The Four Jays
Rose Gellert Hall Series
Saturday, November 23, 2024 – 7:30pm

Rose Gellert Hall Series Opener

Supporters and Government Partners

About The Four Jays

Long-time collaborators violinist Joan Blackman, pianist Jane Hayes and saxophonist Julia Nolan joined forces in 2017 to explore the luscious sound world that is saxophone, violin and piano. Sharing this music with an Abbotsford audience resulted in a name when the concert presenter exclaimed for all to hear “You’re not only the Three Jays, but the Stellar Jays”. Fast forward to 2020 and Jodi Proznick was brought into the “J” fold as part of a Vetta Chamber Music project to bring jazz into our classical world. With the isolation of Covid hitting the arts in unfathomable ways, it was with great joy that the four Js got together and explored jazz improvisation under Jodi’s smiling guidance. The concert video produced a product worthy of a 2021 Western Canada Music Award nomination. Now with concert series performances returning to normal, Four Jays is moving on with new projects and new repertoire that celebrates the joy of being in the moment, feeling free, going live!

Collectively The Four Jays (violinist Joan Blackman, pianist Jane Hayes, bassist Jodi Proznick, and saxophonist Julia Nolan) have been active professionally in BC for over 40 years, but recently came together as a quartet to explore the world of classical-jazz fusion. These four women have practiced in different musical genres, embracing traditional classical repertoire, contemporary music, and jazz. For Canada Music Week celebrations, they are delighted to perform a program that will include compositions written and/or arranged for the quartet by Jodi Proznick and Fred Stride.

About the Artists

Joan Blackman, violin
Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Vetta Chamber Music Society, Ms. Blackman enjoys a vibrant and varied musical life. She served as Associate Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for many years and has performed and recorded as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, Turning Point Ensemble and the Banff Festival Orchestra. She also teaches privately and has given masterclasses throughout BC. Ms. Blackman is known throughout Canada and the US as a fine chamber musician and has performed with premier groups such as the Penderecki String Quartet, the Purcell String Quartet and the Gryphon Trio. Besides performing and curating the Vetta Chamber Music series in Vancouver, she works with the Canadian Music Centre in their Celebration concert series. Joan is also a member of the Sea and Sky collective which has released two CDs and performs throughout BC.

Joan has appeared on numerous series including Music in the Morning, Music Fest Vancouver, the Jeffrey Concerts in London, Ont., and the American String Project. She has also appeared at summer festivals including the Hornby Island Festival, the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival, Kaimerata, and the Victoria Summer Music Festival.

“Your heart would need to be made of stone not to have loved Joan Blackman’s splendid solo “. “Shapelier phrases and sweeter tone would be hard to imagine”, “a ravishing tone”, “first rate soloist”, “exchanged lines meltingly in a flawless performance” “playing with lyricism, precision, and evident joy”; are some of the accolades that have graced Joan’s reviews.

Jane Hayes, piano
Since her debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Jane Hayes’ concerts have taken her across Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Mexico. An active recording artist, she has over 30 CDs available on many prestigious labels. Jane moved to BC in 1993 to become a faculty member in the newly opened Music Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Her passion for teaching was recognized when she received the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award in the Faculty of Arts. She has established a strong link with Chinese music schools, giving a series of recitals and master classes in 2017 at universities and private music schools to foster professional development among Chinese piano professors.

In recent years she has appeared on concert stages in every combination from duo through large ensemble, as soloist with orchestra to chamber collaborator. Awards as was “Sassicaia”, a CD devoted to Canadian repertoire for clarinet and piano. Her recent performance on a CD commemorating the life and musical legacy of composer Nikolai Korndorf was listed on CBC’s Top 22 of 2022. As an active member of Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble, Yarilo Ensemble and the Stellar Jays, recent tours have taken her to Spain and Eastern Europe.

Since leaving Kwantlen in 2020, Jane is maintaining an active performing, recording, teaching and adjudicating career. No matter what hat she wears, her focus is always on communication through music, talking a language that doesn’t need words.

Julia Nolan, saxophone
Julia Nolan has served as a clinician and international judge in Belgium, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States and as the Director of Scholarly Publications for the North American Saxophone Alliance. She is also an Artist-Clinician for Yamaha, Canada Ltd. and Rousseau Musical Products.

As an active performer, she has numerous commissioned works by Canadian composers and has recordings of new works for organ and saxophone by Denis Bedard (2014) and Prestidigtation by Robert Buckley with the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy (2015). More recently, Julia gave the U.S. premiere of Jeffrey Ryan’s concerto Brazen with the Lubbock Symphony and premiered the concerto Cool Cut by John Oliver with Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble. Julia recorded a solo and chamber CD Chromaticity with Joan and Jane and a CD of Canadian works with the Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet.

Dr. Nolan teaches saxophone at UBC and the VSO School of Music. She is an Artist-Clinician for Yamaha, Canada and Rousseau Musical Products.

Jodi Proznick, double bass
Jodi Proznick is a Canadian jazz bassist, composer, educator and producer. In 2019, she was named Jazz Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and has been nominated for three Juno Awards. She was also a recipient of the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Arts and Music Awards in 2022.

Jodi Proznick has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s finest jazz artists. She has won numerous National Jazz Awards, including Bassist of the Year in ’08 and ’09. Her group, the Jodi Proznick Quartet, was awarded the Acoustic Group of the Year and Album of the Year in ‘08 and the Galaxie Rising Star at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in ‘04.

In addition to leading her own group, Jodi has performed with many of Canada’s top jazz musicians, including PJ Perry, Don Thompson, Kirk MacDonald, Guido Basso, Oliver Gannon, Dee Daniels, Phil Dwyer, and Laila Biali. She is regularly in demand to perform and record with visiting jazz artists including Michael Bublé, Byron Stripling, Michael Feinstein, David “Fathead” Newman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Ed Thigpen, Jeff Hamilton, Peter Bernstein, Charles McPherson, Seamus Blake, George Coleman, Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Harold Mabern, Eric Alexander, Jim Rotundi, Eddie Daniels, Jeff Hamilton and Lewis Nash. In addition to recording her own Juno-nominated CD as a leader, Jodi has been featured on over 50 recordings as a side person.

Jodi began playing bass at the age of 13 under the direction of her father David, an award-winning music educator. In ‘93, Jodi received the General Motors Award of Excellence, establishing her as one of the top young musicians at Musicfest Canada, and then went on to receive a scholarship to study bass at McGill University in Montreal. After graduating, Jodi played with many of the top musicians in Montreal, including Juno winners Christine Jensen and Renee Lee as well as Montreal greats Andre White and Greg Clayton. She was awarded the IAJE Sisters in Jazz award in ‘98 as one of the best up-and-coming female jazz musicians.

Jodi moved to Vancouver in ‘00, where she now lives with her husband and collaborator, pianist Tilden Webb, and son Tristan. Her personal highlights include opening for Oscar Peterson in 2004, performing as a featured soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and recording numerous times for CBC Radio. Another highlight in Jodi’s career was when she was asked to be the featured bassist in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games’ closing ceremonies and soundtrack.

Jodi’s deep passion for education lead her to pursue a Masters Degree in Education at Simon Fraser University. She was a faculty member at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (2012-2020) and Capilano University (2003-2013) where she taught improvisation, jazz theory, jazz history, popular music history, rudiments, jazz combo and bass lessons. She is currently the Department Head of the Jazz Program, Artistic Director of the Summer Jazz Workshop and Sister Jazz Day at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music where she teaches jazz bass, combo, jazz history and jazz theory. She has been a guest adjudicator and clinician at many festivals, colleges, universities, and conferences across Canada including faculty at the prestigious Banff Center for the Arts. Her current project is Co-Artistic Director of The Ostara Project with pianist/composer Amanda Tosoff.

As well as an extensive background as a jazz educator, Jodi was involved in teaching early childhood music classes for over 15 years. Her methodology included a combination of Orff, Kodaly, Dalcroze, Montessori and Suzuki philosophies of music education. Her areas of interest include arts-based research, embodied educational practices, attachment, phenomenology and creativity.

She has been described as “… armed with an arsenal of talent sure to develop recognition as one of the finest bassist in the jazz world today” (Ejazznews), “… (playing with) an infectiously in-the-pocket sense of groove” (Cadence Magazine), “… a jazz bassist with great time and a rock-solid sound ” (Katie Malloch, CBC Radio), “ a great player, who plays with intoxicating passion” (RivitingRiff.com), and “a wonderful bassist who really digs in and plays from the heart” (David Fathead Newman – Coda Magazine interview).