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David Braid


"Braid has accomplished much for someone still in the early stages of a career. He has been evolving so quickly that he doesn't just need to be watched--he needs to be watched closely." - All About Jazz

Touted as one of Canada's most gifted young jazz pianists and composers, David Braid is a Juno Award winner, National Jazz Award recipient, and has performed extensively across Canada, Europe, Australia, Korea, Japan, China and other parts of Asia.

Braid graduated from the University of Toronto in 1998 and was nominated for the Canadian Governor General's Academic Medal. In 2001, the Canada Council for the Arts (JazzID program) selected and showcased Braid as one of five important young composers and jazz musicians in Canada.

Braid made a relatively late entry into music and an even later foray into jazz. After several years of dedicated study, he quickly earned respect from music critics for the quality of his contributions as a composer and performer to a wide range of projects including The David Braid Sextet, Nimmons'n'Braid, Brubeck Braid and Davidson/Murley/Braid Quintet (DMBQ). He is also a regular member of 12 other jazz ensembles including John MacLeod's Rex Hotel Orchestra, Mike Murley Septet, Metalwood, William Carn Quintet, Kelly Jefferson Quartet, Artie Roth Quintet, William Sperandei ensemble, and Nehring, Koller & Braid.

"...he's already secure in the senior ranks of jazz pianists... Braid the player, writer, arranger and bandleader is clearly a force to be reckoned with." - The Toronto Star

Braid was the recipient of the 2007 'SOCAN Composer of the Year,' which recognized his writing for the David Braid Sextet, the principal vehicle for Braid's compositional work since 2000. One notable work was a commission from the Global Knowledge Foundation to compose and perform a piece to honour Dr. Stephen Hawking during his visit to Toronto in 1998.

" ...Hawking loved David Braid's hauntingly beautiful composition, For Stephen Hawking, and accepted the CD recording with evident glee at the conclusion of his Convocation Hall lecture." - The Globe & Mail

Thirty-two-year-old Braid has written over sixty works and unveiled his first orchestral piece with the Winnipeg Symphony in 2005, which blended jazz form, symphonic composition and improvisation. Braid's open-mindedness in exploring different music style has allowed him to venture outside jazz circles, as recent engagements with symphony orchestras performing George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" has confirmed Braid as an artist of surprising versatility. He is continuing to explore this blended form through a commission to compose and record an album with the renowned classical quintet, The Canadian Brass.

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10
Album Review

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: Twisting Ways

Read "Twisting Ways" reviewed by Jack Bowers


For the better part of its latest recording, Twisting Ways, Canada's Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra may as well scrub the word “Jazz" from its name, as the music mostly bears scant resemblance to that time-honored genre. The overall mood may best be described as funereal, epitomizing themes of a mostly exploratory nature, interrupted all too seldom by passages that are more akin to the essence of traditional jazz. As the composers, David Braid and Philippe Cote, are well-known and well-respected in ...

464
Album Review

David Braid Sextet: Zhen: David Braid Sextet Live Volume II

Read "Zhen: David Braid Sextet Live Volume II" reviewed by Budd Kopman


Zhen feels like an important record: the compositions make big impressions, the playing is intense, and the sound is joyous. On this live set, we are listening to David Braid's regular sextet, which has been together since 2001 and was recently heard on Vivid (2004). That album, together with Mnemosyne's March (2006), another live album with Braid and Mike Murley, and Zhen, paints a picture of Braid as a player and composer who is growing astonishingly quickly. ...

602
Album Review

The David Braid Sextet: Vivid: The David Braid Sextet Live

Read "Vivid: The David Braid Sextet Live" reviewed by John Kelman


When the David Braid Sextet played at the 2003 Ottawa International Jazz Festival, the group nearly upstaged the headlining Yellowjackets. Sure, it was a bit like comparing apples and oranges, but Braid's deceptive compositions were intriguing in their accessibility given their complex nature of shifting meters and feels. And while the virtuosity of Yellowjackets is without question, many of Braid's compatriots demonstrated a similar penchant for muscular yet lyrical improvisation. This first impression of Braid was only confirmed when he ...

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121

Recording

New Recording by David Braid & The Canadian Brass

New Recording by David Braid & The Canadian Brass

Source: Chris M. Slawecki

Multi-award winning Canadian pianist David Braid is joined by the legendary Canadian Brass for Spirit Dance, a new album featuring jazz-inspired compositions for piano and brass quintet written by Braid. Inspired by everything from whirling dervishes to Frederic Chopin's Nocturnes to a walk in Beijing, Braid has created an array of new sounds that are intimate, spontaneous and warm. Spirit Dance is an exceptional fusion of jazz and classical aesthetics. This is the first collaboration between ...

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Recording

Opening Day Proudly Presents "Spirit Dance," The New Album Featuring David Braid and the Canadian Brass

Opening Day Proudly Presents "Spirit Dance," The New Album Featuring David Braid and the Canadian Brass

Source: Graziella D'Amelio

ALBUM RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 9, 2010 Multi-award winning Canadian pianist David Braid is joined by the legendary Canadian Brass for Spirit Dance, a new album featuring jazz-inspired compositions for piano and brass quintet written by Braid. Inspired by everything from whirling dervishes to Frederic Chopin's Nocturnes to a walk in Beijing, Braid has created an array of new sounds that are intimate, spontaneous and warm. Spirit Dance is an exceptional fusion of jazz and classical aesthetics. This is the first ...

108

Recording

Matt Brubeck and David Braid Unveil Their First Jazz Piano and Cello Duo Recording

Matt Brubeck and David Braid Unveil Their First Jazz Piano and Cello Duo Recording

Source: All About Jazz

This summer, American cellist/composer Matt Brubeck and Canadian pianist/composer David Braid launched their first jazz piano and cello duo recording. Brubeck and Braid's music blurs the distinctions between jazz, classical and new music. Twotet/Deuxtet explores how all these music genres interconnect with each other.The duo format provides a unique opportunity to showcase the intimate interplay of these two like- minded musicians who can easily segue between genres with fluid versatility.

About the compositions on Twotet/Deuxtet:

Huevos Verdes y Jamon (Brubeck): ...

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Performance / Tour

David Braid Sextet CD Promotion at the Rex, Toronto, Feb 22-23

David Braid Sextet CD Promotion at the Rex, Toronto, Feb 22-23

Source: Anita Wong

DAVID BRAID SEXTET John MacLeod, trumpet Mike Murley, saxophone Gene Smith, trombone David Braid, piano Steve Wallace, bass Terry Clarke, drums

Date/Run: February 22-23, 2007

Time: 9:30 p.m.

Location: The Rex Hotel Jazz & Blues Bar: 194 Queen St. West, Toronto, ON

Information: Tel:(416) 598-2475 Email: [email protected]

Details:

Canadian-born David Braid recently launched his third Sextet CD, ZHEN: The David Braid Sextet Live, Vol. II, following his 2005 ...

"a combination of intelligence and abandon; music making of the highest calibre" ~ALL ABOUT JAZZ

"...he's already secure in the senior ranks of jazz pianists... Braid the player, writer, arranger and bandleader is clearly a force to be reckoned with." ~TORONTO STAR

"If Mozart played jazz, he'd be David Braid" ~HALIFAX CHRONICLE-HERALD

"A Jazz Genius to Call Our Own" ~MACLEANS MAGAZINE

"No musician in Canada took such giant strides as David Braid did in his twenties, and this year, his 31st, might eclipse all that." ~JACK CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF 'The Music and Times of Miles Davis'

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Music

Bai Tian's Day

From: Verge: David Braid Solo
By David Braid

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