Hosts

Ross Porter

Photo: Don Dixon

Host of Music To Listen To Jazz By, Saturdays 9AM to 11AM, President and Chief Executive Officer of JAZZ.FM91 since July of 2004, Ross Porter is acknowledged by jazz lovers from coast-to-coast as Canada’s preeminent jazz broadcaster.

Before assuming the senior executive role at JAZZ.FM in July of 2004, he was widely known for a distinguished career as a Radio and Television broadcaster and producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. For eleven years, Porter hosted a daily national show on CBC Radio 2, and covered pop culture for CBC Television's The National and CBC Newsworld's On the Arts, becoming integral to the careers of many of Canada’s most successful performers, including Diana Krall, Molly Johnson, Jane Bunnett, and Holly Cole.

As an executive for CanWest from 2002 to 2004, Porter developed, launched, and spearheaded programming for Canada’s national music channel COOLTV, also managing day-to-day operations at CanWest’s 24-hour jazz station, COOL-FM.

Throughout his early career, he amassed an impressive list of commendations as a producer for network radio documentaries on music icons including Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Chet Baker, and created critically acclaimed television documentaries on the lives of legends Oscar Peterson, Joni Mitchell, Moe Koffman, Quincy Jones, George Harrison, Brian Wilson, and Diana Krall.

Recognized for his impeccable taste in music, his unique delivery, and his innate ability to articulate the colorful jazz landscape for radio listening audiences across the country as executive producer and host of CBC Radio’s highly successful daily “After Hours” jazz show, Porter also shared his passion and unique understanding of the jazz genre with international air travelers as host of Air Canada’s in-flight audio jazz channel for several years.

His lengthy list of background credentials also includes stints as a respected print journalist, serving as a music columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press and as a jazz reviewer for The National Post. In 2006, McLelland and Stewart published Ross Porter’s first book,The Essential Jazz Recordings: 101 CDs. A consistent best seller ever since, it is now in consecutive printings.

Since assuming his current position as President and CEO of JAZZ.FM91, Porter has repositioned the station as an important force on the broadcast landscape, regionally, nationally and internationally. As a first priority after assuming the management helm in 2004, he eliminated the station’s $800,000 debt and was responsible for delivering some of the highest ratings in the station’s history.

He relocated the station to its current home in the trendy Liberty Village area of Toronto, and supervised its design which features a live performance hall at its centre, to allow many of Canada’s best performers to appear live in front of an audience, for broadcast around the world.

As a strong advocate of new and social media, Porter commissioned the JAZZ.FM91 iPhone app which has since been downloaded almost 500,000 times, and the recently launched iPad app which has now achieved 50,000 downloads. He also created the station’s four on-line audio streams.

High-impact community outreach initiatives he has spearheaded are extensive and include the creation of the JAZZ.FM91 Youth Big Band, the Jazz 4 Kids music series, the Jazzology radio show (an accredited part of the curriculum at four post-secondary institutions) the JAZZ.FM91 Thinkers Series (an interactive lecture series showcasing eminent speakers who personify some of pop culture’s pivotal moments), and the on-line teaching resource – the Canadian Jazz Archive. The station’s revitalized and expanded Sound of JazzConcert Series recently celebrated its 37th anniversary at the same time as Porter developed a parallel Cabaret performance series.

In 2005, Porter created the landmark annual fundraising event Jazz Lives (now held at Toronto’s Koerner Hall). For the last nine years the live concert hall event has been acknowledged as one the premier jazz events in the country featuring leading performers from around the world, and selling out every year just days after the talent line-up is announced. Pat Metheny, Branford Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Ramsey Lewis, John Scofield, Bill Charlap, Terence Blanchard are among the legendary jazz artists to have appeared in recent Jazz Lives concerts.

Winner of numerous honours and accolades throughout his illustrious career, Ross Porter was accorded the 2000 CanWest Award for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Jazz’ by friend and mentor Izzy Asper. The prestigious National Jazz Awards named him ‘Broadcaster of the Year’ in both 2002 and 2004. In the Spring of 2009, Porter was nominated, by the Jazz Journalists Association, for the Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award for Broadcasting.

His interest in music is diverse. In the late ‘70s, he worked as Road Manager for the Ottawa-based Cooper Brothers, an award-winning rock band who were signed to the prestigious Capricorn Records label in the U.S. Porter worked in the Cultural Industries in Manitoba where he was key in developing the careers of Fred Penner and the Crash Test Dummies. He was a member of the Oscar Peterson National Committee which commissioned Canadian artist Ruth Abernethy to create a commemorative statue at Canada's National Arts Centre. In June 2010, Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh unveiled the sculpture in Ottawa. He also chairs the Music Advisory Committee at Humber College in Toronto.

Ross Porter studied at the University of Ottawa, Algonquin College and the Schulich School of Business.

Jamie Cullum

Jamie Cullum's willingness to defy convention has served him well during his lifelong pursuit of musical fulfillment.  He began playing piano and guitar at the age of eight; in his mid teens, Cullum was in & out of rock bands playing guitar, drums and piano; he was also the drummer in a hip-hop combo, eventually finding his way back to jazz through the samples used in his favorite hip-hop recordings; and Cullum spent the end of his teen years living in Paris, where he honed his skills performing in local jazz clubs before going on to become the biggest-selling British jazz artist of all time.  Cullum has won an enviable reputation as a magnetic live performer, playing freewheeling concerts that emphasize spontaneity and improvisation—and which rarely employ a set list.

Jamie is the host of the Jamie Cullum BBC Radio Show which can be heard Saturday's at 11am and again on Monday's at 9pm.

Ian Shaw

Named “Best Jazz Vocalist” at the BBC Jazz Awards in 2007 and 2004, Ian Shaw has already amassed a number of highly acclaimed albums and is a popular performer both in the UK and the US. He has been cited, along with Mark Murphy and Kurt Elling, as one of the world's finest male jazz vocalists.

You can hear Ian every Sunday night at 10pm hosting the Ronnie Scott's Radio Show

John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey

John Pizzarelli, the world-renowned jazz guitarist and singer, was called “Hip with a wink” by Town & Country, “madly creative” by the Los Angeles Times and “the genial genius of the guitar” by The Toronto Star. When he performs with his wife, singer/actress Jessica Molaskey, and his father, guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli, they were labeled “the First Family of Cool” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “the von Trapps on Martinis” by The New Yorker. According to The New York Times, “the Pizzarelli-Molaskey duo are as good as it gets in any entertainment medium.”

Jessica Molaskey is a veteran of a dozen Broadway shows: A Man of No Importance at Lincoln Center written by Terrance McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Parade (directed by Hal Prince), Dream, Tommy, Crazy For You, Les Miserables, City of Angels, Chess, Cats and Oklahoma! and she has performed off Broadway and regionally in dozens of productions.

Jessica has premiered music written by Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa, and Stephen Sondheim and John Bucchino. She has written songs for almost a dozen recordings including “Greed”, part of a commission for Audra McDonald’s Seven Deadly Sins at Carnegie Hall and Cradle and all which will be part of Ms. McDonalds newest c.d. coming out in the fall.

John and Jessica are the hosts of Radio Deluxe which airs Sunday's at 9am

Terry McElligott

Photo: Frank Nagy

Host of Midday Jazz, 10AM to 2PM weekdays, Terry has always had a fondness for new ideas in music, and was turned on to jazz early in life by hearing it on radio, presented in ways that made jazz approachable. That led him to a media career that included long stretches in radio. He began his broadcasting life by doing a jazz show, and spent many years in both established and alternative radio formats. Around the end of the last century he was brought on-board at JAZZ.FM91 to help build what was, at the time, a brand new, untried radio station.

Today, JAZZ.FM91 has a large audience with a loyal supporter base but Terry is always ready to welcome new listeners who are just discovering the wonderful art form that is jazz.

For more info on Midday Jazz CLICK HERE

Brad Barker

Photo: Frank Nagy

Growing up in Nova Scotia, Brad attended St. Francis Xavier University getting his Degree in Jazz Studies as a bass major. This led to a 10 year career as a professional musician, spending 6 years recording and touring with The Pursuit of Happiness.

Brad then moved on and studied broadcasting at Humber College, which soon turned into securing various jobs at Toronto radio stations. When the opportunity to work at JAZZ.FM91 came Brad’s way in 2001 he jumped at it. Being Operations Manager and Music Director at one of the few 24 hour-a-day jazz radio stations in the world and the chance to work with JAZZ.FM91’s members and volunteers makes for a unique and very rewarding experience.

Brad is the host of Afternoon Drive, heard weekdays 2PM to 6PM.

Juliet Dunn

Juliet Dunn is an energetic eclectic Renaissance woman. She hails from the UK, is half Jamaican, and grew up in Vancouver BC before moving to Paris, France for 13 years. The Shaw Festival brought her to Ontario in 2002 where she performed as an actress and singer for 2 seasons. She now resides in the Niagara region.

Her many talents and interests have found her fronting her own jazz and cabaret ensembles, guest starring with the Niagara Symphony, playing the lead role in a French movie , traveling to over 40 countries around the globe, releasing a disco CD of one of her own songwriting adventures in Europe, performing and touring with children's theatre, working at the infamous 'New Morning' Jazz club in Paris for 4 years, volunteering for non-profit organizations in her community, teaching acting camps for youth, booking acts for the Niagara region, teaching Zumba, and now broadcasting…

This vibrant young lady never ceases to amaze!

She is currently co-producing the 'Twilight Jazz Series' in Niagara bringing live jazz ensembles together every Thursday night, and is absolutely thrilled to have recently joined the team here at Jazz FM.

Juliet hosts Sunrise weekend mornings starting at 6.

Jaymz Bee

Photo: Graham Kennedy

Jaymz Bee was born in North Bay, Ontario and made a bee-line for Toronto at the age of 18. He has had a colourful career as a nightclub owner, art gallery curator, best-selling author (Cocktail Parties for Dummies) and band leader. From 1985-94 Bee was leader and vocalist for the rock-funk-jazz-circus known as Look People. After many European and North American tours, Bee moved on to form The Royal Jelly Orchestra, a band that has released eight CDs, toured North American and continues to perform at award shows, charity galas, private events, jazz festivals and theatres.

Jaymz has hosted and produced television and radio for various networks for the past two decades. He has immersed himself in all things jazz since moving to JAZZ.FM91 in 2003. He produces events for the station such as JAZZ LIVES and The Sound Of Jazz Concert Series, as well as being the creator and host of the JAZZ.FM91 Jazz Safaris.

Jaymz Bee can be heard weekdays, from 7AM to 9AM on Wake Up! …With Heather Bambrick, and Saturdays from 6PM to 8PM on Jazz In The City.

You can contact Jaymz at jaymzbee@jazz.fm

Heather Bambrick

Photo: Frank Nagy

Heather Bambrick, winner of the National Jazz Award for Vocalist of the Year and Broadcaster of the Year, is in demand as a performer, educator, and host. She has performed and/or recorded with numerous international artists, including Phil Nimmons, Kenny Wheeler, Gene DiNovi, Guido Basso, Darmon Meader, Peter Appleyard, John Lamb, Carol Welsman, Jackie Richardson, Denzal Sinclaire, The Caliban Quartet, Rudy Webb, and the late Rob McConnell.

Heather was a founding member of the Beehive Singers, whose debut recording won them a Jazz Report Awards for Best Vocal Group. Both of Heather’s solo CDs (It’s About Time, and Those Were The Days) were nominated for Best Jazz Recording at the East Coast Music Awards.

Heather’s voice has been heard throughout North America on radio and television commercials, in animation series (Disney, PBS, Comedy Network), as well as on film and television soundtracks. Since 2001, Heather has firmly entrenched herself in the world of broadcasting, producing and hosting “Sing, Sing, Sing” which eventually became the highly popular “Sunday Afternoon Jazz” and now as the host of “Wake Up … with Heather Bambrick. Heather has twice been honoured as Broadcaster of the Year awards at the National Jazz Awards.

The native Newfoundlander is a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, and is currently on faculty at Humber College and is busy as a clinician and adjudicator at music festivals across Canada.

Hear Heather weekday mornings from 6:00 – 10:00 on “Wake Up … with Heather Bambrick”.

John Devenish

John Devenish is a musician and actor with training and professional experiences on stage, on camera, in film, television and radio.
He was the male narrator for The Globe and Mail’s Facts and Arguments podcasts and the Dear Sweetheart series featuring letters home from a Canadian soldier overseas during WWII.  Most recently John provided voice work for a short film about the Titanic featured in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald's Titanic celebrations series.

He has contributed to major art installations in Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, The Encampment installation in Ottawa’s Major’s Hill Park and was project coordinator for the public art piece, The Community Totem, in Toronto’s Cy Townsend Park. John served as an active board member of the inaugural Wychwood Barns Community Association. He also has many years of experience in different areas of social and developmental services.

More than anything else John loves to talk, engage with, and meet new people, find out what makes them tick and what inspires them. He loves jazz, classical and many other diverse music genres having been introduced to them at an early age. His passion for the arts and other cultural activities provides him with a strong understanding and connection to Toronto’s diverse artistic communities.

Share your evenings from 6PM to 9PM, Monday to Friday, with John Devenish, our new Dinner Jazz host on JAZZ.FM91.