Home » Jazz Musicians » Ryan Oliver

Ryan Oliver

A Juno-nominated, Toronto-based saxophonist, Ryan Oliver honed his craft on Canada’s west coast before moving to Amsterdam, Toronto and then New York. Since returning to Toronto, he has maintained a busy schedule as one of Canada’s most in-demand saxophonists. Oliver has toured India, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada with the legendary eclectic jazz group, The Shuffle Demons. He is also a member of Juno award winning blues/rock performer Derek Miller’s group. The band has traveled throughout North America, including performances at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Aboriginal Achievement Awards (broadcast on CTV), and Toronto’s Dundas Square. Oliver is featured in the horn section on Derek Miller’s most recent recording, “Derek Miller and Double Trouble”, featuring Stevie Ray Vaughn’s heralded rhythm section Double Trouble and musical icon Willie Nelson. The recording was nominated for a Juno in 2011.

Ryan Oliver’s debut recording, Convergence, was selected by CODA Magazine as one of the top 10 Canadian jazz releases of 2007. He has received numerous Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council grants for touring and recording and has performed at most of the major jazz clubs and festivals throughout Canada. Oliver’s straight-ahead, tough-toned tenor can be heard often in Toronto. He maintains a weekly Sunday night residency with Organic, a quartet that features Canadian great Bernie Senensky on the Hammond B3 organ, Nathan Hiltz on guitar and Morgan Childs on drums, and is a member of The Cookers, a hard-bop quintet, and Tonight at Noon, an octet that plays the music of Charles Mingus. Jazz education is also an important part of Oliver’s professional life. He has been a featured clinician at Malaspina College, Western University, the University of Windsor and high schools throughout New York, New Jersey, Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. Alongside all of his efforts as a musician and educator, Oliver is also the artistic director for the Harbord St. Jazz Festival, an annual festival that celebrates the pairing of fine dining and jazz. Ryan Oliver’s driving melodic inventiveness, charismatic sound and swinging time feel light up bandstands wherever he plays.

Tags

10
Interview

Ryan Oliver: Zigging With A Jazz Maestro, His Secrets and Wisdom

Read "Ryan Oliver: Zigging With A Jazz Maestro, His Secrets and Wisdom" reviewed by Kerilie McDowall


Tenor saxophonist Ryan Oliver of Canada's The Cookers Quintet, is no stranger to the art of touring the globe. For years he was an integral part of The Shuffle Demons, an adored Toronto jazz saxophone group known for their mid-'80s hit single, “Spadina Bus," written in humorous reference to the Toronto Transit Commission's Spadina Avenue bus that served a vibrant and unique neighbourhood in downtown jny: Toronto, and other treasures such as “Out of My House, Roach," ...

5
Album Review

The Schwager/Oliver Quintet: Senza Reza

Read "Senza Reza" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Canada became the first country beyond the USA to have developed its own vibrant jazz scene. What do major jazz artists like Oscar Peterson, Maynard Ferguson, Gil Evans, Rob McConnell and Diana Krall have in common? They're all Canadians, like the players of The Schwagger/Oliver Quintet presenting their debut on Senza Resa, an Italian phrase meaning “No Surrender," which conveys the approach to the music from five of Canada's most exciting award-winning jazz musicians. The album represents the ...

33
Album Review

Fraser MacPherson: From The Pen Of...

Read "From The Pen Of..." reviewed by Jack Bowers


The late tenor saxophonist Fraser MacPherson was well-known in western Canada and elsewhere for his brilliance—but as player, not a writer. In fact, according to MacPherson's son Guy, who wrote the excellent liner notes to From the Pen of..., his father wrote barely a dozen or so original compositions, almost all of which are included on this superlative album with performances by a who's who of well- known jazz artists from Canada and other countries. Considering what ...

1
Album Review

Fraser MacPherson: From The Pen Of...

Read "From The Pen Of..." reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Tenor saxophonist Fraser MacPherson was an original. Although he was raised in Victoria, British Columbia, he moved to Vancouver early in his career where he remained throughout his working life. He began to build his reputation as a Lester Young-influenced player, and in the mid '70s recorded his first trio album for West End Records with guitarist Oliver Gannon and bassist Wyatt Ruther. This album was picked up by Concord Records in the late '70s and released in the U.S. ...

1
Album Review

Joe Coughlin: Dedicated To You

Read "Dedicated To You" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Joe Coughlin has been on the Canadian jazz scene since the late 1970s, when he began his performing and recording career in Toronto. . In 1995, he relocated to Vancouver BC where he continues to record and perform. Over the course of his career he has garnered many accolades and on two occasions was given the National Jazz Award Jazz Vocalist of the Year. This session in many way brings Coughlin full circle as he is ...

2
Album Review

The Cookers Quintet: The Path

Read "The Path" reviewed by Paul Beard


The Path is the fourth record to be released by Canadian group The Cookers Quintet and is a collection of eight originals, recorded at the Warehouse, Vancouver, that were first played to live audiences on a West Canadian tour in the fall of 2021, and then put down in the studio. The album continues the legacy of the hard bop era that dominated the jazz scene in the 1950s and 1960s and is brought to life by tenor ...

5
Album Review

The Ryan Oliver Quartet: Strive!

Read "Strive!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


When Toronto-based tenor saxophonist Ryan Oliver was living in New York and studying at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of The Arts in New Jersey, he struck up a musical relationship with one of the teachers at that institution--drummer Victor Lewis. At that time, Lewis, a somewhat underappreciated giant of the drumming world who's worked with everybody from saxophone legend Stan Getz to trumpeter Woody Shaw to pianist Kenny Barron, got together with Oliver on a weekly basis, exploring the ...

Read more articles
89

Recording

Ryan Oliver "Convergence" Art of Life Records

Ryan Oliver "Convergence" Art of Life Records

Source: All About Jazz

Art of Life Records is proud to present 28-year-old Canadian saxophonist Ryan Oliver's debut recording. Joining Ryan on “Convergence" are Duncan Hopkins on acoustic bass, Bob McLaren on drums, Bernie Senensky on piano and Jake Wilkinson on trumpet. The album features three standards, “It's Easy to Remember" by Rodgers & Hart, “The End of a Love Affair" by Edward C. Redding and “Mamacita" by Joe Henderson, as well as six original songs composed by Oliver. “Convergence" was recorded and mixed ...

“Oliver’s improvisations have the formal character that defines many of his compositions. A muscular jazz improviser, Oliver always stays on point.” -CODA Magazine.

“Convergence shows how ready he is as both player and composer. He has a full-range horn, rich at the bottom and true at the top, acknowledging past masters like Trane and Dexter Gordon.” -Whole Note Magazine

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Senza Reza

Celler Live
2023

buy

The Path

Do Right Music
2022

buy

Dedicated To You

Cellar Records
2022

buy

From The Pen Of...

Cellar Records
2022

buy

Strive!

Self Produced
2014

buy

Strive!

Self Produced
2012

buy

Eddie

From: Strive
By Ryan Oliver

Rhythm

From: Convergence
By Ryan Oliver

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.