Russ Weil and the Hamilton All Star Jazz Bands celebrate 40 years

Concerts for prime ministers, governors general, as well as Queen Elizabeth.

Ten CDs.

Twenty years of professional jazz concerts, with top flight artists-in-residence to boot, at their home base in Ancaster’s Old Firehall Arts Centre.

And those are just a handful of highlights from their 40 years of making great big band music.

Of course, we’re talking about none other than the Hamilton All Star Jazz Bands, who’ll be celebrating with a “40 Years: Anniversary Concert” on Saturday, May 11 at 7 p.m. in Redeemer University, 777 Garner Rd., Ancaster.

It all started in 1984 when Russ Weil found himself back teaching at Scott Park Secondary School (now Bernie Custis Secondary School) after having been at Hamilton Collegiate Institute, an all-Grade 13 school, where he’d taught some of the city’s finest high school music students.

“The thought came to mind, ‘Why don’t I start a city-wide jazz band?’ ” reminisced Weil.

And so he did.

“The beauty of it was you didn’t have to be in Grade 13 to attend,” said Weil of that inaugural band.

And neither did you have to be a student in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board system, a move that exponentially expanded the band’s base.

“The first year I had some incredible players,” said Weil. “The second year, they went to the Expo 86 national finals of MusicFest Canada in Vancouver. Two students there won scholarships to Berklee (College of Music) in Boston.”

In 1995, after a 10-year streak of consecutive regional gold awards at MusicFest, Weil ditched that competition’s age limit of 19, and opened up the band to older students. That year, they made the first of their five appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Younger bands were also inaugurated: the Junior Stars for 11 to 15 year olds, and then the Rising Stars for 15 to 18 year olds.

“The whole concept, although not new in Canada, is unique because there are multiple levels,” explained Weil. “There are other jazz bands. None are multi-level. None have lasted as long as ours. And now we have a non-auditioned adult group (After Hours). It’s all community based, self-sustaining, run by a group of volunteer board members, funded by the city and some arts foundations. We’ve just had a great time all these years.”

In 2018, Weil stepped away from conducting the All Stars in favour of wearing the organization’s executive director hat. Allan Gaumond, who’d played in the All Stars from 1995 to 1998 and had later directed the younger bands, took over from Weil.

“We’re trying to expose kids first and foremost to the real giants of the big band era,” said Gaumond. “That’s kind of our bread and butter. We also make a concerted effort to bring to the forefront music by Canadian artists, Rob McConnell, Kenny Wheeler, Don Thompson and the late, great Phil Nimmons (who recently died at the grand old age of 100). We try to cover all the bases as best we can.”

Weil counts some 1,000 HASJB alumni, 400 from the flagship All Stars band alone. From among the alumni who turned pro, there have been over 50 Juno nominations with at least a dozen winners, and four Grammy nominations with at least one winner.

Whichever career path those alumni took, Weil is proud of them all.

“The focus of the ensemble is on leadership and citizenship and musical excellence,” said Weil. “Our goal isn’t to supply the world with great jazz improvisers and musicians. It’s to make better citizens using music as a vehicle for that.

“When a teen group from Hamilton, Ont., has an open invitation to play the Montreux Jazz Festival any time we want to, it speaks pretty well of our community. And one of the things we’re most proud of is that no matter where you go, there are places that know about Hamilton and the youth musicians and what wonderful kids they are and how they contribute to an artistic world to make this a better place.”

Following the May 11 concert, Weil will step down completely and Gaumond will assume the artistic and executive director positions.

“I think 40 years is a long time,” said Weil. “I’ll still be at the other end of the phone when needed.”

The anniversary concert will feature sets by all three of the HASJB’s current bands: Nora Nolan’s Rising Stars, Mike Malone’s After Hours, and Gaumond’s All Stars. Guest alumni artists are saxophonist Chris Gale, vocalist Kaleigh Gorka and trumpeter Troy Dowding. MC is Hamilton native Steve Paikin, journalist and host of TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin.”

Tickets at hamiltonallstarjazz.org: $27.90 (all-in). Alumni are entitled to a free ticket via online registration.

Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m. in the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s Tanenbaum Pavilion, 123 King St. W., Chamber Music Hamilton presents “Baroque Realizations” featuring the off the beaten track lineup of classical accordionist Joseph Petric, countertenor Fernando Lima, Brent Fifield on chamber organ, and CMH artistic director Michael Schulte on violin, viola, violoncello piccolo da spalla, and his rare and curious violino in tromba marina, a legacy string instrument whose ancestry dates back to the medieval era. Selections include Purcell’s aria “Strike the viol, touch the lute” from “Come Ye Sons of Art,” the “Sinfonia” from J.S. Bach’s cantata, “Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (We thank you, God, we thank you)” BWV 29, an excerpt from his “Art of the Fugue,” and more. Tickets via chambermusichamilton.com or call 905-627-1627: $35; student, $15.

Sunday, May 5 at 3 p.m. in the Church of the Ascension, 64 Forest Ave., Roger Bergs leads his Musicata — Hamilton’s Voices in “Surround Sound: Music for Strings and Choir” with guest organist Stephen Boda. Selections include Bach’s cantata “Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ Lay in Death’s Bonds)” BWV 4, Haydn’s “Te Deum laudamus (We praise thee, O God) in C,” Bergs’s arrangement of “It is well with my soul,” plus pieces by Randall Thompson, Ola Gjeilo, Mozart and Bruckner. Tickets at door or eventbrite.ca: $30; senior (65-plus), $25; student, $15; under 14, free.

Sunday, May 5 at 3 p.m. in West Plains United Church, 549 Plains Rd. W., Burlington, Live!@WestPlains presents violinist Corey Gemmell and pianist Benjamin Smith in “Triumph over Tragedy.”

The recital will open with Mozart’s “Violin Sonata No. 26 in B-flat” K. 378.

“The remarkable thing for us with this work is the time when it was written,” said Gemmell. “Mozart’s mother had died a year earlier, giving rise to his ‘Violin Sonata No. 21 in E Minor’ K. 304, a very terse and anguished work. Yet, a year later (1779) we have this sonata that is full of the vibrancy of youth and optimism. This idea of life rising from the ashes of tragedy subconsciously became a theme for our program.”

The recital also includes Schumann’s “Violin Sonata No. 2” op. 121, Eugène Ysaÿe’s 1923 “Sonata for Solo Violin No. 2 in A Minor” op. 27, and Francis Poulenc’s 1943 “Sonate pour violon et piano.”

Tickets at westplains.ca: $36.85 or pay what you can; student over age 10 are $21.10; child aged 10 and under $10.55 (all-in, includes 60-day livestream video link); livestream only $15.80. Cash pricing at door: $35 or pay what you can; students over age 10, $20; child 10 years and under, $10.