This Thursday, with the advent of fall, it’s time to settle into more local, but no less exceptional music in a cool, smooth jazz vein as the Georgia Straight Jazz Society proudly presents Comox Valley musicians Jeff Drummond and John Hyde with Victoria’s Kelby MacNayr.
This energized trio deftly explores jazz standards and originals ranging from traditional to modern styles when they will return to the Avalanche Bar and Grill on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Guitarist Jeff Drummond wears multiple hats. Musician, educator, composer, producer and engineer, he has explored many musical genres, toured North America and the U.K. as a bandleader, and as a guitarist, he has worked with various artists spanning the genres of jazz, rock, R&B and roots music. Drummond has appeared on high profile national television and radio programs and garnered countless recording credits. Also well known as a “studio guy”, he has years of experience producing, engineering and performing on recordings with highly acclaimed artists including Tariq, Cam Penner, Dojo Workhorse, Sue Medley, Gavin Brown, Ron Lopatta and Ian Tyson.
As the bandleader, guitarist and primary composer for the groove-based jazz trio Sinistrio; he also served as engineer and co-producer for all four of the group’s CDs including the album The Perfect Human that was nominated for best instrumental album at the 2014 Western Canadian Music Awards.
The following year, in collaboration with John Hyde, the CD Spoondrift was featured at the Georgia Straight Jazz Club. Recorded at Dove Creek Studios in the Comox Valley, the album is comprised of mostly originals performed in a laid-back mellow style, a completely acoustic format of relaxed and ambient instrumental guitar and bass music in the jazz idiom.
Bassist John Hyde, well known to GSJS audiences, has a deep history performing with many local, national and international performers. In great demand both on the stage and in the studio, John Hyde’s skillful and multi-faceted talent has seen him working with such notables as Marion McPartland, Bill Watrous, Oliver Jones, and Mark Murphy, vocal greats K.D. Lang and Jann Arden, Land’s End Chamber Ensemble, New Works Calgary, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as his work with Decidedly Jazz Dance and The Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
Drummer, composer and bandleader, Kelby MacNayr, as audience members will remember from the Ryan Oliver Quartet’s stunning season opener, is a must-see performer.
Creative and dynamic, MacNayr has performed with some of the best in the ever-changing world of musicians in the Pacific Northwest including Phil Dwyer, Ian McDougal, Neil Swainson, Brad Turner, Miles Black, Tony Genge, and George McFetridge. Across the US, MacNayr has performed as a member of the Marc Atkinson New Quartet, George Colligan Quartet, NY pianist Misha Piatigorsky’s (Canadian) Trio, the Scott White Quartet in Berlin, Anne Schaefer Band, the Storm Nilson Trio in L.A. MacNayr leads the Kelby MacNayr Quintet featuring some of the West Coast’s leading jazz musicians.
When he’s not performing at Hermann’s Jazz Club in his hometown, MacNayr is a faculty member of the Jazz Port Townsend Centrum Festival in Washington and on staff at Idaho’s Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival.
Admission to Jeff Drummond’s trio is $10 for Georgia Straight Jazz Society members and $12 for non-members. For more information about this performance and the rest of the line up for the 2018-2019 season, visit www.georgiastraightjazz.com.
