is a JUNO award winning Canadian vocalist who is known for singing bebop and swing music. She has performed at popular clubs and jazz festivals across Canada and the USA and has worked and recorded with incredible musicians and groups including Christine Jensen, Pat LaBarbera, Jocelyn Gould, Ira Coleman, Allison Au, Bryn Roberts and Postmodern Jukebox, to name a few.

In addition to performing, Caity is also an avid writer and composes songs in the style of the Great American Songbook. Her compositions have been sung by other vocalists around the world, and she was recently named the Grand Prize Winner of the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the Jazz category for her song "Secret Safe”. 

She has released several albums of original and standard music. On July 9th, 2021 she released “Now Pronouncing”, her JUNO winning EP of original music arranged for large ensemble on Brooklyn based label La Reserve. She released her debut full length LP "Featuring” on La Reserve on November 4th, 2022, and her next album "You’re Alike, You Two”, a collection of Jerome Kern songs performed with pianist Mark Limacher, will be released on July 21st, 2023.

Sanah Kadoura:

JUNO nominated Lebanese-Canadian drummer, composer, educator and producer Sanah Kadoura comes to the fore on her dynamic sophomore album Duality. A follow-up to 2018's critically-acclaimed Hawk Eyes, Duality focuses thematically on the balance between light and dark. Musically, the album traverses the modern jazz idiom with hints of neo-soul and a strong musical influence from Kadoura's motherland of Lebanon. 

After living in New York City for a decade, Sanah Kadoura has quickly risen to prominence as a

first-call drummer and an inventive composer. Kadoura has a special approach to her playing, a rare musicality that infuses melody and nuance into each rhythmic refrain. Whereas Hawk Eyes intrigued and excited audiences about Kadoura's sound, Duality cements the artist's position as one of the forefront creative drummers and composers on the modern jazz scene, telling a story of hope and resilience. "As we all navigate through our own internal balance, this album is an offering of healing, guidance and love," she shares. "We all have our own battles, and I think it's easier for us as humans to connect with each other

through darkness, and find the light together." 

Sanah has produced, recorded or shared the stage with the legendary Kirk Lighstey (Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Chet Baker), Philip Harper (Art Blakey), Ed Cherry (Dizzy Gillespie) Mark Whitfield (Herbie Hancock), Jon Baptiste, Joe Locke, Nicholas Payton, Frank Lacy (The Jazz Messengers), Mike Stern, Pat Bianchi, Joel Frahm,

Roy Hargrove, Jeremy Pelt, Johnny O'Neal, Marquis Hill, Jazzmeia Horn, Ronnie Foster, among many others.

Her recent album Hawk Eyes is available on all platforms, while Duality is set to release 3/3/23.

Anthony D'Alessandro:

Anthony D’Alessandro is a pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader based in Toronto, Ontario. His love of Oscar Peterson’s sense of swing, combined with his passion for the blues, gospel, and traditional jazz, has shaped his distinctively joyful and captivating style of playing. Anthony has performed in many of Ontario’s finest venues and festivals including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Barrie Jazz and Blues Festival, the Jazz Sudbury Festival, the Kensington Market Jazz Festival, the Brampton World of Jazz Festival, the Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar, the Home Smith Bar at the Old Mill Toronto, Hugh’s Room Live, Heliconian Hall and Lula Lounge.

Anthony’s music has also taken him throughout the United States and Europe including performances at the International Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa, the Snowbirds Extravaganza Festival in Lakeland, Florida and composition at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Casalmaggiore, Italy.

Anthony has shared the stage with Canadian jazz greats including Neil Swainson, Terry Clarke, Steve Wallace, Pat LaBarbara, Kevin Turcotte, Jackie Richardson, Ernesto Cervini, and Reg Schwager and acclaimed international artists including Joe Farnsworth,  Benny Benack III and Alexander Claffy.

Anthony holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Piano Performance from the University of Toronto where he studied under Canadian jazz luminaries Steve Wallace, David Braid, Mark Eisenman and David Restivo.  Anthony is a four-time recipient of the Noreen & Phil Nimmons Scholarship in Jazz Performance, the Suba Institute Award for Performance Excellence, the University of Toronto President’s Entrance Scholarship, the University of Toronto National Book Award and was a finalist for JAZZ.FM91’s 2016 Peter Appleyard Scholarship.  Anthony is also a grant recipient from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Faculty of Music Undergraduate Association.   

Thomas Hainbuch:

Thomas Hainbuch is a versatile young acoustic and electric bassist in Toronto, where he is emerging as an active part of the city’s jazz and creative music scene.

Since 2015, he has performed at several festivals such as the Toronto Jazz Festival, the Beaches Jazz Festival and the Kensington Market Jazz Festival, as well as at countless local venues such as the Rex, the Jazz Bistro, the Burdock, the Poetry Jazz Cafe and the Horseshoe Tavern.

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LINE UP:

Caity Gyorgy: Vocals

Sanah Kadoura: Drums

Anthony D’Alessandro : Piano

Thomas Hainbuch: Bass