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Bernie Senensky

Toronto keyboardist Bernie Senensky has earned the reputation of being one of Canada's premier jazz artists. His playing has been featured internationally in many concerts & festivals, and he is recognized and respected as one of the foremost jazz pianists anywhere.

He was the only Canadian guest on "Oscar Peterson Presents", a CTV National TV series. He has also been a guest on Marian McPartland's renowned Public Radio show "Piano Jazz". In addition, Senensky has been featured on CBC radio and TV, and many of his concerts have been recorded by CBC (Jazz Beat), CJRT-FM (The Jazz Scene, Sound Of Toronto Jazz), and Global-TV (Sounds Impressive) to name a few.

He was twice voted "Best Acoustic Pianist" in the Jazz Report Awards, and he won the SOCAN award for "Best Jazz Composition" for his “BLUES FOR CLIFFORD”, a tribute to saxophonist Clifford Jordan.

He has quietly compiled a track record of 12 albums as a leader (three of which have received Juno nominations), and a long list of performances alongside jazz's biggest names, including Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Chet Baker, Zoot Sims, Art Pepper, George Coleman, Donald Byrd, Sonny Stitt, Art Farmer, Ernestine Anderson and Elvin Jones (who called Bernie "one of the finest pianists I have worked with in my career"). Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco described him as "The best of the best", while Bill Evans once said: "I could just sit and listen to him play all day!"

He has recorded with numerous artists such as: Pharoh Sanders, Rashied Ali, Moe Koffman, Dizzy Gillespie, Eugene Amaro, Salome Bey, Herbie Spanier, Peter Appleyard, Tisziji Munoz, Gary Bartz, Akira Tana, Harvie Swartz, Ray Drummond, Marvin 'Smitty' Smith, Bobby Watson, Marty Morell, Fred Stone, Nick Brignola, Kenny Wheeler, Craig Handy, Don Pate, Ted Moses, Ed Bickert, Claude Ranger, Michel Donato, Dave Leibman, Bob Moses, Cecil McBee, Terry Clarke, Bob Mover, Sam Noto, Neil Swainson, Pat LaBarbera, Jerry Fuller, Guillerme Franco, Keiran Overs, Barry Elmes, John Macleod, Don Alias, Eddie Henderson, Eric Alexander, Joe Farnsworth, Dennis Irwin & Chris Potter

Senensky's compositions have been recorded by Buddy DeFranco, Red Rodney, Lynn McDonald, Moe Koffman, Ed Bickert, Eugene Amaro, Don Thompson, Becca Duran, Arlene Smith, Georgia Ambros, Dick Berk, Lenny Solomon, Oliver Jones, Bill McBirnie & Pat Bianchi.

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27
Album Review

Bernie Senensky: Moment to Moment

Read "Moment to Moment" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Canadian pianist Bernie Senensky's latest album, Moment to Moment, encompasses two quartet sessions recorded almost twenty years apart: the first in 2001, the second (live) in 2020. While the rhythm sections differ on each, the one constant (aside from Senensky) is the acclaimed tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. If you are planning to have only one constant, Alexander is by any measure a superlative choice. Alexander, whose solos are models of creativity and eloquence, seems to light a ...

6
Album Review

Bernie Senensky: Moment to Moment

Read "Moment to Moment" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Bernie Senensky is a nuanced and adaptable pianist. Throughout his career he has shown an unparalleled improvisational approach to the material he chooses that crosses borders and generations. In this current release, entitled Moment to Moment, the music comes from two performance opportunities, from 2001 and 2020, and is anchored simultaneously historically and from the future. Joining Senensky in this back-to-the-future encounter are tenor saxophonist {[Eric Alexander}}, bassists Kieran Overs and Dave Young, as well as drummers Joe Farnsworth and ...

1
Album Review

Joe Coughlin: Dedicated To You

Read "Dedicated To You" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Joe Coughlin has been on the Canadian jazz scene since the late 1970s, when he began his performing and recording career in Toronto. . In 1995, he relocated to Vancouver BC where he continues to record and perform. Over the course of his career he has garnered many accolades and on two occasions was given the National Jazz Award Jazz Vocalist of the Year. This session in many way brings Coughlin full circle as he is ...

2
Album Review

The Cookers Quintet: The Path

Read "The Path" reviewed by Paul Beard


The Path is the fourth record to be released by Canadian group The Cookers Quintet and is a collection of eight originals, recorded at the Warehouse, Vancouver, that were first played to live audiences on a West Canadian tour in the fall of 2021, and then put down in the studio. The album continues the legacy of the hard bop era that dominated the jazz scene in the 1950s and 1960s and is brought to life by tenor ...

3
Album Review

Bernie Senensky Quartet/Quintet: Don't Look Back

Read "Don't Look Back" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


"Don't look back, something may be gaining on you." So said Satchel Paige, former MLB pitcher and social sage. Pianist Bernie Senensky probably did not have that quotation in mind when choosing Don't Look Back as the title of his album. He may have been more wistful as he checked the date of the recording (December 1989) and that all the participants were still here, including that marvel of longevity, trumpeter Sam Noto, who in January 2022 is 92 years ...

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7

Recording

Flautist Bill McBirnie releases The Silent Wish with Bernie Senensky

Flautist Bill McBirnie releases The Silent Wish with Bernie Senensky

Source: All About Jazz

The Silent Wish is the latest release from Canada's premier jazz and Latin flutist, Bill McBirnie, and it features Bill's superior craftsmanship along with that of his longstanding and formidable accompanist, Bernie Senensky, in an intimate duo setting, brimming with pristine acoustic clarity, that displays their uncommon levels of musicianship and simpatico as they explore a diverse range of material, integrated by a ubiquitous and enchanting “minor theme” inspired by Bill’s wife, Svetlana. Here are some reactions to Bill McBirnie ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Moment to Moment

Cellar Records
2023

buy

Don't Look Back

Cellar Records
2022

buy

The Path

Do Right Music
2022

buy

Dedicated To You

Cellar Records
2022

buy

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