On a special night, the Vernon Jazz Club offers a special treat when premier alto jazz saxophonist P.J. Perry and virtuoso trumpeter Kevin Dean appear at the club Wednesday, May 18.
Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts, the quintet is on a cross-Canada tour from Montreal to Victoria, including a stop here in Vernon and a live recording session at the Cellar Jazz Club in Vancouver.
Joining Perry and Dean are jazz masters Neil Swainson on bass, Mark Eisenman on piano, and Andrew White on the drums.
The quintet will perform new original material as well as some standards, ballads, and swing tunes.
Some of the material is so fresh it isn’t titled yet. However, Perry has revealed that two Eisenman tunes will be featured –– a beautiful tune called Benny’s Ballad and a song based on the chords of You’d Be so Nice to Come Home To to a Cannonball-ish melodic straight swing tune.
Perry describes the quintet’s music as “post bebop with melodic intensity and swing.”
“My tastes run from Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Stan Getz to Coltrane and the newer cats on the New York scene,” said Perry.
Perry appeared in Vernon performing in the Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet’s Jazzy Nutcracker at the Prestige Inn last December. He has shared the stage with jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, Michel LeGrand, Tommy Banks, and Rob McConnell.
Recently, Perry was a featured soloist in the hit 2010 Broadway production of Come Fly Away, highlighting the songs of Frank Sinatra and he also played lead alto in Kirk McDonald’s Big Band.
In contribution to Canada’s cultural life, Perry has received many honours, including an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Alberta.
An active performer, composer, clinician, and adjudicator, trumpeter Dean is a professor of music at McGill University.
Dean has performed in concert and recorded with numerous well-known jazz artists including Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Joe Henderson, and Barry Harris.
Featured on more than 15 CDs, his composition Andre’s Footsteps was one of seven jazz pieces chosen to be part of a four CD set released by the Canada Council celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Bassist Swainson is considered among the best in the world. He played for many years with the great George Shearing and presently performs in the Kirk McDonald Big Band.
Considered Toronto’s preeminent jazz pianist and composer, Eisenman is always asked to accompany most big name artists that come to town. Eisenman is also a prolific recording artist.
Not only a great drummer but also a very good jazz pianist, White is in demand as a producer and engineer, and is responsible for many of the great Canadian jazz recordings.
The P.J. Perry/Kevin Dean Quintet will play at the Vernon Jazz Club Wednesday, May 18 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $20 ($15 for VJS members) at the Bean Scene and Bean to Cup coffee houses.
–– Dvoira Yanovsky is a freelance writer who covers the Vernon Jazz Society’s bi-weekly gigs for The Morning Star.
