Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this year's Ottawa Jazz Festival. It was a very special honour for me to be part of the house trio hosting the jam sessions every night for ten straight days - the…
Read moreJul 9 2018
About
Steve Boudreau is an Ottawa-based pianist who specializes in jazz and popular music. He currently teaches piano privately and as part of Carleton University's Music Performance program. He also works frequently as a vocal accompanist in many genres. In 2010 he received a Master of Music degree in jazz performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston. He has toured North America with multiple musical productions and has performed as both leader and sideman at various Canadian jazz festivals. His recently released trio album "Preludes: The Music of George Gershwin" has been getting radio play on Canadian jazz stations and a new quartet record is almost ready for release. The new album will feature original music and is co-led by long-time collaborator, guitarist Garry Elliott.
News
May 19 2018
Updated Events
Hey, just a quick note to say I've updated my calendar to reflect some Jazz Festival events, most notably the 24 hour jazz ramble which takes place from 10AM Friday to 10AM Saturday next weekend. I'll be on at noon…
Read moreMar 24 2018
Indian Music
I've started rehearsals with Vinay Bhide for a show May 10th at noon at City Hall. Vinay has asked Mike Essoudry and me to join him to play what we feel fits in the performance of two pieces. One is…
Read moreMar 13 2018
New sideman albums
I wanted to share a few albums out fairly recently that I played on.
Brian Asselin's project "The Commotions Volume II" is an album of original soul music featuring many of my favourite Ottawa area musicians.
…
Read moreMar 10 2018
Solo Piano - listening and playing
Not a lot of shows coming up with all of my accompanist work looming, but I thought I'd share some things I've been checking out.
I've been listening to Keith Jarrett's Radiance, and album I couldn't get into…
Read moreFeb 28 2018
Radio Play
My hopes of a regularly maintained thoughtful content-filled blog haven't materialized in the face of my regular practice and teaching schedule. However, I thought this might be a great and easy way to keep track of fun news and things…
Read moreNov 14 2016
Jam Session Rep Lists
Virtually immediately after you start playing jazz music you start getting pressure to know "all the standards". I remember a giant daunting list at the back of a popular jazz theory book (that I don't recommend) that said "Learn all…Read more
Oct 31 2016
All - Never Took
Oct 24 2016
Modern Bootlegging
First of all, the very word "Bootlegging" has to do with clandestine action, and what started me thinking about this issue was the extremely overt and non-secretive manner in which people currently are reproducing live music.
We have…
Oct 17 2016
7.5 beat time
My love for North Indian Classical music began when I took a course taught by Vinay Bhide at Carleton University in 2002. His introduction to Indian music was aimed at all Western musicians, but to me seemed geared even more…
Read moreSep 26 2016
Bodyjar - Five Minutes Away
For three of my posts in this series I wanted to record solo piano versions of songs that aren't covered by solo piano very often. This exercise of figuring out a vocal melody and harmony and making an arrangement is…Read more
Sep 19 2016
Forbidden Musical Devices
During World War II, Hitler's regime forbade certain musical ideas and devices that didn't conform with their idea of artistic music.
From New Dutch Swing:
It [de jazzwereld's guideline for entertainment music in 1940] was mostly a detailed…
Read moreSep 11 2016
Simple Triads
One of the first theory lessons I like to teach is that there are only 12 major chords and 12 minor chords.
Learning these is attainable in a relatively short amount of time.
To simplify this further I start with…
Jun 24 2015
RIP Gunther Schuller
I had the great opportunity to perform this piece with the composer himself conducting during my time at NEC. Without him I don't think any of us working in jazz full time with a large part of that work…Read more
Mar 9 2015
Jazz Standards- 16 you should know.
This past weekend I moderated a jam session for Jazzworks at the new Ottawa Bluesfest Music School. I prepared a handout on tunes to know that I wanted to make available to all my students and those who couldn't…Read more
Feb 17 2015
Learning how to Learn
After missing a week of my self-imposed schedule of weekly thoughts on music, and already being 24 hours behind and dangerously close to missing another I thought it might be good to whip off a quick note about something I…Read more
Feb 2 2015
Music Note Sudoku
I often encourage students to practice randomized chord patterns by picking a chord type or two, and then moving them through a tone row.
For instance CMaj7 - Ebmin7 - FMaj7 - F#min7 - Dbmaj7 - Dmin7 - BMaj7 -…Read more
For instance CMaj7 - Ebmin7 - FMaj7 - F#min7 - Dbmaj7 - Dmin7 - BMaj7 -…Read more
Jan 26 2015
Bud Powell Un Poco Loco - part 3
Jan 19 2015
Bud Powell Un Poco Loco - part 2
Once I realized that the actual improv going on was just over a C-pedal, I was curious to know what kind of material Bud would play. Generally it's melodic, beboppish, but the adventurous parts are especially exciting.
Click here to…Read more
Click here to…Read more
Jan 12 2015
Don't just know how to do something
I had a huge breakthrough early in my college music studies when I first started practicing for extended periods of time (besides the obvious).
When I was younger, I would generally practice the stuff I liked to play and avoid…Read more
When I was younger, I would generally practice the stuff I liked to play and avoid…Read more
Jan 5 2015
Bud Powell Un Poco Loco
My big project this fall was digging into Bud Powell's "Un Poco Loco".
It's a song with more than one moment that pushes the envelope of standard jazz language, rhythm and form. The Max Roach drum pattern alone has…Read more
It's a song with more than one moment that pushes the envelope of standard jazz language, rhythm and form. The Max Roach drum pattern alone has…Read more
Jan 1 2015
Happy New Year 2015
I want to congratulate my brother-in-law, Tyler Kealey for sticking to his insane goal of recording a different song every day for 2014. Here is the final video which includes many of my favourite Ottawa musicians. Not to leave anyone…Read more
Dec 29 2014
Year in review
While I had made attempts at blogging before, this fall, inspired by my brother-in-law's much more daunting endeavour, I finally started weekly entries. Even if they are sometimes simple and short, I wanted to have something out there to…Read more
Dec 22 2014
Music: An Investment of Your Time
Full time and part time musicians alike are living in an age where it is increasingly hard to put a monetary value on music. In the 20th century, people in the western world found ways to monetize every aspect of…Read more