Elmes leads a group of friends and colleagues assembled especially for this showcase concert. Joining him on stage are faculty members, Oscar Peterson Chair Ron Westray (trombone) and Kelly Jefferson (saxes and flute) with Reg Schwager (guitar), Lina Allemano (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Steve Wallace (bass). The playlist will feature new compositions by Elmes plus selections from previously recorded material.

Acclaimed as "an imaginative improviser and a mature composer" (The Ottawa Citizen) who epitomizes "contemporary jazz at its best" (The Toronto Star), Elmes has been a mainstay of the Canadian jazz scene since the early 1980s. A five-time winner of the Jazz Report’s Musician of the Year award, he has performed and/or recorded with a host of notable artists including Charlie Hayden, Dizzy Gillespie, Diana Krall and Ray Bryant. His discography – 60 CDs and counting –

includes four releases by his own ensemble, the Barry Elmes Quintet (two-time winner of Acoustic Jazz Group of the Year), and recordings by the contemporary jazz quartet Time Warp, which he co-founded and co-leads with Al Henderson.

Elmes represented Canada with Time Warp at the 1992 Venezuela International Jazz Festival and was featured with the Oliver Jones Trio on the Governor-General's tour of China, Japan and Korea in 1994. In 1996 he performed in Brazil and toured South Africa with the Canadian Jazz Giants. He toured Chile in 2000 with the Barry Elmes Quintet, and celebrated the ensemble’s 10th anniversary with a cross-Canada tour in 2001. He presides over the independent jazz label, Cornerstone Records, and is an in-demand performer at major festivals and jazz clubs at home and abroad.

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What: Barry Elmes Ensemble featured in York University’s Faculty Concert Series
When: Tues. March 2 at 7:30pm
Where: Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building, York University, 4700 Keele St. [Map]
Admission: $15 | students & seniors $5
Box Office: 416.736.5888 | www.yorku.ca/perform/boxoffice

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Media Contact:

Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University

416.650.8469  |  amy.stewart@yorku.ca