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Joe Sullivan

Joe Sullivan comes from the Northern Ontario town of Timmins. He grew up in a large franco-ontarian family, where music was a part of daily life. He began his formal training on piano and later, at the age of fifteen, started playing the trumpet. During his youth, he led an active musical life that included classical piano competitions, rock bands and high school concert and stage bands. He also composed music for several theater productions. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical trumpet at the University of Ottawa in 1981. His interest in jazz led him to the Berklee School of Music, then to the New England Conservatory of Music, where he received a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies in 1987.

Since then he has lived in Montreal and has been active as a performer, composer, arranger and bandleader. A prolific composer, Sullivan leads and has written extensively for both his jazz sextet and his jazz Big Band and is active with a variety of small groups. He has seven compact discs to his name, the most recent being “Whiskey Jack Waltz” (Perry Lake Records 2013) with jazz quintet and “Northern Ontario Suite” (Perry Lake Records 2010) with the Joe Sullivan Big Band. He has served as conductor and arranger with the Kirk MacDonald Jazz Orchestra; has been a member of the Vic Vogel Big Band for some twenty-five years; has appeared as a trumpet soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; and has performed with numerous jazz artists of international repute, including Slide Hampton, Don Thompson, Lorne Lofsky, Pat Labarbera, Kirk Macdonald, Rémi Bolduc, John Medeski, John McNeil, Alain Caron, George Garzone, and Ranee Lee.

He has received both the Prix Socan (1991) and the Prix DuMaurier (Joel Miller Group, 1997) at the Montreal International Jazz Festival as well as several awards from the Canadian and Québec arts councils. He currently directs the McGill Jazz Orchestra 1 and teaches jazz composition, arranging and trumpet at McGill University, where he is an associate professor.

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1
Album Review

Joe Sullivan Big Band: Unfamiliar Surroundings

Read "Unfamiliar Surroundings" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Unfamiliar Surroundings, a well-designed two-CD set by trumpeter Joe Sullivan's all-star ensemble from north of the border, consists of three disparate suites, two on Disc 1, the other on Disc 2. If the surroundings seem unfamiliar, the music is not, as it honors the legendary bellwethers of the Big Band Era without echoing any of them. Sullivan is a modern big band composer / arranger in the best sense of the phrase, writing music that is at ease in the ...

9
Album Review

Joe Sullivan: Whisky Jack Waltz

Read "Whisky Jack Waltz" reviewed by Geannine Reid


Trumpeter, composer, arranger and educator Joe Sullivan grew up in a large Franco-Ontarian family in the Northern Ontario town of Timmins. As a youth, music was a part of daily life. Sullivan began his formal training on piano and at the age of fifteen he also started playing the trumpet. In his formative years, Sullivan led an active musical life that included performances in classical piano competitions, rock bands and high school concert and stage bands. Sullivan received a Bachelor ...

2
Album Review

Joe Sullivan Big Band: Northern Ontario Suite

Read "Northern Ontario Suite" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The latest recording by Canadian trumpeter Joe Sullivan's big band is built around his picturesque six-movement Northern Ontario Suite, whose purpose is to portray musically the sights, sounds and ambience of Sullivan's frosty corner of the world including the often spectacular aurora borealis ("northern lights"). The suite is preceded by a pair of Sullivan's engaging compositions ("Plus ca Change," “Mambo #6") and followed by baritone saxophonist Jean Frechette's “Later Joe." While it is difficult for someone who ...

284
Album Review

Joe Sullivan Big Band: Stop and Listen

Read "Stop and Listen" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The first time I reviewed an album by the Joe Sullivan Big Band was in a blindfold test. I had no idea whose band it was or where it was based. After lavishing praise on the ensemble as a whole and its various soloists, I summarized the analysis by writing, “This is a world-class big band performing top-notch material on a marvelously recorded album.... Sullivan, a trumpeter who makes his home and his living in Montréal, Canada, has now released ...

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Extended Analysis

Joe Sullivan Big Band

Read "Joe Sullivan Big Band" reviewed by Paul Olson


Joe Sullivan Joe Sullivan Big Band Effendi Records 2004

I'll just go ahead and state the obvious: you'd have to be crazy to form a jazz big band.

It wasn't always so: in the swing era, of course, that was what people wanted to hear. That's what a jazz band was. For many decades, however, no proposition could be more exhausting than assembling and maintaining a big band. It's hard to get gigs. It's ...

215
Album Review

Joe Sullivan: Rumours From The Soul

Read "Rumours From The Soul" reviewed by Jim Santella


A sextet lineup allows for the extra saxophone sound that means more harmony, more color, and a fuller aural picture. And yet there's clearly an ease of control because the ensemble is still small enough to work together well and allow for soloists to stretch out. Trumpeter Joe Sullivan brings his sextet of saxophonists Andre Leroux and Jean Frechette, bassist George Mitchell, pianist Tilden Webb, and drummer Dave Robbins to the studio for his second recording venture as a leader. ...

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Music Industry

Joe Sullivan

Joe Sullivan

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

This is Joe Sullivan's birthday. Although Rifftides posted an item about Sullivan and others only three months ago, it is never too soon to call him to the attention of listeners who may not have made the acquaintance of a man who inspired countless other pianists. Here is a Rifftides golden oldie.

It is not good enough simply to recycle an archive piece. As a double bonus, here are two versions of Sullivan's most famous composition, “Little Rock Getaway." The first ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Unfamiliar...

Perry Lake Records
2017

buy

Northern Ontario Suite

Perry Lake Records
2014

buy

Whisky Jack Waltz

Self Produced
2014

buy

Stop and Listen

Effendi Records
2007

buy

Joe Sullivan Big Band

Effendi Records
2004

buy

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