a night of norah poster

This Sunday Jazz Winnipeg in Collaboration with the Fort Garry Hotel will be presenting the fantastic Winnipeg trio Casati. Combining Jazz, with folk, country and some 50s and 60s pop. Casati consists of Jesse Popeski on guitar, Grace Hrabi on vocals and ukulele and Quintin Bart on Bass and hurdy gurdy. Together they have established themselves as one of Manitoba’s best and most singularly sonically interesting acoustic trios on the scene today.

There are two shows this Sunday Night, one at 6:30 and one at 8:30. The Shows are called “A Night of Norah” and are the trio’s tribute to the great singer-songwriter and pianist Norah Jones.

All three members of Casati are University of Manitoba Desaultels Faculty of Music grads, although they did not all meet at U of M. Grace Hrabi and Quintin Bart had been playing jazz together around Winnipeg and needed a guitar player, and Jesse Popeski fit the bill. As Hrabi explains, “We just meshed together so well right away, and we started playing a whole bunch of shows together. At the time we were just playing jazz... over the course of about a year we started slowly introducing some of my originals and from there it has kind of morphed into what it is now, which is everybody writes and everybody sings.”

Casati’s tribute to Norah Jones on Sunday comes from a deep love of Jones’ music. As Hrabi states “I have been a fan of Norah Jones for a very very long time. She was one of the first singers I ever heard that just fit right into my vocal range. I loved the sincerity on her voice, and she also dabbles in a lot of different styles…I think an artist like that where you identify with their vocal quality you are more open to hearing them sing in a bunch of different styles.”

Popeski describes the show as being a good cross section of Norah Jones’ work. “We pretty much picked our favorites…we picked the ones we felt people would know and that would be a way to welcome people in. She has this huge catalogue…7 albums, with a big variety of genres from those albums….whether it be jazz, or folk or whatever.  We tried to pick songs that sort of summed up those faces of her.”

Casati are going to be joined by Alanna Fast on piano, to help replicate the sound of a Norah Jones show. As Popeski points out Norah Jones on stage plays piano while she sings and so that quality to the sound was crucial. One big way that the show will differ from Jones’ sound is that there will be no drummer. “We’ve had to navigate and make the rhythm feel good without a drummer and we all have our role to play within that,” says Popeski.

Casati will also put there marvelous flavor on to the tunes as well, putting their own twist into the music. This is surely going to make for a beautifully intimate and memorable evening of music. The music of Norah Jones performed by three very talented and tasteful Winnipeg artists… what better to enjoy a Sunday evening as you prepare for the week ahead?

There is also no age barrier to these shows. The Fort Garry is an all age’s venue for these performances, so come one come all and enjoy the sounds of Casati!

For more details on tickets visit the Jazz Winnipeg Website.