WCRA

Named for the sixth month of the year and a semiprecious stone said to protect anyone travelling by night or by water, Junestone is the innovative and illuminating musical vision of Olivia Brown, Borys Franiczek, Ian Aisling, and Justin McHugh.

Audiences are transported through endless floors of heavenly wonder as the band’s strikingly eternal love for jazz, funk, and indie alt-rock transfigures into psychedelic songs of fun and freedom. This music is for people who just want to be themselves.

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Web: https://junestone.io/

Singer-songwriter Sammy Jackson (BMus, HBA) is quickly becoming one of Canada’s top vocalists, with a personal style that deftly blends jazz, pop, and R&B. With a resume that boasts a JUNO Award, collaborations with top artists such as Barbra Lica, Robi Botos, Rich Brown, and Larnell Lewis, and performances at some of Canada’s most prestigious venues, including the Glenn Gould Studio, Koerner Hall, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, and Westben, Jackson consistently captivates audiences with her singing, compositional accomplishments, and collaborative artistic spirit. Her latest EP – the JUNO-Award-winning “With You” – is a sophisticated, intelligent, heartfelt portrait of a musician coming into her artistic prime, and features some of the top young musicians in Canada.

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Website: https://www.sammyjackson.com/

Ryan Gazzola’s music combines pop songwriting with a love for retro musicianship and musicality. Originally from Vancouver, the Toronto-based singer-songwriter started a new project in 2022. “With this project, I am attempting to marry the sweet and catchy melodies of modern music with grooves built on the backbone of funk and soul instrumentation”, Gazzola explains, “it has a wide range of inspirations, from modern contemporaries: Maroon 5, Tom Misch, and Shawn Mendes, to icons: Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.”

The independent songwriter performs across Canada live with the four-piece Ryan Gazzola Band, a group of talented musicians formed during Gazzola’s time studying at McGill University (Montreal).

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Insta: https://www.instagram.com/RyanGazzola/

Robert Lee is an emerging upright bassist, composer, and bandleader in the Toronto jazz scene. His musical interest started with the violin before switching to the bass. He is a graduate of the University of Guelph and Humber College music programs. He obtained his Master's in Contemporary Performance from Berklee Valencia in 2021. Lee has had the opportunity to study and perform with Neil Swainson, Ted Quinlan, Allison Au, Mike Downes, Geoff Young, Lorne Lofsky, Kieran Overs, Pat LaBarbera, Kirk MacDonald, Andrew Scott, Kevin Turcotte, Amanda Tosoff, Andrew McAnsh, Nick Mancini (Los Angeles), Perico Sambeat, Matt Baker, Magda Giannikou, and others.

He has performed at various venues and festivals across Ontario and internationally, including the Toronto Undergraduate Jazz Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Newmarket Music Festival, the Kensington Market Jazz Festival, the Toronto Fringe Festival, Jimmy Glass Off Festival, MusicFest Canada, and the TD Toronto Jazz Festival (2023)

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robertleebass.com

Insta: @robertleemusic

FB: https://www.facebook.com/robertleebass

Grand Prize Winner at the 2023 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Canadian jazz singer-songwriter Ori Dagan has attracted a dedicated and growing audience worldwide. He brings a wry and agile sense of swing to everything he does, whether interpreting a standard, spinning a pop tune on its head or introducing his own original music and lyrics. Dagan's rich bass-baritone is unmistakable. His consistently forward-thinking style is inspired by hundreds of heroines and heroes, including Sheila Jordan (with whom Dagan recorded a duet in 2017).

Kicked off by the audaciously truthful "Viruses," which netted him a Grand Prize at the Great American Songwriting Contest, Dagan’s 2022 release "Click Right Here" solidifies his strengths as a lyricist. The album is a darkly humorous tongue-in-cheek sendup of life in the digital age, with songs about online dating, social media and other 21st-century blues ironically paired with the old-school sound of an 8-piece jazz band. "Click Right Here" was praised by John Devenish of JAZZ.FM91 as “fun, provocative, fancy-free and spirited,” while George W. Harris of Jazz Weekly proclaimed: "Rare are the male singers these days who are just as clever with the pen as the vocal sword. Toronto-based Ori Dagan fits into that category with this clever release of originals." 

Ori’s previous recordings, S’Cat Got My Tongue (2009) and Less Than Three <3 (2012), established his creative artistic voice. In 2017, with the support of an ambitious crowdfunding campaign, he collaborated with seven directors from around the world on the visual album Nathaniel: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, which garnered him invitations to headline around the world, won critical acclaim and recognition at film festivals worldwide, as well as an official showcase at SXSW. During the pandemic, Ori’s weekly live-streamed concert Jazz It Up garnered over one million views collectively. He has entertained thousands across Canada and has performed in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, Macedonia, and Germany. In July 2023 Ori Dagan placed on the Downbeat Critic's Poll in the Rising Male Vocalist category.

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Insta: @oridaganjazz

Heather Bambrick is a JUNO-nominated vocalist who has collaborated with Phil Nimmons, Fred Hirsch, Gene DiNovi, Guido Basso, Lea Delaria, Rob McConnell, Peter Appleyard, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, and others.

Heather has released three solo recordings, including You’ll Never Know, which was nominated for Vocal Jazz Recording of the Year at the 2017 JUNO Awards and Jazz Recording of the Year at the 2018 East Coast Music Awards.

Heather has been a featured guest on numerous projects, and has been awarded Canada’s National Jazz Award for Vocalist of the Year.

Beyond singing, Heather is one of Canada’s top voice actors, voicing characters for commercial campaigns and several animated series including Emmy-nominated Wild Kratts, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and Justin Time. She is also an award-winning broadcaster on JAZZ.FM91 (Canada’s only all-Jazz radio station), and a highly regarded adjudicator and clinician, working at schools and festivals across Canada.

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Web: www.heatherbambrick.ca

Insta: @heatherbambrick