This weekend, the U of M is hosting the fifth annual Canadian Jazz Summit, a two-day long jazz festival created by Jazz Winnipeg and the U of M jazz studies program.
Each year, the festival invites musicians to teach masterclasses and workshops and perform at the university. This year’s guests are Toronto-based Tara Davidson and Alex Samaras, who will each be hosting workshops and lectures.
Samaras is a multi-genre vocalist who has performed with musical acts such as Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble and is the music director for Beverly Glenn-Copeland, a longtime singer and composer. In addition, he teaches at music camps, the University of Toronto and Humber Polytechnic.
Samaras described his upcoming U of M workshop, saying, “We’re going to be doing some breathing and body awareness exercises […] As a singer, my voice [and] my body is my instrument. And so I’ve really been curious about learning how to connect to my body and just become more aware of what this instrument is […] and how to use it efficiently and with ease.”
“I’m also going to do a workshop about singing rounds as a springboard to improvisation, which I found really interesting, because rounds are at first quite simple, but then when you start to play with them and start to get their coordination of listening and improvising, it can be a really fun playground.”
With a Juno Award for jazz album of the year in 2020, Davidson is a jazz-focused woodwind player whose primary instrument is the saxophone. She also teaches at the U of T and York University and will be hosting interactive woodwind classes for the summit.
Davidson explained that for the final concert, she and Samaras will be performing their arrangements with U of M jazz students and faculty members as well as original compositions by Davidson.
“We’ve shared the music with the people we’re playing with ahead of time, and then we’ll have a short rehearsal with them, but we’ll be improvising also,” she said.
“I find with the younger people I play with, there’s an energy, and their breath is so present and there’s a real aliveness to the energy they bring to the music,” Samaras added.
“We’re also going to play [Everybody Says Don’t] by Stephen Sondheim, who’s a composer that I love […] And it’s kind of a protest song, to be honest. And it’s a beautiful song to do with students. It’s about the world telling you no, and you’re saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do this, and I’m going to do this, and I believe in what I’m standing up for.’”
With a concert open to the community, there are bound to be some in the audience who are not necessarily jazz connoisseurs. However, Davidson spoke on the importance for people to be curious and open-minded about different genres — you just might find something that matches your groove.
“You never know what kind of music is going to resonate with you […] You don’t have to know exactly what’s happening in a concert to be able to appreciate [the] level of musicianship, or maybe stories that are trying to be told through even wordless compositions,” she said.
“I may have an opportunity to talk about the music that I’ve written […] I’ve found in the past, the more context that I can offer to the compositions, like how they came to be, it draws more people in that aren’t necessarily jazz fans. But it gives them a little inside perspective, and oftentimes helps them appreciate it [on] a deeper level.”
The Canadian Jazz Summit will take place on campus on Feb. 6 and 7. For tickets to the final concert on Feb. 7 at the Desautels Concert Hall, visit jazzwinnipeg.com/jazz-summit.
