Sean Ferris was the 2011 Doug Riley Artist. The title is given every year to an Island musician who carries on the spirit of Doug Riley, the keyboardist and composer known as Dr. Music who retired to PEI and died in 2007 . Ferris fit the bill. He is a composer and arranger with a long interest in modern techniques, and he had the range to take on Riley's catalogue without flattening it.
He played St. Paul's Anglican Church on Thursday, August 18, at 6:30pm. The show was presented by The Guardian. It was not a solo recital. Ferris put together a band. He called it a "cast of thousands" with tongue firmly in cheek, then admitted it was just seventeen people .
The tribute
The program was split in two. Half of it was Riley's music. Jazz tunes from his repertoire, and chart-topping hits from Dr. Music, the R&B and soul big band Riley led in the seventies and early eighties. The other half was Ferris's own compositions, plus a couple of covers he loves. Anyone who knows Ferris expected a version of Jan Garbarek's "Mission: To Be Where I Am." He did not disappoint.
The guest list was a who's who of the Island scene. Drummers Alan Dowling and Matt MacEachern. Bassists Chris Budhan and Devin Hornby. Guitarists Chris Corrigan and Norm Zocher. Singers Meaghan Blanchard, Catherine O'Brien, Julain Molnar, Terry Hatty, and Joey Kitson. Pianists Don Fraser and Max Keenlyside. Alex Dean on tenor. And a horn line of Rowan Fitzgerald, Peter Bevan-Baker, and Doug Millington. Seventeen players, one church, one night.
Who he is
Ferris was born in Pembroke, Ontario, and studied composition at McGill University in Montreal . He is a founding member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. His work has been presented internationally, and it covers a lot of ground. Electroacoustic music. Installations. Experimental music videos. Avant garde chamber and orchestral pieces. Music for film, television, dance, and theatre. He is not the kind of composer who stays in one lane.
He lives in Charlottetown with his wife and daughters . He teaches at Holland College's School of Performing Arts, where he works with students on improvisation . He also plays around town. If you have been to a jazz show on the Island in the last fifteen years, there is a good chance you have seen him.
That night
A Thursday evening in the church, the week already in full swing. A seventeen-piece band playing Doug Riley's music, plus Ferris's own work, in a room with the best acoustics in town. It was the kind of show that only happens at a festival. Too many moving parts for a regular club night. Too much history to ignore. The festival gave Ferris the title, and he used it to put on something worth remembering.
For the current festival, head to the schedule page or the main lineup page. This archive is kept for looking back.