Brian O'Kane

Biography
Articles

Brian O’Kane is the Head of the Brass Department at Humber College in Toronto is a regular member of John MacLeod’s Rex Hotel Jazz Orchestra (Juno Award 2010), the Barry Elmes Quintet, and has performed and recorded with groups including the Rob McConnell Tentet, The Boss Brass, Hilario Duran’s Latin Jazz Big Band (Juno Award 2006), and the Bernie Senensky Quintet. He has also backed up a lengthy list of international artists including Paul Anka, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Diana Krall, and has appeared on numerous radio/television jingles and theatre productions as well as at jazz festivals across Canada and abroad. Brian has also performed with classical ensembles including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, True North Brass and the Hannaford Silver Street Band. In 2008 he was featured as an artist/clinician at the 33rd Annual International Trumpet Guild Conference held in Banff, Alberta.

Kevin Goss: Gratitude

by Kevin Goss
July 4, 2025

As I approached the “big five-oh," I started doing some thinking about how much I have to be grateful for: a supportive family, meaningful friendships, and music. I wasn't supposed to make it to the “big oh-five," but I beat the odds and, in the years since, it is my family, friends, and music that have made my life better, along with a couple of goofy dogs. “Ted's Kick" is a boogaloo blues with a bridge. I wrote ...

Album Review

Barry Elmes Quintet: Night Flight

Read "Night Flight" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
February 2, 2024

Barry Elmes is a drummer and composer who, over the years, has made notable contributions to the Canadian jazz scene. On the release Night Flight, he pays tribute to several iconic composers such as Charles Mingus, Cedar Walton, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and Hank Mobley each of whom had made a deep musical impression on Elmes. He showcases this through his creative voice, using their compositions as the framework. Joining Elmes for this pianoless release are ...

Album Review

The Composers Collective Big Band: The Toronto Project

Read "The Toronto Project" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 18, 2023

The term Composers Collective is quite often a thinly veiled phrase that signifies “experimental" or “avant-garde" jazz. Thankfully, that is far from true on the Composers Collective Big Band's irrepressible The Toronto Project, which carries the listener on a buoyant and colorful musical journey through Canada's largest city, capital of the province of Ontario and home to a number of superb jazz musicians. True, there are some moments when the Collective veers from conservative to exploratory, but ...