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Nancy Walker
Pianist and composer Nancy Walker is the winner of the 2008 National Jazz Awards Keyboardist Of The Year Award and the 2003 Montréal International Jazz Festival’s prestigious Grand Prix de Jazz.
Nancy has several discs as leader to her credit. Her debut as leader, Invitation, was released in 1997. and was voted one of the year’s best by Jazz Canadiana reviewers. Toronto Star critic Geoff Chapman named Luminosity (2000) one of the top jazz recordings of that year. Levitation, Nancy’s third recording (2003), was “a fine example of the modern jazz musician’s art” according to the Globe & Mail’s Mark Miller. When She Dreams, was released in 2004 on Canada’s premier jazz label, Justin Time Records, and shot to the number one position on Canadian campus radio jazz charts.
In 2005, Nancy and her quartet (featuring saxophonist Kirk MacDonald, bassist Kieran Overs and drummer Barry Romberg) toured the Canadian jazz festivals. That same year Nancy was nominated in four categories at Canada’s National Jazz Awards. In 2006, Nancy’s recording Rainy Days and Mondays (Somerset/Universal) was nominated for a JUNO Award in the “Instrumental Album Of The Year” category. She was also among the Keyboardist Of The Year nominees at the 2006 and 2007 National Jazz Awards. Her next recording, Need Another was a trio date with Kieran Overs and drummer Ethan Ardelli.
Nancy’s latest release (made possible with the help of The Ontario Arts Council) is New Hieroglyphics, and features her current working quartet with Ted Quinlan (guitar) along with Overs and Ardelli.
Nancy has a solid background as a pianist and keyboard player for a variety of international recording and concert acts, both in and outside the jazz idiom. She’s recorded and toured with folk artist Sylvia Tyson, children’s entertainer Raffi, pop icons The Parachute Club, balladeer Roger Whittaker, and well-loved composer (the late) Hagood Hardy, to name a few.
Over the years Nancy has built enduring jazz relationships. As the pianist in the John Geggie Trio, Nancy continues yearly to hold the piano chair in the house rhythm section for The Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s nightly jam sessions. With bassist Geggie, Nancy has performed in concert with drum legend Billy Hart, contemporary drum heavyweight Matt Wilson and saxophone dynamo Donny McCaslin. She has recorded and performed in concert with the cream of Canada’s jazz vocal crop, from Vancouver’s Karin Plato to Toronto’s Emilie-Claire Barlow, and has worked frequently alongside Toronto saxophonists Kirk MacDonald and Pat Labarbera. Nancy can be heard on recently released recordings by John Geggie + Donny McCaslin (this Plunge Records release garnered rave reviews and made several “Best of 2010″ lists), Kirk MacDonald Jazz Orchestra, Fair/Galloway Quintet and Swedish guitarist Mikko Hildén.
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Nancy Walker: New Hieroglyphics
by John Kelman
Amidst an overcrowded community, even the cream of the crop has difficulty getting heard beyond their own locales. A regular visitor to relatively nearby Ottawa, Toronto-based Nancy Walker is an Ottawa Jazz Festival regular as part of John Geggie's trio at the late night jam sessions--also participating on the bassist's recent Across the Sky (Plunge, 2010), an at times lyrical, other times incendiary modern mainstream date featuring better-known saxophonist Donny McCaslin. The pianist has been delivering albums under her own ...
read moreNancy Walker: When She Dreams
by John Kelman
The dividends paid by working with the same core group of musicians can be significant. Canadian pianist Nancy Walker has been working with bassist Kieran Overs and drummer Barry Romberg since her '97 début, Invitation , and has continued to do so for her subsequent releases, '00's Luminosity and '02's Levitation. For her latest release, When She Dreams , Walker also brings back saxophonist Kirk MacDonald, also featured on Levitation , and the result is an album of contemporary post ...
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Music
Part 1: The Road
From: MagpieBy Nancy Walker