The Pearl Company

Another Jazzy New Year @ The Pearl! Saturday, December 31, 8:00 ‘til ?  $75 per person.  Fab entertainment, a great buffet, and a cash bar. The entertainment will be a brilliant collection of super-gifted jazz musicians. As always, we promise fun people, great conversations, musical magic, and lots of dancing before, between, and after the jazz sets!
To welcome in the New Year: Chef Gary Santucci, with major assistance from his son and chef Avery Santucci, will create a pan-global buffet with new dishes arriving throughout the night. There will be two musical sets from the collection of jazz artists assembled for the evening:

The 7-piece world-beat jazz ensemble, Spanjazz: Inspired by world music rhythms in a jazz context and featuring Alex Tomowich – keyboard, Simon Wheeldon – saxophone, Jeff Plumbley – trumpet, Aidan Sibley – trombone, James Gannett – bass, Steve Wilson – drums and Gary Santucci – guitar. All musicians are highly respected performers in their own fields; the juxtaposition of their different styles and approaches creates the unique sound and experience that is Spanjazz.
Dancing between sets and lots of food and interesting beverages will round out the evening.
We need you to RSVP: Buy tickets online, via email, or phone.  We sold out last year so let us know as soon as you do!

The Koren Family Christmas! Monday, December 19 at 7:00pm: $10 / With a Food or Cash Donation. The Koren Family with The Pearl Company will host an evening of music and much, much, more. I quote from Benjamin Washington …best deal of the year…the 2016 installment of the annual ‘Koren Family Christmas’…a full charity donation showcase in aid of HAMILTON FOOD SHARE…main stage at The Pearl Company… the musical line-up is awesome…room sound by Ron Chilton…lighting and effects Rob McArthur’s Niteline Productions…tech by Ed Sculthorpe’;s Birchway Sound and the show is being taped for television broadcast…ten bucks and a food donation…be there…best deal of the year!  The Musical lineup: Tomi Swick, Lisa Winn, Christopher Nguyen, Mississippi Bends, Doug Feaver and Ruth Sutherland, Danny Medakovic, The Vaudevillian, Elton Lammie Music and 2016 Blues Juno Award winner Harrison Kennedy perform!!! Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_4F90lmGQY

Ray Z Rivers: Sunday, December 18. 2:00 pm. $20 door/$15 students/ seniors/ un(der)waged. Ray Rivers is a songwriter, playwright, author and columnist. Join us for an hour-long afternoon concert of selected Christmas music starting at 2 p.m. Net proceeds will be donated to Mission Services in Hamilton. Ray plays guitar, harmonica and bass. He will be joined on guitar and vocals by John Loeprich, who recently released his first CD and goes under the stage name Johnny Fritz. Jim Jones, who is the keyboard player for the Gordon Lightfoot Tribute band, will be accompanying them on piano.  Tickets are available on-line (thepearlcompany.ca) or at the door. . http://www.rayriversmusic.com/

“A RIDE IN THE SKY” Friday December 9, Saturday December 10. 8:00pm both nights. $20 door/$15 students/ seniors/ un(der)waged. “A Ride in the Sky”  is a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the WINGS OVER AMERICA album and tour. Organized by Christopher Clause, proceeds from the two shows will benefit Gracenotes and the Debbie Clause Recording Fund. The two shows will feature the following artists (in alphabetical order): Andrew Aldridge, The Barr Band, Robin Benedict, Christa Bradbury, Bob Bryden, Jennifer Budd, Christopher Clause, Spider Costello, Sonny del Rio, Andy Griffiths, Bec Jamieson, Chris Jamieson, Frank Koren, Kim Koren, Fred Magie, Steve McRae, Lena Montecalvo, Jackie Scott, Michael Scott, Peter Taplay, Sharon Washington.

Hammer Hoppers Presents: The Peter Shea Quartet: Wednesday, December 14. Doors: 7:00/Lesson: 7:30/Show: 8:00. $15 / $10 students or with a MacSwing membership card. Join us on the dance floor with The Peter Shea Quartet at our holiday dance. Peter Shea hails from the Niagara region and was trained at UofT in Jazz Performance and Composition. Peter has performed on keyboard with comedy groups such as Toronto Second City and Montreal Just For Laughs as well as the hit musical Jersey Boys and has played all over the world and now he and his band will be playing for us in Hamilton so we can dance our socks off. Come hear for yourself why Peter’s music gets the dance floor hoppin’!
Never danced before? We will show you how! We have a Drop-In Beginner Lesson at 7:30PM. Dancing isn’t your thing (yet) but good jazz is? We have lots of extra comfy seating at The Pearl Company. Come be serenaded by Peter’s stylish musical offerings and have a dance with us! The Theme: Silver & Holly. Hammer Hoppers offers dance instruction and socials for vintage swing dances, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Authentic Jazz, and Balboa.
7:30-8:00PM: Drop-In Beginner Lesson
8:00-11:00PM: The Peter Shea Quartet
Listen to Peter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAY1JiG1ZwA

Stephen Jenkinson & Gregory Hoskins: Ramshackling Concerts for Turbulent Times: A night of Grief and Mystery. Saturday, December 3: 7:00pm. $35 door. SOME SEATS STILL AVAILABLE.  On St. Patrick’s Day, 2015, Stephen Jenkinson’s new book Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul was published by North Atlantic Books out of Berkeley, California. Die Wise shares his stories and insights on grief and dying and the great love of life, and it recently won the 2015 Nautilus Award. Video link to Stephen speaking about DIE WISE:
Last year’s book tour brought Stephen’s work to audiences across essentially the world. By fall things gained a certain momentum, and Stephen invited a remarkable Canadian musician, Gregory Hoskins, to join him on the road. These concerts became storied nights of grief, mystery and orphan wisdom for a troubled time. Gregory’s music graced Stephen’s pleas for mercy and for grace under pressure with faithful cantos of muscular sorrow. People came, jammed doorways and stood on chairs and lingered long afterwards, unwilling it seemed to go back to a home unchanged by an unlikely evening of mortal mysteries.
Award-winning filmmaker/media activist Ian Mackenzie joined them on the road in N.Y.C., Boulder, Berkeley and Austin to record those unlikely days and nights. A new film, DIE WISE: The Lost Nation Road, chronicling that tour, is coming out in fall, 2016. In all, some eleven countries and eighty five cities.

GREGORY HOSKINS with TINA NEWLOVE:  ILLUMINATE ME: A Concert and Live Painting Performance. Two nights: Thursday / Friday, December 1 & 2: 8:00pm. $25 door.  A concert presentation of songs from acclaimed Canadian recording artist Gregory Hoskins set against a larger-than-life canvas being painted by Tina Newlove and projected over the singer. The evening begins with Hoskins under the stark light of the projected canvas and ends drowning in colour and form. The songs of Hoskins are cool and warm and sorrowful and hopeful all at the same time and the paintings of Newlove are organic and grounded, abstract just enough to make them otherworldly but recognizable.  The interactions between painter and singer are unrehearsed and the outcome is unplanned as he makes his way through solo renditions of the songs (with a dose of the “between song asides” he is known for) and Newlove’s projected “Hand of God” applies colour in all its’ drippy mess.  The audience gets a taste of the chaos that can lead to form.  And that is where the two meet. www.gregoryhoskins.com   www.tinanewlove.com   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmmUmr0EBKY
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Shari Vandermolen & David Brideau: Saturday May 5.  Doors: 7:30pm. Show: 8:00. Tickets: $20. Shari Vandermolen is a renowned vocalist and award-winning performer in Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area who has been entertaining audiences for 15 years with her Quartet, Trio or 5-piece band Quarter to Nine.  She is also the lead vocalist for the 10-piece jazz combo SwingLine.  On May 5th Shari brings her powerful and impressive vocal stylings back to the Pearl Company for a more intimate evening of song with jazz guitarist David Brideau, James Gannett on bass and Vince Waters on drums.  “…hear Vandermolen make jelly of your emotions with her voice and her art… one example is Stormy Weather… I barely weathered that storm intact.”  – View Magazine
David Brideau is a Canadian jazz guitarist, composer, and teacher who has been an active musician for over 15 years. A Hamilton native, and honours graduate from the Mohawk Jazz program, David has played all around the GTA with his own group, the David Brideau Trio and Quartet, as well as being prominently featured in groups with Michael Morobito, Amber-Leigh Palka, and Lauren Perreira among others. He studied under jazz greats Bob Shields, Pat Collins, Kim Ratcliffe, and Mark Ucci and is currently continuing his studies at McMaster University. David often composes his own standards, and released the sold-out EP “Addicted To You” in 2016. He is a recipient of the Dave McMurdo Music Bursary, the Antony Roberts Music Bursary, and the Richard Newell Memorial Scholarship.
Ticets: https://www.ticketscene.ca/events/21098/