Preview
DAVE DOUGLAS
Saturday, June 5
Margaret Greenham Theatre
(The Banff Centre)
Since 1933, the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts has been a little taste of heaven to weary musicians, composers, artists and dancers – a place where they could study their art in the comfort of state-of-the-art facilities cradled in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.
Prolific trumpet player and composer Dave Douglas is returning to the mountains this spring as the director of the prestigious Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. Now in its 31st year, the Banff jazz program has set the standard for jazz excellence in Canada and abroad. Thoughout the duration of the program, world-renowned jazz musicians collaborate with up-and-coming jazzers. Douglas is the director of the program and believes that the jazz program is one of the most exceptional on the continent.
"It’s a fantastic program," says Douglas. "It’s like a Garden of Eden for a musician. Anything you could ever want as a musician. I think it’s the combination of so many things. It’s a wonderful place to be and the level of the participants is the highest I’ve ever seen at any workshop anywhere in the world. I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s the mountains (or) Banff, but the centre itself has a reputation in the arts and culture and that’s important and I feel this responsibility as the director of the program to try to maintain that standard in everything that I do."
Douglas will be joined by a host of distinguished jazz musicians – Canadian jazz composer Hugh Fraser, gifted guitarist Bill Frisell, Metalwood saxophonist Mike Murley and trumpet player Brad Turner, New York-based drummer Clarence Penn, acclaimed Dutch drummer Han Bennickand and several others. These musicians will be joined by workshop participants in a variety of master classes, impromptu jams, noon-hour gigs and regular concerts.
"We definitely have an eclectic bunch," admits Douglas. "When you talk about creative music you automatically have an eclectic bunch. You know, I think creative music is the type of music where you attempt to find your own voice – do your own thing. For me, the idea of creative music is free from any genre. Jazz, popular and classical musicians can all be involved in creative music. I think the goal as a young musician is to find out who you are and what’s unique to your situation and circumstances that’s different for everybody. This program I hope helps in that."
Dave Douglas’s residency at The Banff Centre runs through June 12. |
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