Latest News & Articles
Read the latest news and articles. Click on
any headline below to read the full story. Browse the Archive
for older stories. You can also click
here to read all of Dean's published articles.
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December 09, 2009: Latest
News
Mixing Musical Colours: Music grad builds on success by embracing diversity
Composer/trumpet player Dean McNeill describes his newest CD, Mélange, as a musical mosaic. An eclectic blend of jazz and classical influences and experiences, it includes a collaboration with two-time Juno award winning pianist Jon Ballantyne.
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June 12, 2009: Latest News
Dean McNeill performs with 2009
National Youth Band of Canada on their Saskatchewan tour in May
of 2009
Dean McNeill was the Yamaha solo artist performing
with the 2009 National Youth Band of Canada on their Saskatchewan
tour in May of 2009. This piece of music is entitled 'Kalla' and
was composed by Allan Gilliland specifically for Dean and this
tour. This was the premier performance of 'Kalla' (click
and listen to the mp3 of 'Kalla').
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January 21, 2009: Latest News
Listen to Dean McNeill in
concert on CBC.ca, playing with Jack Semple, Carlo Petrovitch,
and Arlan Kopp
This year Dean released a CD where he performed
with jazz pianist Jon Ballantyne and classical pianist Bonnie
Nicholson. In this concert we'll hear Dean playing both trumpet
and flugel horn on some of his jazz favorites as well as an original
composition. He's joined by guitarist Jack Semple, Carlo Petrovitch
on bass and drummer Arlan Kopp.
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November 05, 2008
Album Review, Atlanta Audio Society
This
Mélange has many colors, the album seems to breathe the
air of wide open spaces and boundless possibilities
Dean McNeill has subtitled Mélange "New
Music for Trumpet and Piano." The key word here is "new,"
for in this album McNeill and several of his friends explore the
borderland where jazz and classical genres meet and coexist happily.
Perhaps it is fitting that McNeill himself teaches at the University
of Saskatchewan, in the Canadian prairie province of that name,
for as with a prairie, Mélange seems to breathe the air
of wide open spaces and boundless possibilities. Read
more >
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May 30, 2008
Album Review, by Nick Lavigne, Canadian Association for Jazz Education
Prairie
Fire brings together some of Canada's best musicians
Composer, arranger, and trumpeter Dean McNeill
has accomplished not one, but two colossal tasks with his release
of Prairie Fire. Firstly, he has created some incredible works
of art with his original compositions and in his arrangements
of other musicians' pieces. Secondly, he has brought some of Canada's
best musicians... Read more
>
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January 28, 2008: Latest News
New album, Mélange:
Music for Trumpet and Piano, is coming soon
Dean McNeill's latest recording project, Mélange:
Music for Trumpet and Piano, features Jon Ballantyne (Jazz Piano),
Bonnie Nicholson (Classical Piano), and Dean playing Trumpets
and Flugel Horn.
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October 17, 2007
Album Review, by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
Prairie
Fire is a pleasurable and rewarding contemporary big-band album
Dean McNeill, who teaches at the University
of Saskatchewan in western Canada, brought together some of the
most accomplished jazz musicians in his neighborhood to produce
this emphatically bright and stylish album, which reminds one
more of the spectacular aurora borealis than it does a prairie
fire. Read more >
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October 17, 2007
Album Review, by Ray Baril, Director of the McEwan College Jazz
Ensemble
Prairie
Fire, musical depth and maturity evident in playing and composition
After four recorded ventures as director of
the University of Saskatchewan Jazz Ensemble, Dean McNeill makes
his first outing as director, composer, arranger, and project
manager of his own ensemble made up of some of Canada's finest
jazz innovators. Read more
>
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August 10, 2007: Press Release
New
CD sparks creative energy for jazz composer Dean McNeill: Prairie
Fire latest recording project from contemporary artist, ensemble
Where there's smoke, there's fire... Prairie
Fire, in this case, a smokin' hot collection of new works from
jazz composer and trumpeter Dean McNeill. Head of the Department
of Music at the University of Saskatchewan, McNeill has created
a wholly Canadian project that showcases some of the best talent
on the national jazz scene. To be released August 25, Prairie
Fire features a mix of original music and new arrangements of
well-known standards in this much anticipated studio recording.
Read more >
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Article by Dean McNeill
JAZZ
ADVOCACY: How can
we support the overall growth of jazz music in our country?
There are many ways in which the growth of jazz
music can and should be supported in Canada. Providing adequate
teacher training in jazz-specific courses at the post secondary
level is one important way to sustain and develop jazz music,
over the long term, in Canada in the twenty-first century. Read
more >
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Article by Dean McNeill
Enlightenment
gleaned from slush pump basics
Since the Fifth Grade, I have been a trumpet
keener. I intentionally make a distinction here between being
keen, and being good, as it was some time before I could claim
an association with the latter. My keenness has not diminished
in my adult years and as a result I find myself still deeply interested
in the trumpet from a variety of perspectives, which primarily
include performance and pedagogy. Read
more >
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Article by Dean McNeill
IAJE-Canada
Article: Etiquette for sitting in on the bandstand: A topic more
important than students might think
Recently I have attended a few jazz jam sessions
in clubs across Western Canada. During these jams it has occurred
to me that many young people sitting in with professional bands
do not know some of the basic musical etiquette commonly observed
by professional musicians in such situations. Read
more >
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Article by Dean McNeill
Why
record a CD with your band? What really is the point?
For the past 5 years the University of Saskatchewan
Jazz Ensemble 1 has gone into our makeshift recording studio to
record some of our current concert repertoire. Every few years
we release an independently published compilation CD. To date
we have released 2 such CDs respectively entitled Bumper Crop
and Bumper Crop II-Outstanding in their Fields. Read
more >
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