Festival Headliner Terry Clarke at the Pearl Company October 31st

I don’t want to preemptively alarm anyone over the end of summer, but I’d like to bring your attention to your plans this Halloween. After you’ve picked through the candy bowl for your favourites and handed out the rest to the costumed supplicants at your door, I suggest you get yourself down to the Pearl Company. Because on October 31st we are very pleased to be featuring Order of Canada member  and Juno Award-winning drummer Terry Clarke alongside our Artist-in-Residence Adrean Farrugia and bassist Neil Swainson for what is sure to be one of the most exciting performances of the year. This one is not to be missed!

Now maybe you aren’t familiar with Terry Clarke and that’s okay, because you now have a perfect chance to get acquainted. Terry Clarke’s 50 year and counting career includes more highlights than can fit on this page, but still I can’t help sharing a few gems. Terry has worked with a whole host of jazz icons, including Oscar Peterson, Jim Hall, Paul Desmond, Lenny Breau, Toots Thielemans and Joe Lovano. When Terry was just 21 years old he played in front of 6000 people at the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival with alto saxophonist John Handy III; the performance garnered two Grammy nominations when it was released the following year. Check out the track ‘Spanish Lady’ from the album below:

In 1975 Terry recorded in Toronto with guitar legend Jim Hall and frequent collaborator Don Thompson, resulting in the album ‘Jim Hall Live!’. The trio toured extensively and in 1981 released the album ‘Circles’. Check out this blues composition from ‘Circles’, composed by Terry:

In 2009 Terry released his long-overdue debut record as leader, ‘It’s About Time’, earning Terry a Juno award for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year in 2010. You can hear Terry talk about the genesis of the album here, and listen to him with Don Thompson and Phil Dwyer, both featured on ‘It’s About Time’, at the Montreal Jazz Festival shortly after the album’s release below:

Hopefully this small sampler has started to get you as excited for this show as I am. We are lucky to have Terry play at this year’s festival, but luck is only partly to do with it. Without the support of our sponsors this show quite simply would not be possible. So an extra special thanks goes out Smordin Law, the Ontario Arts Council, NLP Canada Training and Merriam Music for supporting the Steel City Jazz Festival! You’ll be hearing more from us about our amazing sponsors in the weeks to come, but for now show your thanks by heading over to the ‘Sponsors’ section and giving one of the links a click, just to check out the work that they do. I can say without hyperbole that the 2015 Steel City Jazz Festival will be the best yet, and that is absolutely because of the support provided by these sponsors. See you on on Halloween!