CANCELLED Phoenix Jazz Group

Thank you Ian Soper for donating the piano tuning!

The Phoenix Jazz Group performs jazz in a melodic fusion style. Group members are very versatile in a number of different genres. A review from The Jazz Society of Oregon stated " they're a Canadian quartet of musicians with impressive credentials whose program of all original music swings with ease. " Since their debut album " Extensions " was released in 2009, the music of The Phoenix Jazz Group has received ongoing airplay on Canada's Premier Jazz Station Jazz FM 91.1 in Toronto as well as on jazz radio in the U.S. and over 60 other countries worldwide. Phoenix performed at the 2018 Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival in Waterloo ON. https://www.phoenixjazzgroup.ca/

JOHN McLELLAND, Piano and Keyboards, has performed with many of Canada's jazz notables including singers Trish Colter, Rita Di Ghent, Jackie Richardson, Heather Bambrick, Barb Lica and instrumentalists Phil Nimmons, Rick Wilkins, Alex Dean, Peter Appleyard, Dave McMurdo, Ted Warren, Duncan Hopkins and Mike Malone as well as American jazzers Louis Smith and Mike Grace. He has performed internationally at the Focsani Blues Festival in Romania with Barb Lica and Chris Cigolea and at The Queenstown International Jazz Festival in New Zealand with Jason Thornton. He holds Bachelor of Music ( Honours ) and Bachelor of Education degrees from The University of Western Ontario, studied at The Banff School for the Performing Arts and spent three years in New Zealand teaching Jazz and Improvisation at James Hargest College.

ANDY KLAEHN, Clarinet and Saxophones, is a dynamic multi-talented, professional musician, bandleader, and master teacher. He is a highly sought after soprano, alto and tenor sax player as well as a flute and clarinet player performing with various artists in a wide array of collaborations from duos to sextets. Andy is an active member of the Faculty of Music at the University of Guelph as well as a woodwind teacher in local private studios.

SCOTT NEARY is an international touring musician, and an award winning guitarist/composer/arranger. He is a graduate of the University of North Texas Master’s of Music program, where he was a member of the Grammy Nominated One O’Clock Lab Band, and can be heard on their recording Lab 2013. Scott has was a faculty member of UDLA (Universidad de las Americas) in Quito, Ecuador, from 2013-2014, where he taught theory, arranging, ear training, ensembles, and guitar performance.

Now living in Toronto, Scott maintains a busy schedule as a freelance guitarist/pianist/vocalist, songwriter, arranger, music educator, producer, and music director.

JOHN GODDARD, Percussion, is very active in both the jazz and classical idioms. During his career as a jazz drummer he has performed with a variety of recording artists including Carol Welsman, Peter Appleyard, Phil Nimmons, Shirley Eikhard and Heather Bambrick. His experience in the classical field has included gigs with a number of orchestra and theatre companies in South-Western Ontario. In addition to maintaining a private percussion studio he enjoys his positions as Director of the University of Guelph Concert Winds and instructor of Applied Percussion.

GREG PRIOR, Bass, is a feelance bassist who has performed with the Waterloo Chamber Players, Big Band Theory, as well as Michael Wood, Ernie Kalwa, Andriy Tykhonov, Tim Moher and many other artists. Before he moved to Waterloo from Calgary he performed with The Lethbridge Symphony, The Red Deer Symphony, and the Symphony of the Kootenays. He has toured with many artists at Jazz festivals throughout Canada and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Greg studied and performed in Havana,Cuba with the Latin jazz ensemble Masacote. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Calgary and studied at the Banff School for the Performing Arts.