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Kelly Jefferson

Toronto-based saxophonist, composer and educator Kelly Jefferson has a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University in Montreal and a Masters degree from Manhattan School of Music in New York City.

Kelly has performed with the The National Arts Centre Orchestra, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Maria Schneider, Bill Holman, Ray Anderson, Kenny Werner, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Al Jarreau, Michel LeGrand, Nicholas Payton, Brian Blade, as well as Ray Brown, Sonny Fortune, Randy Brecker, Renee Rosnes, Johnny Mathis, Russell Malone, Joey DeFrancesco, and Dee Dee Bridgewater, among others.

Kelly has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, Japan, Thailand, Europe, South Korea and China, including a nine-month tour in 2000 as the tenor saxophonist with legendary trumpeter Maynard Ferguson.

The Kelly Jefferson Quartet release Next Exit, was nominated for a 2011 Juno Award for Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year. Kelly was also a five-time nominee for Saxophonist of the Year by the National Jazz Awards.

Kelly is presently on faculty at The University of Toronto and York University where he teaches saxophone, small ensembles, jazz theory, ear training and improvisation, with previous teaching positions at Humber College in Toronto and McGill University in Montreal.

Mr. Jefferson has adjudicated at music festivals across Canada and has given numerous workshops throughout Canada, the United States and China.

An active freelance musician, Kelly performs regularly with groups that include the William Carn Quintet, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Time Warp, The Shuffle Demons, Mark McLean’s Playground, The Chris Tarry Group, Manteca, The Carn-Davidson 9, and Barry Romberg’s Random Access.

Kelly is proud to be a Yanagisawa saxophone artist.

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Album Review

Laila Biali: Your Requests

Read "Your Requests" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While the jazz pipeline produces plenty of artists who pay no mind to an audience's interests, those types--figures with tunnel vision, in many if not most ways--rarely reach their full potential. Instead, it's the musicians who make it a point to communicate who tend to forge the strongest bonds with those on the receiving end. Laila Biali is one such figure. This JUNO-winning gem of a vocalist, pianist, arranger and songwriter always manages to connect. Biali has a keen awareness ...

43
Album Review

Neil Swainson: Fire In The West

Read "Fire In The West" reviewed by Jack Bowers


It's hard to believe that 35 years have flown by between the release of bassist Neil Swainson's debut album, 49th Parallel (Concord Jazz), and his second, Fire in the West, recorded in November 2021 and released nine months later. But Swainson was hardly in hibernation during those years, as he has been one of Canada's busiest and most sought-after sidemen, traveling the world while working with the likes of George Shearing, Woody Shaw, Marian McPartland, Sonny Stitt, Slide Hampton, James ...

12
Album Review

Willliam Carn: Choices

Read "Choices" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The short tune “Breathe" opens Choices, sounding like something holy, in a futuristic, science-fiction way. This is how Canadian trombonist William Carn introduces his album. It is a “do it from home," mostly remotely recorded set, reminiscent—to go back over half a century— of Paul McCartney's first solo album McCartney (Apple Records, 1970). McCartney's impetus for recording his “do it yourself" project was the crumbling of the Beatles. Carn's “do it yourself" Choices came about due to the isolation and ...

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Album Review

Noam Lemish: Twelve

Read "Twelve" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The number Twelve has several explicit meanings on Israeli-born composer/pianist Noam Lemish's eighth album as leader of his own ensemble, which is twelve members strong (well, thirteen on the first two numbers, on which Laura Swankey adds wordless vocals, and twenty-five if one counts the thirteen-member chorus on Track 3). Returning to the basic premise, Lemish composed his first piece of music at age twelve, and it has been twelve years since he relocated from San Francisco to Toronto, Canada. ...

8
Album Review

Neil Swainson: Fire In The West

Read "Fire In The West" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


It hardly seems possible, but it took thirty-five years for Canadian bassist extraordinaire Neil Swainson to lead a sparkling quintet in this new recording of Swainson original compositions entitled Fire In The West. His prior recording from 1987 was called 49th Parallel and received little attention at the time. However it was re-released as an LP in 2020 by Reel to Real Records and it generated some welcomed critical reviews. Accompanying Swainson in this outing was a blue-chip rhythm section ...

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Album Review

Shuffle Demons: All In

Read "All In" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


There aren't too many bands still standing from back when Shuffle Demons first performed in 1984. Their tenth recording, All In features three saxophonists-- tenors Kelly Jefferson and Matt Lagan plus Richard Underhill on alto and baritone--plus acoustic bassist Mike Downes and drummer Stich Wynston tearing through ten new originals. With no chord instruments (piano, guitar) between them and the horns, bassist Downes and drummer Wynston keep shuffling in the spaces like madmen to keep All In moving, and simultaneously ...

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Album Review

The Shuffle Demons: All In

Read "All In" reviewed by Jack Bowers


With a three-saxophone front line and no piano, Canada's Shuffle Demons could be mistaken for the legendary Gerry Mulligan Quartet on steroids—could be, that is, until one hears the music, which bears scant resemblance to the West Coast cool espoused by Mulligan, Chet Baker and their colleagues. In other words, they're not called Shuffle Demons for nothing. When not shuffling, the Demons are otherwise brash and busy on their tenth album, All In, whose ten numbers were ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Choices

Self Produced
2023

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Your Requests

Empress Music Group (North America) / ACT Music (Europe) / CORE PORT (Japan)
2023

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All In

Stubby Records
2022

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Fire In The West

Cellar Records
2022

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Prismatic

Bent River Records
2022

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Twelve

Self Produced
2022

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Bye Bye Blackbird

From: Your Requests
By Kelly Jefferson

Get Up

From: Choices
By Kelly Jefferson

Steals on Steeles

From: Twelve
By Kelly Jefferson

September 1905

From: Saskatchewan Suite
By Kelly Jefferson

Blue Gardenia

From: Entering Utopia
By Kelly Jefferson

Finis

From: Earth Voices
By Kelly Jefferson

Cat Walk

From: Crazy Time
By Kelly Jefferson

True North X

From: Three Short Stories
By Kelly Jefferson

The Monks of Oka

From: There From Here
By Kelly Jefferson

A Tune for Cal

From: Undertones
By Kelly Jefferson

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