thank you, Waterloo, Merrickville and Montreal. What a pleasure it was to play for intense listening audiences. Wow!
Thank you to the Grand River Jazz Society and the Jazz Room in Waterloo, and thank you to Merrickville’s Jazz Festival and the Baldachin Inn. Thanks also to the Ottawa Jazz Scene for being there and for their wonderful review and fabulous pics by Brett Delmage! Fern Lindzon Trio performs at Merrickville's Jazz Fest

thank you also to the Upstairs Jazz Club in Montreal. What a thrill to play there!

Please join us on Thursday, October 29 at the 120 Diner on Church St. I’ll be playing duets with fab bass player Dan Fortin – Monk, Sexsmith, Jobim and some “holiday” surprises.

WMM tour

October 17, 2015

in News

Waterloo, Merrickville, Montreal. The tour has begun.Jazz Room
It started last night at The Jazz Room in Waterloo with George Koller and Mark Kelso. What a fantastic club and a great way to start a tour!
Next up is Merrickville where George Koller, Michel Delage and I will be closing out Merrickville’s Jazz Festival -tomorrow, Sunday, October 18. Thank you to Alayne McGregor and the Ottawa Jazz Scene for this wonderful interview.
On October 20 I’ll be playing at the fantastic Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill with Montreal bass player Joel Kerr. It’s always a treat to play with Joel!

welcome

August 18, 2015

in News

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you’re enjoying the summer as much as I am. I’m taking some time to learn new material, write new arrangements and to listen to as much music as I can. There’s no end.

I had a couple of wonderful projects in June that gave me the opportunity to explore something new: being a musical director for a theatrical show – Jewish Radio Hour – written and directed by Theresa Tova, and I also performed an entire concert of Thelonious Monk tunes – ones that had lyrics added to them. Over the next several months I look forward to adding some of the Monk pieces to my repertoire. They’re truly wonderful!

I kick into high gear in the fall with concerts at the Old Mill, Lula Lounge and the Jazz Room in Waterloo. I’ll be the headlining the Merrickville Jazz Festival just outside of Ottawa and finish my mini tour at the fantastic Upstairs Jazz Bar in Montreal. Phew!

All the details can be found on my shows page.

Feel free to get in touch or just say hello. fern at fernlindzon.com

June!

May 26, 2015

in News

What an exciting month!

June 6 – Chalkers Pub. Chalkers is one of my favourite rooms. The Shigeru Kawai grand piano is top notch, and the sound in the room is fantastic! I’ll be playing a mostly Monk concert in preparation for my concert in Barrie on June 17. But not just Monk: Monk’s music set to words which I’ll be both singing and playing.

June 17 – Jewish Radio Hour. Theresa Tova wrote and will be directing and starring in this fantastic show at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. We begin rehearsals on June 4. I can’t wait to be the Musical Director! There are only a few seats left.

June 19 – Barrie Jazz and Blues Festival. “Carmen sings Monk”. This is a huge project. Monk continues to teach me a ton about the piano, playing jazz and just having fun. Carmen is an inspiration. The repertoire is amazing.

Details can be found on my shows page

 

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be playing with some of the finest musicians on the planet at one of the most beautiful jazz rooms in the world – The Jazz Bistro. The Bistro has fantastic sound, a wonderful (red!) Steinway piano, great food and it’s super comfortable. George Koller (bass) and I have been playing together for years. He plays on all of my records and produced the last two. Mark Kelso is an incredible drummer and they both sound amazing together. I’m tickled to be adding on the exuberantly fantastic Chris Gale (sax) on our second night. Please join us Wed April 8 and Thursday, April 9. I’ll bring the matzo! see my shows page for details.
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I’m going to Alberta and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Bassist extraordinaire George Koller will be coming with me from Toronto and we’ll be adding fabulous drummer Mark Segger to the mix! Our first stop is Calgary, then on to Edmonton and Invermere, BC.
Please see my events page for deets!
Fern and George

valentines and chocolate

February 9, 2015

in News

Please join me, Brendan Davis and Nick Fraser on Valentine’s Day, Saturday, February 14 at Chalkers Pub for a special evening of jazz and chocolate. Remember, it’s an early start at Chalkers. We’ll be playing from 6 PM – 9 PM. Details are on my shows page.
We’d love to see you!

news and reviews

September 11, 2014

in News

A huge thank you to all of the radio stations across Canada who have been playing Like a Circle in a Spiral over the last few weeks. In particular, thank you to CILU, CFBX (#2 on the jazz chart), RadL, CJAM (#3) and of course, Jazz.FM and CBC. A huge thank you to Bill King for inviting me to be a guest on his show on CIUT. We had a delightful conversation about our favorite singers and influences. You can hear the whole show on mixcloud.

Warmest thanks to Stuart Broomer for his review in the September issue of TheWholeNote Magazine. Thanks also to Shelley Gummeson for reviewing the CD on !earshot–the go-to website for national campus and community radio. I am honoured. Thanks so much to Scott Yanow for his very kind words in the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and to Irwin Block for his review in The Senior Times, Montreal.

I was thrilled to perform at this year’s Ashkenaz Festival with two different wonderful artists. It was so much fun to be reunited with my “Barry sister” Lenka Lichtenberg to back up Cantor Simon Spiro with a rocking Moishe Oysher song.

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And I loved performing Theresa Tova’s wonderful and evocative Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman repertoire for the finale of the Ashkenaz Festival! Here we are during our sound check.

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the whole note

September 2, 2014

in Press

Like a Circle in a Spiral, The Whole Note, September 2, 2014
by Stuart Broomer

Fern Lindzon is a rare jazz singer, her strong identity based on nuanced expression, a clear, almost silky voice, and a freedom from the collections of mannerisms that many jazz singers use to distinguish themselves. Instead, her work seems to grow from her solid piano playing and the empathy that exists with her band. For her third CD, Like a Circle in a Spiral (iatros IMO3 fernlindzon.com), she moves deftly between languages and styles, singing songs in Hebrew (Mishaela) and Yiddish (A Malekh Veynt) with the same idiomatic comfort that marks the more familiar Windmills of Your Mind. The most striking piece may be her arrangement of alternative pop songwriter Ron Sexsmith’s Jazz at the Bookstore, a richly ironic rendition in which accomplished jazz musicians (saxophonist David French, bassist/producer George Koller, vibraphonist Michael Davidson and drummer Nick Fraser) get to “play” jazz musicians.

whole note

!earshot

August 28, 2014

in Press

Like a Circle in a Spiral, !earshot, August 28, 2014
by Shelley Gummeson

Elizabeth Barrett Browning said, in her letters to R.H. Horne in 1839, “the luck of the third adventure is proverbial’.

Juno Award-nominated singer and pianist Fern Lindzon’s third recording Like a Circle in a Spiral is indeed an adventure in song. She reimagines classics and makes her original songs seem timeless.

In this recording Fern personifies a woman who lives confidently with her own instincts and artistry. She has taken 11 songs that span distance and time and made them personal with her vocal and musical arrangements. There are moments where she is smart and smouldering, sublimely elegant, and flowing in her interpretations. In addition to some originals, the album includes an eclectic grouping of the work of Michel Legrand, Mary Lou Williams, Cole Porter, Yiddish ballads, and a contemporary Israeli song sung in Hebrew.

The framework of the album rests on Lindzon but she has some wonderful accompniment with Michael Davidson on vibes, David French on sax, George Koller on bass, and Nick Fraser on drums. Flutist Bill McBirnie is like icing on the cake on two of the tracks.

Lindzon sets the stage for the album with the Ron Sexsmith tune “Jazz at the Bookstore”. The song lightly admonishes our habit of listening with half an ear in urban settings, but Fern makes it tres cool.

I haven’t thought about the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” in years, or “Night and Day” for that matter. Both are wonderfully renewed and inventive in Lindzon’s hands.

You’ll hear French or Spanish on many recordings but on Like a Circle in a Spiral you’ll hear Hebrew and Yiddish, which really makes ths album interesting to listen to. Language is a beautiful thing especially when it’s underpinned by music.

Fern Lindzon has really raised the bar with this album, and who knows, maybe third time will be the charm.

earshot