Jazz Sudbury - 2011 Online Talent Search

Sarah Craig. With a beautiful full voice and amazing range, Sarah is a northern Ontario original with a unique style that is both modern and traditional. She performs jazz that hakens back to Django Rheinhardt, gospel that’s reminiscent of the Staple Singers. Yet it all sounds very modern. Sarah started playing locally in Sudbury when she was 19 years old, leaning first towards pop, and involved in Canada’s indie music scene. She toured the British Isles and Canada in 2003 and 2004. Along the way, she performed alongside such artists as Sarah Harmer, The Sadies, The Goode Brothers, and Tandy.

Richard Underhill’s warm alto sound, great writing and arranging skills and in-from-the-outside soloing make him one of Canada’s most distinctive jazz performers. His new project is 'Free Spirit', a critically acclaimed Live DVD/Studio CD set that features Lincoln Center Jazz trombonist Ron Westray and some of Toronto’s finest jazz players.

Richard, founding member of the Shuffle Demons, was awarded the Roy Thomson Hall Award of Recognition in 2008 for his contribution to Toronto musical and artistic community. He won a 2003 Juno Award for his jazz debut 'Tales from the Blue Lounge' and was nominated for the Prix du Jazz at the 2003 Montreal Jazz Festival. His debut video ‘The Old Guys’ climbed to No.1 on the Bravo! video chart and won a 2004 SOCAN Number 1 award.

His latest album 'Kensington Suite' has garnered significant critical acclaim and was nominated for a 2008 Juno Award and his 2nd album 'Moment in Time' was also nominated for a Juno Award in 2007. He also took home 2nd place in the International Songwriting Competition in 2008.

Christine Tassan is the lead in the group Christine Tassan et les Imposteures. These four musicians burst on stage and deliver a lively and outstanding concert. An all-female group is a rare thing in jazz and quite unique in gypsy jazz! With tremendous energy, on-stage chemistry and a passion for playing together, these musicians improvise with ease and sing as well! In concert, their pieces alternate from gypsy instrumental to vocal, always with original arrangements and rhythmic compositions!

Rita Chiarelli, Canada's most highly acclaimed female roots and blues artist, has just released the soundtrack for her award winning documentary, Music From The Big House, her 9th recording. With a Juno award and 4 subsequent Juno nominations, she is known across Canada as the "Goddess of the Blues".

Chiarelli is a gifted songwriter and an entertaining performer, but it is her soaring 3 octave voice that sets her apart from her peers, inspires awe and often tears in her audiences, and causes critics to gush.

The one thing Chiarelli is not; is predictable. Over the past five years she has released Cuore, a recording of traditional Italian folk songs, which won the World music category at the prestigious Canadian Folk Music Awards; Uptown Goes Downtown Tonight, a highly acclaimed collaboration with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra; and Music From the Big House, a documentary movie filmed in Louisiana, at Angola prison, which premiered in New York and L.A. Her CD Sweet Paradise, heralds a return to Chiarelli's blues roots, and is her first album of all original tunes since 2001's JUNO nominated Breakfast at Midnight.