Rebecca Hennessey's Makeshift Island
October 15, 16, 17, 18 @ 8:00pm
Rebecca Hennessy - Voice and trumpet
Tania Gill - Piano
Michael Herring - Bass
Dave Clark - Drums
Rebecca Hennessy is an award-winning trumpeter, vocalist, composer, and bandleader whose music bridges jazz, roots, and singer-songwriter. Her upcoming studio vocal album, All Is Falling Rain, is a lush and heartfelt journey inspired by the poetry of acclaimed author Thomas King. The project began in 2017 when Rebecca was commissioned by Silence in Guelph to compose a night of music using King’s poetry. The experience proved so inspiring that, with King’s blessing, she returned to his book 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin to set seven of its poems to music. To complete the collection, she added two of her own original lyric-based songs.
All Is Falling Rain brings together world-renowned collaborators Kevin Breit (guitar and vocals), Tania Gill (piano), Michael Herring (bass), and Dave Clark (drums), weaving a soundscape where King’s evocative words and Hennessy’s distinctive composing, voice and trumpet meet in organic harmony.
This new release follows her acclaimed albums Joy Will Find Us (2023), All the Little Things You Do (2020), and Makeshift Island Live at the Jazz Room (2025). Each recording highlights her long-standing musical partnership with guitarist Kevin Breit and showcases her ability to fuse heartfelt songwriting with adventurous musicianship.
Rebecca’s artistry is often shaped by literature and deep collaboration. Her arrangement of King’s Dig Up the Stories for big band was premiered by Christine Jensen’s Orchestra at the National Arts Centre in 2019. Beyond her vocal projects, she has released nine other albums as a bandleader or co-leader and has toured extensively throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, Mexico, Panama, and Sri Lanka. She has performed and recorded with artists such as Adele, Ron Sexsmith, Andy Kim, Owen Pallett, Feist, Broken Social Scene, and Yellowjackets.
A longtime fixture at Toronto’s Massey Hall, Rebecca led the Women’s Blues Revue band from 2013 to 2022 and returned as a featured vocalist in 2024. She received the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Jazz Artist Award in 2018 and has been a proud Yamaha Artist since 2021, performing on the YTR-8310Z trumpet.