By Phil McLachlan
Turboprop, a sextet Jazz band from Toronto will be starting out on a Canada-wide tour, eventually landing in Fernie on December 7.
A regular quartet, vibrant and multitalented bandleader, Ernesto Cervini, has added an alto saxophone and trombone to his mix of a tenor saxophone, piano, bass and drums. In this current tour they will be promoting their first album, Turboprop, which they released last year.
Cervini is involved with many different groups, but Turboprop is a compilation of his own goals and projects with a few more added voices than the other groups. This jazz compilation will feature his regular quartet of Joel Frahm (tenor sax), Adrean Farrugia (piano), Dan Loomis (bass) and Cervini (drums), plus Tara Davidson (alto sax) and William Carn (trombone.)
“I’m in a couple of main groups, and I really love all of them,” said Cervini.
Turboprop focuses around the genre of jazz, in the style of Art Blakey’s bands from the 60s. The style of modern jazz, covering a wide range of influences as well as covering music in a unique way by inspiring artists such as Radiohead, Blind Melon and Debussy.
A drummer, Cervini found musical inspiration as a young boy, through the unique sounds of Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses and Metallica. He finds appreciation in many different genres, and incorporates this into his music.
“My musical tastes were all over the map,” said Cervini.
With two older sisters also in love with music, Cervini would often go out with his family, led by their mother to jazz concerts as this was one of her biggest passions.
“Jazz just sounded so cool,” said Cervini. “So I took to it immediately.”
In a student big band from a young age, Cervini fell in love with the genre, to him, almost unexplainably.
“It felt like, not that I didn’t have a choice, but of course that’s what I wanted to do. I always knew that I loved it. When I got to high school in grade nine, I already knew I wanted to go to university for jazz and become a jazz musician,” he said.
In the past decade, Cervini has turned his dreams into reality, and now performs full time in the genre that stole his heart as a young boy.
Immediately following this Canadian tour will be a recording session for Turboprop’s second album, which is set to release in the fall of 2017.
Cervini was nominated for a Juno award last year, and he will be submitting Turboprop’s next album for adjudication.
Myriad3’s album has been submitted for this years Juno’s, and they’re crossing their fingers on this.
“It’s kind of funny, I feel like when I was younger, I had a more concrete idea; I want to win a Juno and I want to play in this place and that place,” said Cervini. “I don’t know why it’s changed to be honest, but I just want to play music for people who are enjoying it. I want to keep working in different projects I feel very passionate about.”
This will be Turboprop’s fourth time to the Fernie Arts Station, and they are excited to return to what Cervini calls, “A really cool, beautiful town.”
They will be performing at The Arts Station on Wednesday, December 7 and the show will be free. The show will start at 8 p.m., reserve your free tickets by calling 250-423-4842.