Good vibrations
Top vibraphonist heading home for jazz festival
SYDNEY — One of the world’s top vibraphonists will be the featured artist at this year’s Cape Breton Jazz Festival.
Vibraphonist Warren Chiasson will play at Cape Breton University’s Boardmore Theatre on Saturday, Aug. 3, at 7:30 p.m.
Cape Breton Jazz Festival founder Carl Getto couldn’t be more pleased about Chiasson’s upcoming gig.
“Warren, of course is a Cape Bretoner, having moved to New York, more than 50 years ago,” says Getto. “During this time away, he established himself as one of the top vibraphone players in the world. His involvement in the festival is certainly a celebration of his own accomplishments but also a celebration of the Cape Breton jazz players of his era, who grew up in Cape Breton playing jazz during the 1950s and 1960s.”
The Cheticamp-born Chiasson has been described as “one of the six top vibraphonists of the last half century” by the New York Times. Not bad for a kid who began his formal musical training at age nine on classical violin and, by age 13, playing sessions with local fiddlers.
Later he played the trombone in high school but when he turned 15, he heard a George Shearing recording of “I’ll Remember April” which led him to study jazz. He listened to recordings by Shearing, Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano and Duke Ellington, memorizing solos on guitar and piano but it wasn’t until he saw vibraphonist Lionel Hampton perform in Sydney that he realized that was what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing. He left college, enlisted as a trombone player in the Royal Canadian Artillery Band and practised the vibes eight hours a day. The hard work paid off when he landed a vibraphone audition with the George Shearing Quintet. He won the audition and his jazz career was launched.
In addition to recording his own albums, he has played opposite such greats as Dave Brubeck, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden, B.B. King and Roberta Flack.
These days, Chiasson is actively involved in jazz education and he continues to do concerts and festivals around the world.
This year’s Cape Breton Jazz Festival will run from July 29 until Aug. 3. Further artists are expected to be announced over the coming weeks.
If you can’t wait until then, Getto assures the regular Saturday afternoon jazz event at Daniel’s Pub on Charlotte Street in Sydney will continue with a combination of instrumental and vocal classics.
“This event has been very successful in providing a weekly event for jazz fans.”