Sharon Minemoto concert, Georgia Straight Jazz Society

The Georgia Straight Jazz Society is proud to host the Sharon Minemoto with Laura Crema
Sunday October 19th, 2008
Elks Home, 6th Street, Coutenay

From Sharon's web site sharonminemoto.com:

Since the age of sixteen, Vancouver based jazz pianist and composer, Sharon Minemoto has been performing to audiences around the world. In 1997, Sharon started her own quintet made up of Canadian jazz greats Brad Turner on trumpet, Ross Taggart on tenor saxophone, Darren Radtke on bass and Bernie Arai on drums. This band performs her original compositions and has recorded four shows for CBC Radio as well as a CD released on Cellar Live Records entitled, "Side A". The album spent eight consecutive weeks in the top 10 for the Canadian national jazz and blues charts, Chartattack.

Sharon's groups have been featured at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, The Powell Street Festival, The Hornby Island Arts Festival, Festival Vancouver, the Jazz On The Wing series in Whitehorse, YT, and at Club JZ in Shanghai, China.

The Show begins at 7:30 and the seating is limited in this intimate comfortable setting.

Tickets are available at Bop City, Thursday evening Jazz Club at the Elks and at the door.

Ken Lister on bass and Paul Townsend on drums complete the quartet. Veteran jazz bassist Lister has recorded with the Hugh Fraser Quintet and the Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation (VEJI), and performed with many other jazz greats including Pat Coleman, Kenny Wheeler, Don Thompson, Joshua Redman and Herb Ellis. Drummer Paul Townsend fronts his own quintet in addition to playing regularly with Minemoto, and has opened for Joe Lovano, Oscar Peterson and Clark Terry.

In addition to composing, Sharon puts her arranging talents to work on standards and pop tunes for her trio featuring bassist Paul Rushka and drummer Paul Townsend . The trio is coming out with their debut CD called "You Can See The Ocean From Here" in Spring 2008.

Sharon holds her Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Performance from Capilano College in North Vancouver. While she was a student there, she was selected from applicants across North America as the pianist for the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) College All-Star Band. Since graduating, she has studied with pianist Geoff Keezer in 1999, and then received a Canada Arts Council grant in 2000 to study composition with Don Thompson in Toronto.

In addition to her quintet and trio, Sharon has also performed in ensembles led by Alan Matheson, Cory Weeds, Fred Stride, Dee Daniels, Joani Taylor, Laura Crema, Karin Plato and Jennie Emery as well as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Phoenix Chamber Choir. In March 2006, she toured in Europe with Persian pop legend, Dariush. Recently, Sharon did some arranging and recording for the ABC TV Series, "Men In Trees".

Sharon is a faculty member in the School of Music at Vancouver Community College. She has also taught at workshops and and masterclasses at the UBC Summer Music Institute, The Shawnigan Lake Music Workshop, Capilano College, the Smithers Jazz Retreat, the Douglas College Jazz Institute and at the Shanghai International School. As an adjudicator she has worked at the Vancouver School Board Jazz Festival and at the Rotary Music Festival in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories.

A native of Vancouver, vocalist Laura Crema possesses a lush, unique instrument with great depth and resonance, her influences are broad and diverse as she blends jazz with popular music and improvisation.

Laura Crema graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Fine and Performing Arts, and Economics. She has studied at the Banff Centre for the Arts with legendary jazz vocalists Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton and in Washington State with Nancy King and Kurt Elling. She has trained in extended voice with master teacher Richard Armstrong and studied music at Vancouver Community College.

Laura is an accomplished dancer, choreographer and interdisciplinary performer. She has received numerous awards and grants including an "Emergence" Canada Council Grant for her work in the interdisciplinary arts. She has performed and worked with RADIX Theatre, the Karen Jamieson Dance Company, Touchstone Theatre, Olivia Thorvaldson, Grant Strate, Deborah Dunn, Catherine Lee,... composers she has worked with include, Jeff Corness, Peter Hannan, Ron Samworth, Cam Wilson and George McFetridge.

She was featured, along side five of Canada's finest jazz vocalists, at the 2001 DIVAS FOR LIFE concert benefit at the Vogue Theatre. Laura Crema was featured in CBC Radio's Studio One Jazz Series during the Vancouver International Jazz Festival 2002 and 2004 and she has also been showcased on CBC's "Hotair", "After Hours", "Coastal Grooves", "Richardson's Roundup", "North by Northwest" and Alberta's CKUA.

Laura's CD "Almost Blue" was released under the Maximum Jazz record label/Universal Canada and has received excellent reviews and radio airplay in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. "Almost Blue" has been featured in Air Canada's Enroute magazine. Her latest recording "Spring is Here", was released Fall of 2007 by Maximum Jazz/EMI Canada and was named Vocal Jazz Recording of the Year by Jazz Journalist James Hale (Downbeat, Coda) in the Annual Village Voice Jazz Poll Ballots.