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NEWS photo Clady Bettsmy

WITH A fitde help from a Canada Council grant to study in New
York, Nosth Vancouver's Renee Rosnes has pone from being a local
jazz planist to an acclaimed performer in big leagues. Despite
her sudden successes, which indude working with famous jazz
names like Jee Henderson and Wayne Shorter, Rosnes remains
modest and genuinely enthusiastic about her work.

AROUND TOWN, the North Shore News’ entertainment listing, is the
place to look for live theatre, concerts, galleries, dance events, and pub
and club performances. Running every Wednesday, Around Town lists
North Shore and Lower Mainland entertainment happenings.

Deadline for the Wednesday appearance of Around Town is the Fri-
day morning prior to listing.

_Only written information can be accepted.
‘ North Shore.
Centennial Theatre: Mostly Burns, A
variety concert. Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. $12
and $10. VTC, 280-4444.
W.V. Secondary School: Le Theatre

Dorieg the month of January, millions
of throughout the world will be
odebreting the 230th anciversary of the
birth of the poet ROBERT BURNS.
Why do they celebrate whet they call

7 eve = heh Yaron
, Faun OK JA (TUES. JAN. 24 Ff
521-7420 987-PLAY 276-1812 |
f ALL SHOWS 8:00 PM. $12.00 ADULT
: $10 SENIORS AND STUDENTS
TICKETS: VVC. 280-4444
PARTY RATES: 987-5879
or 436-8432

21 - Wednesday, January 18, 1989 - North Shore News

with jazz greats

THE SLENDER figure of a woman looks out of place
behind the piano at the smoke-filled Blue Note Jazz Club

in New York.

But this dingy room in the jazz
capital of the world, where men
— particularly black men —
dominate the scene, is where
North Vancouver’s Rene Rosnes
made her mark as a jazz piano
virtuoso.

Not in recent memory has
there been a Canadian jazz story
like Rosnes’: having scored a
Canada Counci! grant to study
jezz in New York only 3% years
ago, Rosnes, 26, has already
toured with tenor saxophonists
Joe F’cnderson and Wayne
Shorter, both huge jazz names;
hooked up with trombonists
J.J.Johnson and trumpeter Jon
Faddis; and recorded with sax-
men Gary Thomas and Sonny
Fortune.

Oniy a few years ago Rosnes
was playing the Vancouver jazz
circuit, doing the edd job with
saxophonist Roy Reynolds and
guitarist Oliver Gannon. Now the
word off the Big Apple's grape-
vine is that Rosnes may be up for
a gig with jazz giant Miles Davis.

“Gary (Thomas) who works
with Miles told me that a friend
of his had heard me and liked
my stuff,” says Rosnes. ‘‘Gary’s
from Baltimore so | thought hey,
it was some guy from Baltimore.
But then he said in this stern

des Geants. A taste of French theatre.
Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. $6.50. Info: 926-0451.

MARTIN
MILLERCHIP

listings coordinator

Mo

North Shore

N.S. Museum: Flying High. An histori-
_ cal look at mode! aviation. 209 W. 4th

St. 987-5618. Weds. to Sun. from 1 to 4

p.m. Free.

voice, ‘Now Renee I'm just go-
ing to say this to you once. If
Miles Davis should call you,
don’t be a fool — do it.”

The way things have been go-
ing for Rosnes lately, her chances
of playing with Davis are looking
extremely good.

With little time for rest be-
tween three European tours —
one with Shorter, another with

EVELYN
JACOB

feature writer

Henderson and the third with
her sextet Cut of the Blue —
Rosnes has been home in New
York a total of three months last

ear.
And 1989 promises to be no
less hectic, with a trip to Brazi!

with Johnson, and in May, a U.S.

’ State Department tour of the

Eastern Bloc nations with Faddis.
Currently Rosnes is polishing
off her own album for the Japa-
nese label Toshiba-EMI, to be
released in the U.S. in April by
Blue Note Records, featuring
works with Shorter, Herbie Han-
cock and Branford Marsalis. It’s

Seymour Art Gallery: Ted ing. Land-
scapes in colored graphics, air brush
and India ink. .

: Robin Morum. Carvings from Zim-
babwe. Mon. to Fri. fram 9 to 4 p.m.
and Wed. eve from 7:39 to 9 p.m.
Presentation House Gatlery:
Photographic Memory, The complex-
ities of personal, ancestra! and collec-
tive memories. Why are things as they
seem? Six artists work in a show origi-
nally organized at the Seattle Art
Museum. To Feb. 26. Hours: Weds.-
Sun., 12-5 p.m. and Thurs. 12-9 p.m.
$2 and $1. 986-1351.

N.V. City Hall: Sue Bengtson. Acrylic
flowers. 141 W. 14 St. To Feb. 15.
Station Museu: Old tins, unusual ar-
tifacts, fire and sports equipment. Sun-
days only 1:30-4:30 p.m. Free. Mahon

Rosnes’ first project as a group
leader, but she says she stil!
values the experience of working
as a sidernan.

“| Tike it, but I'm not used to
being a leader. ! don’t want to
stop being a sideman. Look at
Wynton Marsalis — he’s so ex-
perienced that people won't let
him go back to being a sideman.
t think that way you get too big,
and | still want to work with and
learn from a lot of great musi-
cians.”

“I'd love to work with
Miles,” she says suddenly, “‘I
would have died to play with
him in the ‘60s. Just to be around
him would be educational.”

Rosnes has already received
“training” from Cedar Walton,
Mulgrew Miller and Jim McNee-
ly, an impressive honor roll of
keyboard tutors.

Training for classical piano
began at age three, but it wasn’t
until Handsworth band conduc-
tor Bon Rebagliati exposed her to
great jazz recordings that Rosnes
became a jazz convert. -

“He's (Rebagliati) the main
reason why | got into jazz,” she
says. ‘I didn’t even like jazz
when I first heard it.”

Despite making it into the big
league, Rosnes clearly hasn’t lost
her enthusiasm for her work: “I
feel very fortunate to be where |
am now,” she says modestly,
‘but people don’t hire you
because you're the greatest
musician ever. It has a lot todo
with attitude, determination and

‘getting along with people.”

Park, 16th and tones.

N.V. Courthouse: Lou McPhedran.
Watercolors. Mon.-Fri., 8:30-4:30 p.m.
200 E. 23 St.

N.V. District Hall: Jil! Pless. Oil paint-
ings. Mon.-Fri., 8:30-4:30 p.m. 355 W.

Queens Rd.

W.V. Memorial Library: Muriel _
Patricia Clarke, Watercolors by this
well-known 'W.V. artist.

North Shore

Capilano Cotlege: Rasdale Duo.
Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn. Free.
Room H113. Jan. 24, at 1 p.m.

The Bridge House. Restaurant
3650 Capilano Road, North Vancouver

(opposite the world-famous Capilano Suspension Bridge)

987-3388

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