For his sixth syncspace appearance, Ottawa pianist Peter Hum presents a virtual edition of his sextet Ordinary Heroes, which in pre-pandemic times was his foremost musical project. Joining Peter for this concert will be two members of his touring band — tenor saxophonist Kenji Omae in Antigonish and Montreal guitarist Sam Kirmayer — who were on the road with Peter in March 2020 just as the global pandemic was descending on Canada. Completing the group will be trumpeter Paul Tynan, who like Omae is a music professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, plus the potent Toronto-based musicians Michael Herring on bass and Tim Shia on drums. The group of friends will play music from Peter’s 2020 album Ordinary Heroes, which received a four-star review in Downbeat last year, plus new compositions that Peter has written in the last year.

Join us for this distance-breaking performance with six musicians performing between four cities and three provinces covering over 1000 km.

Kenji Omae is a Canadian Jazz saxophonist based in Nova Scotia, Canada.  e has been described as “a super-articulate virtuoso” (Peter Hum-The Ottawa Citizen) and “may be the most exciting tenor saxophonist to emerge in Canada in recent years” (Stuart Broomer-The WholeNote).  He has released three albums of original music as a leader; “Story Time” (2015), “Not So Deep” (2011), “Here For Now” (2007).  In addition to his own recordings, he is featured as a sideman on over thirty jazz CD’s. From 2003-2017, he was based in Seoul as a full time instructor of saxophone (Dong-Ah Institute Of Media And Arts and Paek-Che Art College). He was an active contributor to the music scene of Seoul through his frequent performances and extensive teaching. In 2007, he won the first prize in the Jarasum International Jazz Festival competition. Kenji has a Master of Arts Degree in Jazz Performance from CUNY/Queen’s College in New York.  He is currently on faculty at Saint Francis Xavier University where he maintains a Saxophone studio and teaches classes that include Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Harmony, and Jazz History.

Guitarist and composer Sam Kirmayer, plays with “fearlessness and momentum”– Katie Malloch (CBC Jazz Beat & Tonic). One of CBC Music’s picks for the “35 best Canadian jazz musicians under 35”, his playing has been described as “sharp and clean melodic lines peppered with exquisite chording and comping… never overstated and always expressed with good taste”– C. Michael Bailey (All About Jazz). He has released two recordings as a leader, Opening Statement (Chromatic Audio 2017), and High and Low (Cellar Live, 2018). The latter features acclaimed New York based organist Ben Paterson and was a finalist for the Prix Opus for Jazz Album of the Year. Kirmayer has performed across Canada with his own groups and remains an in demand sideman in Montreal, working with many of the city’s finest musicians including Kevin Dean, André White, Laura Anglade and more. When not performing, Sam is active as an educator, teaching guitar privately and Jazz History at Concordia University. He holds degrees in Jazz Performance from McGill University and the University of Montreal and has been the recipient of many awards and scholarships from Vanier College, McGill University and the University of Montreal. Kirmayer is also president and co-founder of the Société Jazz de Saint-Henri, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping jazz alive in Montreal’s historic neighbourhoods of Saint-Henri and Little Burgundy.

The International Trumpet Guild has stated that downbeat award winning trumpet player and composer, Paul Tynan’s “Creative Genius Shines”. Paul is presently a Full Professor of music at St. Francis Xavier University where he teaches jazz trumpet, jazz history, and arranging. He also co-leads the “BiCoastal Collective”, with Grammy winning saxophonist Aaron Lington. The ensemble is dedicated to performing new jazz composition across North America.  Paul has released ten recordings as a leader/co-leader on the Origin/OA2, Armored, and NohJoh labels. Paul has also served on the faculties of San Jose State University, Chabot College, Nova Scotia Honor Jazz Program, and University of North Texas Summer Trumpet Workshop and is a past co-director of the Acadia Summer Jazz Workshop. He has performed with numerous jazz artists such as The Pacific Mambo Orchestra, Chris Poter, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Jerry Bergonzi, Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer, Jim McNeely, Joel Frahm, and Matt Wilson. As a jazz recording artist Paul has appeared on over sixty recordings, as a trumpet player, composer, arranger, and/or producer along side such musicians as Lynn Seaton, Marcus Wolfe, Stockton Helbing, David Braid, Aaron Lington, Joel Fountain, Bobby Selvaggio, Kenny Werner, Kenny Wheeler, Dan Haerle, Ben Street, and Jamey Haddad. His recordings as a leader have won numerous ECMA awards.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Peter Hum has been a mainstay of the city’s jazz community for three decades. He has released three albums of original modern mainstream jazz. His latest recording, Ordinary Heroes, a collection of 10 compositions that respond to today’s social and political tumult, was released online in the fall of 2019 thanks to grants from the Ontario Arts Council and City of Ottawa. That album features a stellar group of peers including Kenji Omae (tenor saxophone, Antigonish, NS), David Smith (trumpet, Brooklyn, USA), Mike Rud (guitar, Montreal), Alec Walkington (bass, Montreal) and Ted Warren (drums, Guelph, ON). To celebrate the hard-copy release of Ordinary Heroes, Peter and his friends began a tour of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes in March 2020, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council, just before the global COVID-19 pandemic brought life and live music to an abrupt halt. Peter and his band hope to resume the tour in the fall of 2021. In June 2020, Ordinary Heroes received a four-star review in DownBeat magazine.

Michael Herring is a double-bassist and composer based in Toronto who writes, performs and records across genre lines, equally comfortable in jazz as in roots settings, including folk, world, and pop/rock. Herring leads and co-leads a number of groups which focus on original music of which he is a major contributor. Herring’s compositions and bass playing can also be heard in the collectives Way North (New York/Toronto collaboration with Petr Cancura, Rebecca Hennessy and Richie Barshay).

Whether it be a jazz festival gig with Rich Underhill; winning a Trille Or with Amelie et Les Singes Bleus; playing Cumbia’s with Quique Escamilla on CBC; adding percussion on a Electronica recording with Milosh (Rhye); to headlining a Hip Hop festival in Taiwan with LEO37, Tim Shia has been fortunate enough to play with a host of Juno and Grammy Award winning musicians in an array of genres. When he’s not performing, Tim has scored and licensed music for film and television including work for CBC, the Toronto Public Library, Teletoon and the NFB. He has given masterclasses and workshops on performance and improvisation at every level from Elementary to Post Secondary Institutions across Canada. He also hosted a radio show on Jazz Fm 91.1 called “Jazz is What?!”