Mike Herriott Toronto Big Band
October 18 & 19 @ 8:00 PM

16 piece band, all brass and rhythm

Tales of Tricksters and Vagabonds is an original programmatic work for large jazz ensemble, drawn from Mike  Herriott's 2023 album of the same name (H&H Records) and rooted in his master's thesis in music composition. The  suite portrays six unforgettable figures from folklore and literature — the scheming cat of Puss in Boots, the gold spinning Rumpelstiltskin, Shakespeare's quicksilver Mercutio, Dickens's oily 'Umble Uriah, Dostoevsky's guilt-haunted Rodion's Republic, and the gloriously life-loving Sir Jack (Sir John Falstaff) — moving from the comic to the  genuinely sinister and back again across a single evening. The ensemble's instrumentation — brass and rhythm section,  with no saxophones — recalls the lineup of Canada's celebrated Boss Brass. 

Each performance pairs the premiere suite with selections from Herriott's earlier album Isn't Life Grand, including the  title piece; the tender, three-part Sweet Sparky Suite, written for his late dog; and Gravity, a meditation on the pull of  attraction at every scale, from celestial bodies to people. The tour also offers audiences a first glimpse of material from  Herriott's upcoming dance-theatre collaboration with Toronto's ProArteDanza. 

Cellist Ofra Harnoy, Herriott's longtime creative partner and co-owner of H&H Records, travels with the tour as co producer and co-developer of the suite's concept.