Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet

From Left to Right:

P. J. Perry, soprano sax, flute
Phil Dwyer, clarinet, tenor sax
Bill Mays, piano, musical director, arranger
Perry White, bass clarinet/baritone sax
Terry Clarke, drums/percussion
Neil Swainson, bass
John Johnson, alto flute/alto sax

The Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet combines jazz improvisation and classical themes. Instrumentation: rhythm section (piano, bass, drums) and four saxophones (doubling on flutes and clarinets). The group has performed for enthusiastic audiences in New York City (at the Tisch Center for the Arts and St. Mark's Church) and in Canada (at the Glenn Gould Theatre, Toronto; Banff Center For The Arts, Edmonton's Winspear Centre, Fort McMurray's Keyano Theater, Kamloops' Sagebrush Theater, Nanaimo's Port Theater, Regina University's Riddell Theater, Saltspring Island's "ArtSpring," Saskatoon's Broadway Theater, St. Albert, University of Calgary, Vancouver's Orpheum and Norman Rothstein Theaters, Vernon, Victoria's Alex Gooldin Theater, Whistler, Whitehorse's Yukon Arts Centre and Winnipeg's Berney Auditorium. Their music has proven to be entertaining for adults and children alike (and not specific to any one religious group). The enthusiastic response the group always receives demonstrates their program's wide audience appeal.

Sample Program:

   Overture Listen/Download mp3
   March
   Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Listen/Download mp3
   Dance of the Reed Flutes
   Arab Dance
   Waltz of the Flowers Listen/Download mp3

Review:

Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet
The Toronto Star, Weds. November 28, 2001
By Geoff Chapman, Music Critic

Septet's Debut A Taste Of Jazz Light

"Last night's debut concert by the newly minted Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet was a taste of jazz light, but mercifully never became jazz smooth, that musical opiate for the inattentive masses. The ensemble assembled in a full Glenn Gould Studio was led by versatile pianist-composer-arranger Bill Mays, a New York-based artist who recently recorded the same heady brew of anthems from jazz, Broadway and classics with the Manhattan Chamber Jazz Septet.

It wasn't a silly season stir-fry, though it was a grand excuse to use a cartel of composers beyond category. How else can you have Claude Debussy, Thelonious Monk, Mel Torme, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Maurice Ravel on the same program? Mays recruited four leading Canadian reedmen: P. J. Perry, Phil Dwyer, Vern Dorge and John Johnson to go along with pulse kings Neil Swainson on bass and Terry Clarke on drums.

The leader himself augments his arranging skills with the finesse of Jimmy Rowles, the spirit of Art Tatum and the drive of Horace Silver on the keyboard. An elegant My Bells was followed by the show tune made famous a second time by jazz guru John Coltrane, My Favourite Things, whose cadences were clearly among yesterday's sax players' favourite things.

This was followed by an unlikely Brazilian slant on Debussy's Clair De Lune before Perry's forceful bellows on baritone sax upped the thrill index again, as it led to equally quirky skirmishes among the players tackling Monk's Stuffy Turkey.

Mays' own Christmas Thanksgiving Prayer was soulful and rich, while Ravel's Pavane was enlivened by Dorge's flute. Just as this appealing show concept was showing signs of bogging down in neo-schlock, a spirited trio take on Snow Job provided the kiss of jazz life. The closing Mays' versions of six movements from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite were absolutely splendid with bravura sax soloing the epitome of chamber jazz."

To Book the Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet, Please Email Bill or P. J. Perry.