The most famous band in jazz was playing empty rooms in the early 1950s. As jazz fans turned to cutting edge bebop over the old big-band swing, Ellington was forced to pay his band members out of pocket. That all changed at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival and a chaotic night that lives in infamy. Join the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, featuring saxophonist Niall Bakastaad-Legare, as we pay tribute to the remarkable night that revived Duke Ellington's Big Band, landed him on the cover of TIME Magazine and rocketed him back to super stardom.
Dr. Richard Gillis and Sasha Boychouk founded the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra (WJO) in 1997, inspired by a vision of forming a professional big band with the best emerging and veteran musicians in Winnipeg.
Gillis and Boychouk were the right people at the right time, but the WJO also owes its roots to the collective efforts of many passionate stakeholders including the musicians, board members, volunteers and administrators who sensed a potential audience that was not being served. Their familiarity with the Winnipeg music environment (the key players, the marketplace, and the community’s appetite for jazz) gave them confidence in the capabilities of local musicians and out of that natural savvy and inherent enthusiasm, the WJO was born.
Commissioning new works and connecting with and inspiring students and young musicians is an integral part of the WJO vision. Today, the orchestra roster boasts 16 to 25 Winnipeg-based musicians whose combined resumes touch every corner of performance jazz locally, nationally, and around the world. WJO’s popularity has grown steadily over the course of the band’s history, from small, informal events in 1997 to a multi-concert season and sold-out performances at various venues around Winnipeg and in outlying communities.
Doors - 6:45pm
Show - 7:30pm
Tickets
$25.00 - $35.00
All tickets subject to ticket fees