Stephen Robb
director – WInds, Piano
Stephen is an accomplished clarinetist jazz pianist, saxophonist, and arranger performing both classical chamber music and jazz idioms, performing the gamut from classical clarinet, chamber, and orchestral repertoire to jazz standards, original compositions, and free improvisation. Stephen is a graduate of Queen’s University at Kingston, McGill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Currently, Stephen is Music Director of the Delta Community Music School, and the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Richmond Delta Youth Orchestra. He teaches clarinet, saxophone and jazz piano at the Delta Community Music School. He is a member of the Kris Jay Trio and leads his own jazz piano trio.
Brad Muirhead
Trombone
Brad Muirhead is well known to audiences across Canada and Europe for his powerful sound and inventive improvising and has been involved in the Vancouver music scene as a performer, composer and arranger for more than 20 years. He has recorded and toured extensively with his own groups Primal Orbit and Brass Roots as well as the NOW Orchestra, Hugh Fraser’s VEJI, and the Hard Rubber Orchestra. His latest original projects as a leader are “The Brad Muirhead Quartet”, his original modern jazz outlet and “Propulsion”, a hard-hitting jazz/funk horn band with Brad on Tuba-bass. Brad has been very active as a music educator and has held such positions as Coordinator of the Banff Summer Jazz Workshop, Producer of the Vancouver & Victoria International Jazz Orchestra Workshops and Artistic Director of the Renfrew Community Performance Project.
Len Aruliah
Saxophone
Len Aruliah is a freelance musician active in London and Vancouver. He released his first album Full Circle in 2007 with a quartet playing his compositions and has recently recorded current works with a new sextet. In London, Len has worked with the Charles Condy Quartet, Paul Weinreb’s Tarantula, the Hot Orange Big Band, the 4Seasons Band, and his own groups. He has also toured the UK with singer Gene Pitney, worked in theatre orchestras in London’s West End, and has toured the world performing on cruise liners. Len studied at UBC and the Banff Centre, working with great musicians such as Julia Nolan, David Branter, Stan Karp, Fred Stride, Hugh Fraser, Kenny Wheeler, Pat LaBarbera, and Don Thompson. Len holds a B. Mus. degree from UBC and is an experienced music educator, having worked in various London colleges, academies, and schools.
Brent Gubbels
Bass
Brent Gubbels has been a Vancouver based professional musician and teacher for nearly twenty years. In that time he’s worked with a number of local musicians and ensembles including the Hard Rubber Orchestra, Gypsalero, Rumba Calzada, John Reischman, the Vince Mai Project, Jesse Zubot, Dal Richards, Lee Aaron and Dee Daniels.
Since 1992, he has toured North America and Europe extensively and played a variety of international jazz and folk festivals. Brent can be heard on recordings by Oscar Lopez, Gypsalero, Juno nominees Susan Crowe and Compadres, Juno winner James Keelaghan, and others.
Stan Taylor
Drums
Veteran Canadian jazz drummer Stan Taylor has been an integral part of the Vancouver jazz scene for more than 35 years. Stan has played with such artists as Kenny Wheeler, PJ Perry, Vinny Golia, Pat LaBarbara, Ray Anderson, Rob Blakeslee, Fraser MacPherson, Mike Stern, Glen Spearman, Peter Brotzman, Hugh Fraser, and Paul Plimley. In the1990s Stan co-led the legendary Kane/ Taylor Explosion which toured and performed in Canada and the US with the Kokoro Dance Company.
Current projects include Stephen Robb Trio and Daniel Miles Kane’s weekly jazz collective.
Stan’s primary focus over the last several years has been his teaching position at the DCMS and teaching and performing at the South Delta Jazz Workshop and Festival
ROn Samworth
Guitar
Ron Samworth (guitarist) is known on the Canadian improvised/contemporary music scene as an inventive textural improviser and a strong fluid soloist inspired by a variety of traditions including jazz, rock, contemporary and world musics. He leads the Vancouver-based quartet Talking Pictures and co-directed the acclaimed NOW Orchestra from 1993-2003. He is also a member of The Unexpected, a Montreal-Vancouver collective, the Peggy Lee Band, DarkBlueWorld, François Houle’s electro-acoustic quartet and the Hard Rubber Orchestra. He has appeared at all the major Jazz Festivals across Canada, the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, at New York’s Knitting Factory, and the New York Improvisation Festival, New Music America, Vienna’s “Let’s Cool One” Chamber Jazz Festival, Chicago and Berlin jazz festivals, and other leading venues in Europe. He has performed with many of the leading voices in contemporary music such as John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, George Lewis, Wayne Horvitz, Kuzuhisa Uchihashi, Yasuhiro Otani, Butch Morris, Han Bennink, Barre Phillips, Marilyn Crispell, Claude Ranger, René Lussier, and Jean Derome.
Jennifer Scott
Vocal Jazz Workshop
Jennifer Scott is a Vancouver-born vocalist and jazz pianist specializing in jazz, blues and world music. Jennifer is considered one of the most important jazz artists working in Canada and the United States today. From sold-out concerts in San Francisco to exclusive local club performances, Jennifer’s performance experiences have been varied. Jennifer has appeared at Jazz Festivals all across Canada and in several of the United States. She has also appeared with such jazz luminaries as: Tommy Banks, Don Thompson, Kenny Wheeler, Skywalk, and Hugh Fraser, to name a few.
Jennifer Scott has appeared on Jazzbeat, Westcoast Performance, and CBC’s Hot Air several times, and was selected to be featured on four separate CDs produced by the CBC. She has also appeared on several TV shows as a featured performer.
Interactive, Jennifer Scott’s self-produced CD, was critically received and has sold more than 1500 copies independently. Jennifer had two subsequent releases: Something to Live By, featuring Jennifer on Vocals, Bob Murphy on Piano, and Rene Worst on bass; and Live at Monk’s featuring Jennifer’s vocals and her debut as a recorded jazz pianist. Rene Worst is, again, featured on bass; and multi-reedist Tom Keenlyside is also featured.
Jennifer is pianist/vocalist for San Francisco-based Novo Tempo, a Brazilian/jazz Fusion group featuring the music of Ed Johnson. She has recorded 2 CDs and toured extensively with this group, including dates at Dizzy’s in San Diego and Catalina’s in Los Angeles. She was featured with jazz legend Clark Terry, performing with him at the Centre for Performing Arts in Vancouver.
After a few years of performing and traveling, Jennifer returned to the studio to record her fourth CD, Emotional Girl. Produced by her husband, Rene Worst, this CD showcases Jennifer’s expanded emotional, performing, and creative ranges.
Jennifer and Rene then teamed up with S.F. Bay Area saxophonist Kristen Strom, guitarist Scott Sorkin, and drummer Jason Lewis to form Crossing Borders, a new international jazz group that performs and records music from the heart, whether an artful reworking of a standard or a new take on a classic pop tune.
Jennifer Scott is in demand as an educator and clinician both in the United States and Canada, and has taught and created many workshops and college courses.
For more information visit jenniferscott.ca
Dr. Laura Harrison
Vocal Jazz Workshop
Dr. Laura Harrison has returned to Vancouver, BC after a 20-year detour in Los Angeles, California. In all seriousness, she loved working in Southern California and was a performing musician, composer, arranger, director (both at the undergrad level and in sacred music), author, and private instructor in voice and theory. She was the typical music educator and performer in Southern California which means she worked 7 days a week, 12 hour days.
Before leaving Canada, she completed a Bachelor of Music degree at Capilano University and a Bachelor of Education degree at UBC to become a high school teacher. After being a teacher for a few years at Maple Ridge Secondary School, she was recruited by the Department Chair at the University of Southern California. Laura was granted a teaching assistantship to pursue graduate studies. She finished her Master of Music (2002) and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies at USC (2007).
She is pursuing a unique, broad-spectrum vocal career equally represented in both the Jazz and Classical arenas. Dr. Harrison is a dedicated educator who has worked with a wide array of high school, college, and university students for over 30 years. Laura is currently a jazz arranger, composer, author, private voice instructor, and a full professor of Jazz Studies at Capilano University. Dr. Harrison’s private vocal studio allows her to work with students from all walks of life with varying abilities and interests.
Laura has been writing and executing curricula in a wide array of music courses during her pedagogical career. Dr. Harrison’s student-centred approach to teaching theory/sight-reading has become popular in the music communities she serves. Her love of theory and passion for teaching inspired her to write Enjoying Music Theory (ISBN-13:978-0986415401) and is used as a textbook in the United States. She felt the need to have a theory book deliver complicated theoretical concepts in a concise, clear manner. Dr. Harrison further wanted the language to be conversational and humourous. Those that have been using her theory book (and her approach to teaching musicianship) have given Laura positive feedback on the success of their students.
Dr. Harrison began her career at Capilano University in 2018 as a full professor in jazz studies. In addition to the vocal ensembles, Laura teaches a myriad of classes including theory, arranging, and pedagogy.
Laura is far from idle in her career. She is re-writing her ‘Enjoying Music Theory’ book to include all subjects required for advanced placement high school classes, she’s writing a second book about beginning improvisation for vocal jazz students using transcriptions of solos from the masters of the artform. Due to demand, Laura is now selling her vocal jazz arrangements. Please consider going to www.lauraharrisonmusic.com for more information.