The Yardbird Suite Jazz Orchestra directed by Dean McNeill presents:

The great Marion Evans composed and/or arranged all the music for this show. Evans’ career includes composing and arranging for Judy Garland, Tommy Dorsey, Percy Faith, Count Basie, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, among a multitude of others. Evans also orchestrated music for many Broadway shows and films including ‘Some Like It Hot.’ In recent years Evans has written arrangements for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, winning a Grammy award in the process.

The voice of Steve Lawrence is known to all those who love the iconic male jazz voices of the 1950-60s. Lawrence’s LP ‘Swinging West’ (all arrangements by Marion Evans) is a lighthearted and fun-filled recording that will be featured throughout this concert. Lawrence’s recordings are known for their swinging good time vibes as is Evans’ all-instrumental LP ‘Ted McNabb & Co.’ which will comprise the other half of the repertoire for this show.

Edmonton born and raised / Downbeat Magazine award winning trumpeter Dean McNeill has led many big band projects over the years, most recently in his capacity as Artistic Director of the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra. Dean’s debut album ‘Prairie Fire’ was met with critical acclaim as was the more recent album ‘The Saskatchewan Suite: The Story of Us’ in which he played lead trumpet. Dean has been awarded the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival’s Special Recognition Award and numerous University of Saskatchewan Teaching Awards. He’s performed on four albums, each nominated for Western Canadian Music Awards (one of which won a WCMA) and he will receive the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Province of Saskatchewan) in January of 2023.

For over three decades, award winning Edmonton artist Dave Babcock has earned his reputation as one of Canada’s finest saxophonists, his soulful playing steeped in the living traditions of jazz and blues. Known by most for his saxophone playing, Dave’s also a multi-instrumentalist, singer, bandleader, producer, musical director and clinician, equally at home onstage or in the recording studio. He’s appeared on two Juno Award winning albums and was nominated for a Maple Blues Award in 2009 and a WCMA in 2011. Dave rose to prominence as a bandleader with his hard-swinging jazz group The Jump Orchestra in the early ‘90s, and later with his high-octane blues band The Nightkeepers, both ensembles he continues to front today.