BIG SHOULDERS
“We stand on the shoulders of Giants…” Big Shoulders.
Vancouver’s newest and most exciting contemporary jazz quartet was formed in the fall of 2022.Their brand of contemporary jazz is based on standards made famous by writers and performers that they know and love. Their music takes these wonderful compositions a step further: they alter form and feel, and bring new ideas and mindsets to the music, making it their own.
The quartet’s repertoire is forever expanding, and includes pieces by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Lester Bowie, and Chet Baker, as well as Miles, Coltrane, Cannonball, Billy Strayhorn, and other composers of the Great American Songbook. They also include modern day compositions rewritten into their own jazz improvisational style.
Norm Quinn (flugelhorn) is a veteran of the Vancouver jazz scene, educated at Douglas College, Humber College, and Toronto’s New School of Music. He plays with his quintet Q5, BLJQ, the Mud Bay Blues Band, Burning House, and holds down the jazz chair in various community big bands.
Guenter Schulz (guitar) is a master of styles from jazz to country, noise to pop. Educated in Hamburg, Guenter has worked around the world as a guitarist, composer, and producer. He also plays with Lisa Dunn and the tribute band Zappastrophy.
Dave Shakur (bass) drives brings a background in jazz , classical and indie rock Educated at York University and SFU, influences include Mingus, Charlie Haden, and Tina Weymouth. Dave currently plays with the Monk’s Dream Trio and post-punk rockers Dark Dials.
Stan Taylor is one Vancouver’s finest Jazz Drummers. Over a span of the last 25yrs he has played with jazz greats Kenny Wheeler, PJ Perry, Vinny Golia, Pat Labarbara, Mike Stern, Hugh Fraser and many more.
ROXANNE CHARLES
Roxanne Charles is a mixed media artist, activist, curator, storyteller, and cultural historian of Strait Salish and European descent. As an artist, she works with a wide range of media. She directly responds to the problems of colonialism, and documents issues that reflect her life experiences such as spirituality, identity, urbanization, food security, resource extraction, trauma, and various forms of systemic violence. As a contemporary storyteller and cultural historian, her goal is to touch, move, and inspire others through her work. Her work employs traditional Semiahma forms of knowledge such as visual representation, oral history, and ceremony.
CHRISTIANS
Free-improvised metallic noise. Transforming the musical language of metal into something loose, open, and new. Announcing the arriving of cosmic justice until it comes. Members have included Stanley Jason Zappa, Justin Arding, Joe Bodner, and Miguel Mori; Christians has performed alongside Oxbow and Lightning Bolt, and in collaboration with Matt Weston.
C. DIAB
C. Diab is the musical project of Caton Hower Diab, composing primarily for effected bowed acoustic guitar, horn/wind and tape manipulation. With the combination of unpolished & distorted guitar tones alongside a post-classical song structure, he aims to create a unique sonic experience, provoking a special sense of time within the listener.
GAMELAN BIKE BIKE
Gamelan Bike Bike draws its musical inspiration from Bali, Indonesia and its raw materials from the scrap metal bins of Vancouver. Founded as a community-based project, the ensemble brings together a diverse group of artists to materialize and animate new experimental instruments. They transformed over 100 discarded bicycle frames, along with other scrap metals, into a range of tuned metallophones and gongs that form the foundation of their sound. The ensemble is dedicated to performing new music for gamelan, including compositions from guest composers I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot) and I Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka from Bali. The ensemble has presented performances with the Western Front, Vancouver New Music, Vancouver Folk Music Festival, and in 2017 released Hi-Ten, an album of original works with the Indonesia-based label Insitu Recordings. Gamelan Bike Bike is currently based at the Hadden Park Fieldhouse as part of the Publik Secrets fieldhouse residency with the Vancouver Park Board and regularly offers workshops and performances to the community.
LORI GOLDSTON
Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless, semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor, producer, writer and teacher from Seattle. Her voice as a cellist, amplified or acoustic, is full, textured, committed and original. A relentless inquirer, her work drifts freely across borders that separate genre, discipline, time and geography.
Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Steve Von Till, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Maya Dunietz, Mik Quantius, Embryo, O Paon, Tara Jane O’Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed Pias, Christian Rizzo and Sophie Laly, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell, Lynn Shelton, and many more.
Her work has been commissioned by and/or performed at the Kennedy Center, Sydney Festival, Cineteca Nacional de México, Tectonics Festival, Frye Art Museum, Time Based Art Festival (TBA), WNYC, The New Foundation, Paris Fashion Week, Northwest Film Forum, On the Boards, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle Jewish Film Festival, Bumbershoot, Crossing Border Festival, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Joe’s Pub, the Stone, University of Chicago, and venues large and small throughout North America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.
ALANNA HO
With a passion for cultivating play and imagination, Alanna Ho programs interdisciplinary workshops, and designs digital educational resources for kids, families and educators. Her sound exploration and new media workshops are rooted in mindfulness, creativity, adventure, activism, and community.
Alanna works as a community-engaged new media artist with galleries and schools, and performs in the noise/electronic music scene. She is passionate about creating more engaging learning resources for music education and shifting the power in learning art and music back to the innately creative child.
MALLEUS TRIO
Malleus Trio is an exciting instrumental band based out of Vancouver, B.C. Their music fuses high-octane improvisation with dynamic original compositions. Having forged their musical rapport for over a decade, there is a palpable chemistry pulsing through their music. The group’s language speaks to both familiarity and risk, resulting in a sound that is both unconventional and accessible.
The trio will celebrate the release of their third album this summer with performances at summer Canadian jazz festivals in Toronto, Medicine Hat, Calgary, and Victoria. With this new record in hand, Malleus Trio map new terrain for open-minded ears
The Malleus Trio features bassist Geordie Hart (The Boom Booms), Dominic Conway (Mary Ancheta Quartet) on tenor saxophone, and drummer Ben Brown (Pugs & Crows).
MANZAPPACZEWSKI
Manzappaczewski is the union of ManZap (the Andrew Wedman Stanley Zappa Duo) and percussionist Nick Skrowaczewski–Zappa’s long time friend and musical colleague.
Live a Little is Manzappaczewski’s first release on the Zappacrypha / New Texture imprint.
Manzappaczewski formed the nucleus of the recording HELMEL on the Fort Evil Fruit label, featuring Catherine Sikora, Patrick Shiroishi and Vinny Golia.
Old Baby is the name of Manzappaczewski’s forth coming release, also on the Fort Evil Fruit label.
SAXOPHILIA
Formed in 1996, the Vancouver-based saxophone quartet Saxophilia has been committed To giving the highest quality performances of classical saxophone repertoire. Its members include Julia Nolan on soprano saxophone, Kris Covlin on alto saxophone, David Branter on tenor saxophone, and Colin MacDonald on baritone saxophone. All of the quartet members are active performers in Vancouver’s music community, as soloists and as band members in a wide variety of styles from classical to jazz to popular music. This appreciation of a diversity of music informs the group’s choice of repertoire, which ranges from the standard repertoire of classical saxophone quartet, to contemporary music, to jazz arrangements and lighter fare.
The quartet has been active in the new music community, appearing in the Vancouver New Music Festival 2004 and the Sonic Boom Festivals of 1999, 2000, and 2006. They were the featured saxophone section in Vancouver Opera’s production of Nixon in China in 2010. Outside of Vancouver, the group has presented programs at regional conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance held in Victoria and Saskatoon, and has performed at the 12th World Saxophone Congress in Montreal.
Saxophilia successfully commissioned John Burke in 2004 for his piece Gyaling, assisted in the creation of Last Call by Derek Charke, and gave the Western Canada premiere of Peter Hannan’s Fast Truck Bop. The group has also given the Canadian premiere of works by international composers such as Graham Fitkin, Erki-Sven Tüür, Helena Tulva, David Kechley, and Michael Torke. In 2018, the ensemble released their self-titled recording Saxophilia, featuring the music of BC composers Dorothy Chang, Peter Hannan, and Colin MacDonald.
TENDER LOVE
Weaving between the fearless pulse (always the pulse) they construct a dimension hospitable to sonic textures of insulted fiery helicopters, rattling implosions, mesmerizing vocals. Favouring: analog synth, ghostly vocals, loops, frightened beat of a stalked pop song, a guitar or two, these kids are thoughtful, intentional, and decidedly relentless with their sound.