PEI MUSIC AWARD WINNER
-Jazz/Blues Album of the Year
-Instrumental Album of the Year
EAST COAST MUSIC AWARD NOMINEE:
-Jazz Album of the Year
"...I was initially dumbfounded, and continually astounded throughout the entire evening's performance, by the mystifying work of Toms on guitar..."
-The Guardian, Charlottetown, PE
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Guitarist Ian Toms is a Prince Edward Island based musician who has been writing and playing jazz music for the past ten years. With a smooth and full sound, his approach to the instrument fits somewhere between Grant Green, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, and Lenny Breau.
A graduate of McGill's Masters in Jazz Studies program, Ian spent six years studying and playing with Montreal's top jazz musicians, including Joe Sullivan, André White, and Gordon Foote. In early 2005, Ian decided to move back to PEI and pursue his musical career from his hometown of Charlottetown.
Critics have described Ian as an "exceedingly fine player, fluid, very tasteful, and adventurous without being showy". Over the past ten years, Ian has performed over four hundred shows and has played with many jazz heavyweights including Doug Riley, Phil Woods, and Kevin Dean.
Ian was a featured artist and clinician at the 2006 and 2007 PEI Guitar Festivals and a featured artist at the PEI Jazz and Blues Festivals for the past three years. As the house guitarist for the 2005 Jazz by the Sea concert series at the Victoria Playhouse, Ian backed up some of Canada's top jazz musicians including Pat Labarbera, Christine Jensen, and Joel Miller.
OPEN, Ian's first album as a leader, was officially launched on the mainstage at the 2006 PEI Jazz and Blues Festival. The seven original tunes on the album range in texture from Kenny Wheeler-esque to straight-ahead organ quartet, with a solo piece and a vocal number thrown in for good measure. OPEN features several of Canada's top young jazz musicians including organist Vanessa Rodrigues, bassist Miles Perkin, baritone saxophinst Paul Nedzela, singer Julian Humphreys, and fellow Islander and drummer Richard Knox.
OPEN recently won Blues/Jazz Recording of the Year and Instrumental Recording of the Year at the 2006 PEI Music Awards. The album has also been nominated for an East Coast Music Awards for Jazz Recording of the Year.
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Praise for OPEN:
"Acoustic-electric guitarist Toms lives and breathes in P.E.I. but his jazz on OPEN is pure Montreal contemporary. The band on OPEN includes Paul Nedzela on raw and ready baritone sax, Vanessa Rodrigues playing superb backup on Fender Rhodes piano and Hammond organ, and Miles Perkin and Richard Knox giving firm support on acoustic bass and drums.
Toms is an inventive and resourceful player still in his early days, trailing clouds of academic glory behind him, a glory illuminated by an original mind underpinning its traces of schooling. All the tunes are his and the way the group knits together on them makes this CD a compelling listen."
-Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle Herald, Feb. 16, 2007
"Recorded as part of his masters thesis for McGill, Open showcases Toms’ talents as a player and as a composer with a set of seven original pieces that reflect both a diversity of influences and his own versatility.
Toms is an exceedingly fine player, fluid, very tasteful and adventurous without being showy.
He comes across on this indy release as a very economical player in the sense that he puts a lot out there but seldom, if ever, wastes a note.
In short, Open is all wheat, no chaff."
-Doug Gallant, The Guardian, July 7, 2006
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Praise for Ian Toms:
"Ian Toms has an exceedingly smooth and clean style, offering warm melodies and a fluid, laid-back vibe."
-indiepro.com, October 7, 2006
"Jazz guitarist Ian Toms played a beautifully fluid set of pieces that reminded me at least once of a young Wes Montgomery.
Bass player Ross MacDonald and drummer Richard Knox, who play frequently with Toms on Victoria Row on balmy summer nights, laid down a great foundation for Toms to build on and build he did. Toms, almost obscured from a view by guitar, is a textbook lesson in phrasing, time and class.
What a player!"
-Doug Gallant's review of an ECMA Showcase, the guardian.pe.ca, Feb. 17, 2007
"I was initially dumbfounded, and continually astounded throughout the entire evening's performance, by the mystifying work of Toms on guitar.
After hearing his first solo, in fact, I basically thought that I could just leave at that point, and I would have felt like it was all worth the drive and my time to come there, if only to hear that."
-Todd MacLean, The Guardian, August 26, 2005
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Check out the band:
A former student (and housemate) of Dr. Lonnie Smith, Montreal organ virtuosa Vanessa Rodrigues lends her talents to OPEN on Hammond and Fender Rhodes. She has preformed with some very heavy-hitters including Ronnie Cuber, Dave Douglas, Mike Murley, and John Abercrombie. Her recent recordings include a CD with saxist Dave Turner as well as her own jazz-funk album SOUL PROJECT.
Baritone saxophonist Paul Nedzela is a New York native who was living in Montreal at the time of this recording. He is currently a student in the elite Masters program at the Juilliard School in New York and appears on albums with the acclaimed McGill big band.
Prince Edward Island native Richard Knox has been playing drums with Ian Toms since 2001. He has performed with such jazz greats as Phil Woods, Pat LaBarbera, Alex Dean and David Restivo. Admired for his strong sense of swing and musicality, not to mention the energy to kick a big band, Rich Knox is a name to watch out for. Richard also appears on McGill big band recordings.
Holding down the bottom end of the band, Miles Perkin is a first-call bassist in Montreal. He has given concerts with saxophonists David Binney, Joe Lovano, and Chris Potter, and has performed duo with Bob Brookmeyer. Miles released an album as leader of his group COMMON THREAD in the fall of 2005 and is currently studying and playing in New York.
Now working in Toronto, singer Julian Humphreys appears on OPEN for one track, Walter. Julian has been described as “a classic sound” by Andy Sheppard of CBC’s AfterHours radio program. Julian has studied with Mark Murphy, Andre White, and Wray Downes, and recently released a beautiful album of standards entitled TIME AFTER TIME.
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OPEN was recorded and mixed by Andre White at Studio St. Urbain and mastered by Steve Bellamy at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Julia Schurman created the graphic design and Tiyanna Rushton provided photography.
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