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  Do you like your jazz hot, with pulsating Latin overtones?

Do you like your jazz cool and contemporary, far removed from a paint-by-numbers approach?

Whatever your musical  tastes, Montreal jazz artist and composer, Ben Henriques, promises to present a concert at the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage on Saturday, December 3, that will leave audiences breathless.

“I love playing the traditional jazz standards that go back a hundred years or more, and I love playing my own jazz compositions,” Henriques said during a recent interview with The Morrisburg Leader. “When I play, I guess you could say I switch hats to  perform in both genres.”

Henriques, who performs on both the tenor and soprano saxophones, saw his CD, Ben Henriques and The Responsibility Club voted number two album of 2009 by Radio Jazz Plus. A noted performer in North American jazz clubs, Henriques is actually performing at Upstairs  Montreal on November 30, then turning the recording of that show into a new album in late December, 2011. 

Henriques is bringing three talented backup performers with him to his Morrisburg concert. Noted artists themselves, they are no strangers to the St. Lawrence Stage. Accompanying Henriques will be members of Trio Bruxo, who presented their unique Brazilian jazz at a concert last November. 

Pianist David Ryshpan, bassist Nicolas Bédard and drummer Mark Nelson are joining Henriques for the concert. 

“I’ve been playing with these guys for years,” Ben Henriques said. “Mark and Nick actually joined me in The Responsibility Club. I think audiences will find some distinct Latin overtones in this Morrisburg performance. We are all very fluent in a number of jazz genres, so I feel,” he added, “that you will definitely hear a very cool combination of sounds on the stage. Certainly some improvising will be going on. I’m very excited about this concert.” 

Jazz doesn’t fit into neat musical pigeon holes. Performers and music lovers alike talk of smooth jazz, of fusion jazz, of pop-jazz and cross-over jazz. 

When I asked Henriques about this, he admitted that it was difficult for him to “define my style. I guess contemporary jazz is the best description. Traditional jazz sees harmony as functional and logical. In contemporary jazz, you could say that we seek to write music in a different way. You can incorporate a large ensemble in contemporary jazz, mixing instruments, even electric ones, that just aren’t part of the traditional approach.” 

I asked Henriques when he first fell in love with jazz.

He laughed. “I first played the saxophone in the school band. The truth is, I picked what I thought was going to be the least hard instrument to learn, especially when I knew I was not good at reading music at all.”

However, the experience of jazz, and the freedom it gives a musician to improvise, started Henriques on a life time love affair with the sax. He is currently working on a Masters Degree in Jazz performance at McGill University. 

Along the way, a number of artists have had a profound effect on him. 

Mike Allen and Campbell Ryga, West Coast musicians, were Henriques’ teachers and mentors.  “Remy Volduc of Montreal was a big influence. But my absolute favourite artist is Sonny Rollins (a Grammy award winner whose many compositions are considered jazz standards). Rollins has the big sound, and the saxophone was the focus of his performances.”

Whether a person is new to the jazz sound, or a long time fan, Ben Henriques’ December 3 concert should be a must-hear event. 

“Hopefully people will feel that  they have seen something special on the stage,” Henriques said. “I think this concert will be a unique experience for concert goers, especially for those who may not have experienced a lot of the jazz scene. Hopefully, they will be happy. I’m really looking forward to the Morrisburg experience.”

The concert will be held at the Meeting Centre at 7 p.m., December 3. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door, at The Basket Case, Strung Out Guitars or at www.st-lawrencestage.com 

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  “Okay, now wave to everyone you want to wave to, and then we’ll start the play,” Kate Veinotte, teacher for the 2015 junior theatre school at Upper Canada Playhouse, told her young students on […]

 It’s probably a good thing that the Oakfield Golf and Country Club is a fictitious place. Otherwise, given the comic confusion that thoroughly engulfs its weekend guests, in a bright new production at Upper Canada Playhouse,  it might require a new name: the Oakfield Asylum.

Fortunately, audiences coming to see Michael Parker’s mad cap comedy, Whose Wives Are They, Anyway? will be glad they ‘checked in’ to the Oakfield Club where lots of laughter is delivered along with the room service.

“It’s almost a tradition at the Playhouse to start off our summer season with a classic farce,” said artistic director Donnie Bowes, who is also directing the production. “Michael Parker, the playwright, uses the sharp dialogue and the tightly written plot twists” that are the basis of traditional British farce. 

“Actually,” Bowes remarked, to the nods of the cast, “we laugh all the time rehearsing this show. It’s just that funny.”

An eight person cast and a script that moves at Mach 2, demand a versatile set design and a first rate stage crew. 

Fortunately, according to Bowes, designer Sean Free has been able to create two adjoining ‘bedrooms’ that take into account challenging sight lines and  complex stage actions. “Kat (Sokyrko) Jocelyn (MacDowell) and Liam (Collins) are fully occupied back stage and going at a frantic rate.” 

The actors are also going at a frantic rate in intensive final rehearsals. 

“It’s actually serious business to be funny,” Bowes laughed. 

The audience can expect a production that is polished, exhilarating and hilarious. 

David and John are just two normal, average guys, out to enjoy a golf weekend (without their spouses) before they take on new jobs under a new boss.  They sign into the Oakfield Golf and Country Club, unaware that said boss (played by Mary Ellis as “one who runs a very tight ship”) has also arrived for the weekend. 

In typical farce, this plot very quickly involves the sudden appearance of one or two seemingly ‘simple’ problems.  

“Then these ‘little’ problems create choices for John and David, the characters make them, and, in no time at all, everything goes totally mad,” Bowes said. “There is comic chaos.” 

Bruce Tubbe plays Wilson, the handy-man, who, according to Tubbe, “always has something wrong with me.” Kate Gordon as receptionist Tina, is cool and professional… “until she tastes champagne.” 

Erin MacKinnon and Vivana Zarillo, as the ‘wives’ Laura and Karly, unexpectedly arrive at Oakfield to surprise their spouses, and “walk into utter confusion. They are determined to get to the bottom of what is going on.”

Brenda Quesnel, as the manager Mrs. Carlson, believes she is in “the moral majority, but things get very complicated. Wilson is my nemesis.”

Garfield Andrews and Perry Mucci head up the cast as the hapless John and David. “Frankly, we go a bit mad when our boss arrives, trying to find solutions to the fact that our wives are not on holiday with us,” Andrews said. “Yes,” Mucci echoed, deadpan, “there are one or two problems for us with this golfing weekend.”

The puns, the double (even triple) entendres, the twists and turns will all be there in a production that promises to explode with comedic energy. 

“And, knock wood, nothing on the set will fall over,” laughed director Bowes.

Whose Wives Are They, Anyway? runs at Upper Canada Playhouse from June 6 to June 30. For tickets and information phone 613-543-3713 or 1-877-550-3650 or go on line at www.uppercanadaplayhouse.com. 

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