Webinar Series with Jodi Proznick

We are absolutely thrilled to announce our upcoming webinar series with Juno-nominated bassist and educator Jodi Proznick!

The first event will take place on Sunday, November 22nd at 3pm MST via Zoom.

The cost is $20 per webinar, or you can purchase the whole four-part series for $70.

Please purchase tickets via our Eventbrite page.

The link will take you to the ticket price for the entire series, but if you scroll down, you can find tickets for the individual events as well.

We recognize that these are tough times. If the ticket price is a barrier to you joining us, please email us at buckingjampalace@gmail.com.

Happy learning and we can’t wait to see you online soon! Grab your tickets today!

BuckingJam Palace Presents: The Jodi Proznick Webinar Series

Sunday, November 22nd - What Makes Them Great? Legendary Jazz Bassists

A feature on great jazz bassists such as Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, Jimmy Blanton, Scott LaFaro and Israel Crosby.

Sunday, November 29th - The Roots of Jazz: Exploring the Blues

A focus on important female blues artists such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey and also various topics such as Chicago Blues, Boogie Woogie, “Race" records, Rhythm and Blues, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, the relationship of the field holler, country blues, folk music, etc.

You might even learn how to write a good blues lyric and melody yourself by the end!

Sunday, December 6th - Famous Canadian Jazz Couples: Partnerships on and off the bandstand

This is a feature on several notable Canadian personal and musical jazz collaborations featuring the likes of Tara Davidson and William Carn, Jennifer Scott and Rene Worst, Nancy Walker and Kieran Overs, Laila Biali and Ben Whitman, Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer, Bill Coon and Jill Townsend, Andre Wickenheiser and Sam Hindle, Jodi Proznick and Tilden Webb and more!

Sunday, December 13th - What Makes this Album Great? Night Train by Oscar Peterson

For some, jazz is often the "olive" of the music industry. Sometimes it’s an acquired taste! Join Jodi as she demystifies jazz through a guided listening adventure, featuring an iconic jazz record that also happens to be the album that hooked her as a young musician. Find out why!

*All webinars run 3-430pm MST*

An update on our ongoing response to COVID-19

We miss our community and hope you and yours are well! Through these strange and challenging times, we know we will gather again in the future. In the meantime, BJP has been working to expand ways that we can support the jazz community, paying attention to healthy protocols.

First, a couple of updates. The piano is still here! The loan by Yamaha Canada of the gorgeous C3 grand piano was up in June but given the times and the current impossibility of fund-raising, Yamaha has extended our time. This has allowed us to welcome local musicians for rehearsals, sessions, live-streams and recordings. There aren’t many venues in town that have a great piano on offer (and offer a free space) so this is a significant help to the local community at a time when it is most needed.

COVID-19 delays affected our application for charitable status through CRA but we are hopefully on track now. I have had incredible help from a CRA employee who has been kind and thorough, so fingers crossed that our application is approved soon. This will allow us to issue tax receipts for donations and will open up additional granting streams.

BJP received grant money from the Canada Council that has allowed us to hire musicians for a new on-line initiative we have developed called Jazz Connections. This program has three educational streams: BJP Webinars presented by jazz musicians; Jazz Notes, a video series featuring jazz compositions edited with commentary that explains the jazz structure and creative process; and Five Questions, a video compilation that introduces Canadian jazz musicians to listeners through a series of short answers to five engaging questions.

Our plan, dependent on grant money and donations, is to create a subscription portal on the BJP website that will give access to content we produce and provide an income stream that will allow us to develop further programming. This will create new revenue streams for musicians as we hire them to host webinars and edit videos and provide licensing fees for video use. It will also allow us to reach a global audience and raise the profile of Canadian jazz music and musicians.

Musicians are feeling particularly isolated right now so we organized a BJP hang for jazz musicians recently via Zoom. It was a big success and we are going to continue and expand that initiative to help musicians connect with other peers.

Be careful, be well, be hopeful. And be in touch: send us your thoughts and ideas about our new initiatives, suggestions for other areas to explore and musicians you’d like to see when concerts return. As always, we appreciate your continued engagement and support.