Jane Fair CD Release this weekend at The Cellar

Posted on | September 13, 2007 | No Comments

by admin

In his 3 1/2 star review of Chances Are in today’s Vancouver Sun, Marke Andrews calls Jane Fair “one of this country’s great unknown musicians”. That’s pretty much on the money but maybe that will change with this release. Jane’s been an active musician, composer, and jazz educator in Toronto for three decades. As has been widely noted, she was the first female instrumentalist of consequence in Canada. But her recording activity under her own name has been virtually non-existent. There was a CBC album around 1971 and a more recent CD with the group she co-leads with bassist Rosemary Galloway. The new offering came about almost by accident when she was in Vancouver in 2003 to perform in Mother of Pearl’s review at Cap College, “SheBOP! – A Century of Jazz Compositions by Canadian Women” and took the opportunity, while here, to play at The Cellar with Bill Coon, Jodi Proznick, and Dave Robbins. The tapes made that night were not initially intended for release but everything clicked, the music was stunning, Brad Turner’s recording was superb, so it was decided to release a CD’s worth of the music played that night.

Disclaimer: in the interests of honesty and fair play (no pun intended) I should mention that I was involved with setting up the gig, having it recorded, and conspiring to have it issued on the Cellar Live label. But you know my taste is impeccable so trust me when I tell you this is a wonderful album and you should come down to the club on Friday or Saturday, check out the band, and pick up the CD at the special price of $10. If you can’t make it down, audio samples and ordering information are on the Cellar Live web site.

The Jane Fair Quartet
with Bill Coon, Jodi Proznick, and Dave
Robbins will be appearing at
THE CELLAR in Vancouver
September 14 and 15, 2007.

Visit cellarjazz.com or phone (604) 738-1959 to make reservations.

Jane Fair Interview

Guy MacPherson took the opportunity Jane’s presence in Vancouver afforded to talk to her about her career, jazz education, her new CD, and other matters.