This project featuring Winnipeg based musicians is an inspiring new direction for me. Winnipeg has produced numerous fine jazz musicians over many years, and the local scene currently has a number of excellent musicians within the jazz community. It is my pleasure to work with Fabio Ragnelli drums, Aaron Shorr guitar, Niall Cade saxophone, Andrew Littleford trumpet. We continue to explore our options in terms of the music we will present. Expect some classic quintet material ( Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis) and some original material from this stellar ensemble.
Fabio Ragnelli is a JUNO Award-winning drummer and has been an in-demand sideman performing, recording, and touring with a number of artists since graduating from Humber College in 2008.
While in New York City (2013-2018), Ragnelli studied with jazz luminaries such as Kenny Washington, Rogerio Boccato, and Nasheet Waits, and became an active member of Brooklyn’s vibrant jazz scene. Ragnelli has toured nationally and internationally, performing at venues such as Massey Hall, The Owl, Koerner Hall, Place des Arts, The 55 Bar, Cornelia St. Café, The National Arts Centre, The Cotton Club in Tokyo, Maison Symphonique, SF Jazz Center, The Blue Note Jazz Club, The Tranzac, and has also performed at a number of jazz festivals including Haiti, Halmstad, Monterey, and Montreal, among others.
Guitarist Aaron Shorr has been an active member of Winnipeg’s jazz community for nearly a decade. He has studied at Humber College in Toronto and the University of Manitoba, and has worked privately with New York guitar icons Jonathan Kreisberg, Peter Bernstein, and Miles Okazaki. Shorr is a highly accomplished and versatile musician. His work is informed by his love of the jazz tradition, as well as soul, folk, and classical music.
Canadian saxophonist Niall Bakkestad-Legare has performed at New York’s elite jazz clubs, including Smalls, Mezzrow, Jazz at Kitano, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, 55 Bar, the Bar Next Door, and The Shapeshifter Lounge, and with artists such as the Philip Harper Quintet, Quincy Davis Quintet, Jimmy Greene Big Band, the Curtis Nowosad trio and the multi-Grammy nominated Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Big Band. His composition and improvisations are shaped by both the Jazz and Classical traditions, with primary influences including Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Beethoven, Bach and Joe Henderson.
Andrew Littleford, trumpet, is an active member of the Winnipeg music scene, an accomplished multi-genre performer. He shares his warm, lyrical sound and effortless technique within the musical genres of jazz, funk, soul and pop music. Since moving to Winnipeg in 2010, he has become an in demand member in Winnipeg’s jazz community, playing regularly with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra and performing as a founding member of both the Dirty Catfish Brass Band and the Winnipeg Jazz Collective. He lends his talents to other Winnipeg groups such as the Ron Paley Big Band, Big Dig! Band, Hot & Dirty Dance Party, Sunny Roseland, PRZM, and The "B" Side Champs.
