Our regular Thursday Night Jazz Series concludes this week with a fifth annual appearance by Jennifer Scott and Rene Worst.
This special concert has its origins in the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 when we received a request from this great Canadian jazz duo: could they play a Thursday night concert, because they wanted to escape from the madness of Vancouver.
The result was one of the most memorable jazz evenings, where they played “for the hat” before a packed house. It was so successful that they made repeat appearances during the last three years; again to a capacity audience. Well, Jennifer and Rene are back at their request for a fifth consecutive year. We feel honoured to share this relationship with them, and to have them on our stage once more at 7:30 p.m.
Jennifer Scott is a singer and pianist born in Vancouver. She specializes in jazz, blues, and world music. She is considered one of the more important jazz artists working in Canada and the United States today.
As well as being a performer, she arranges and writes jazz and pop tunes, with several CDs containing a combination of original tunes, tunes she has arranged, and more traditional tunes. She has also appeared on many CBC recordings and has worked with many other musicians both live and in studio.
Rene Worst has been a professional bassist since 1971.
His virtuosic bass playing has been a Canadian treasure for many years on both acoustic and electric basses. He is as gifted on fretless as he is on acoustic - a rarity in the industry. Rene was educated both in Canada and the US. He is one of the founding members of the noted fusion band “Skywalk” and has anchored and produced six recordings with them. Rene is also a highly regarded producer.
Jennifer and Rene are joined by special guest Nanaimo drummer James McCrae. James is well known to local jazz lovers, and his appearance will expose us to another (cooler) facet of his prowess, compared to his more recent performances this season.
Rene reported last week from a teaching commission in Colorado Rockies, “We will be featuring music from our two recent CD releases and some great Brazilian tunes to go with your summer weather!”
Those readers who have experienced these wonderful artists need no further encouragement to see the show.
For others, come and hear the music for yourself: it doesn’t come any better. For a sampler, visit www.jenniferscott.ca and listen to the mp3 tracks.