Renee Rosnes Explained

Renee Rosnes
Background:	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth Name:	Irene Louise Rosnes
Birth Date:	24 March 1962
Birth Place:	Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Genre:	Jazz
Occupation:	pianist, composer, arranger^[1]
Instrument:	Piano
Years Active:	1985–present
Current Member Of:	Artemis
Label:	Blue Note, Smoke Sessions

Irene Louise Rosnes (born 24 March 1962), known professionally as Renee Rosnes, is a Canadian jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.

Early life

Rosnes was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and grew up in North Vancouver, British Columbia, where she attended Handsworth Secondary School. She was three when she began taking classical piano lessons. She became interested in jazz music in high school, introduced to it through the school's band director Bob Rebagliati. She then attended the University of Toronto, where she pursued classical performance with pianist William Aide. In 1985, Rosnes was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts grant, and moved to New York City to further her studies.^[2]

Career

Shortly after arriving in New York, Rosnes became the pianist for the Blue Note Records label band, Out of the Blue, and recorded the 1989 album "Spiral Staircase" with the band. After tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson hired her to play with his quartet in 1986, Rosnes began an international career. In 1988, she was a member of the Wayne Shorter Band and in 1989, she joined trombonist J. J. Johnson's Quintet and remained his pianist of choice until he retired in 1997. In 1989, she also began working with tenor saxophonist James Moody and was the pianist in his quartet for the next 20 years. Rosnes frequently performed with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, and recorded For Sentimental Reasons with his quartet in 2007. She was a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective, and played with the octet from 2004 through 2009. Since 2012, she has been a member of bassist Ron Carter's Foursight Band, which tours frequently in Europe.^[3]

In 2023, Rosnes won her seventh Canadian Juno Award for Solo Jazz Album of the Year for Kinds of Love Smoke Sessions Records, recorded with Chris Potter on tenor, soprano saxes and flute, Christian McBride on bass, and Carl Allen on drums and Rogerio Boccato on percussion. She made four Japanese trio recordings for the VideoArts label with The Drummonds with ex-husband Billy Drummond and the unrelated Ray Drummond on bass. She married jazz pianist Bill Charlap on 25 August 2007, and the couple released a piano duet recording titled Double Portrait (Blue Note).^[4]

Rosnes was the host of Jazz Profiles, a CBC Radio show in which she profiled Canadian jazz musicians. Guests included pianists Paul Bley, Joe Sealy and Oliver Jones, bassists Don Thompson and Michel Donato, trumpeters Guido Basso and Kenny Wheeler, and drummer Terry Clarke.^[5] With producer Kelly Peterson^[6] Rosnes is a co-founder of the Canadian Jazz Master Awards^[7] and was the artistic director of the Oscar Peterson International Jazz Festival, which took place in Ontario, Canada.^[8] Rosnes is the pianist and musical director of the sextet Artemis.^[9] The other members are Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Alexa Tarantino (alto sax & reeds), Noriko Ueda (bass), Allison Miller (drums). The group signed with the Blue Note label, and their eponymously titled debut album was released on 11 September 2020.^[10] ^[11]

Awards and honours

Hugh Fraser (musician)'s tribute composition Irenerosnesity was recorded by The Hugh Fraser Quintet on their album Looking Up (CBC Records 1988)^[12] and performed by them at the Montreal Jazz Festival (1988)^[13]
Juno Awards, Best Jazz Album, For the Moment (1992), Ancestors (1997), Life on Earth (2003), Written in the Rocks (2017), Kinds of Love, (2023)
Juno Awards, Best Mainstream Jazz Album, Free Trade (1995)
Juno nominations, Best Mainstream Jazz Album, As We Are Now (1998), Deep Cove (2005) (Ryga/Rosnes),
Juno nominations, Best Jazz Album, Renee Rosnes (1991), Art and Soul (2000), Beloved of the Sky (2018)^[14]
SOCAN Composer of the Year, 2003
Western Canadian Music Awards, Jazz Recording of the Year, Deep Cove by Ryga-Rosnes Quartet, (2005)
Sikh Centennial Gala Award, Sikh Foundation of Canada, 2015^[15]
Newark School of the Arts, Artistic Honoree, 2016
Oscar Peterson Award, Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, 2018^[16]

Discography

As leader

Face to Face (Toshiba/EMI, 1989)
Renee Rosnes (Blue Note, 1990)
For the Moment (Blue Note, 1990)
Without Words (Blue Note, 1992)
Ancestors (Blue Note, 1996)
As We Are Now (Blue Note, 1997)
Art & Soul (Blue Note, 1999)
With a Little Help from My Friends (Blue Note, 2001)
Life on Earth (Blue Note, 2002)
Renee Rosnes and the Danish Radio Big Band (Blue Note, 2003)
Deep Cove (CBC, 2004)
A Time for Love (Video Arts, 2005)
Black Narcissus: A Tribute to Joe Henderson (Pony Canyon/M&I, 2009)
Double Portrait (Blue Note, 2010)
Manhattan Rain (Pony Canyon, 2012)
Written in the Rocks (Smoke Sessions, 2016)
Beloved of the Sky (Smoke Sessions, 2018)^[17]
Ice on the Hudson: Songs by Renee Rosnes & David Hajdu (SMK, 2018)
ARTEMIS (Blue Note, 2020)
Kinds of Love (Smoke Sessions, 2021)^[18]
ARTEMIS, In Real Time (Blue Note, 2023)^[19]

As a member

Out of the Blue

Spiral Staircase (Blue Note, 1989)

Superblue

Superblue 2 (Blue Note, 1989)

The Drummonds
With Ray Drummond, Billy Drummond

When You Wish Upon a Star (VideoArts, 1999)
Letter to Evans (VideoArts, 2000)
A Beautiful Friendship (VideoArts, 2002)
Pas de Trois (True Life Jazz, 2002)
Once Upon a Summertime (VideoArts, 2003)

SFJAZZ Collective

Inaugural Season Live 2004 (SFJAZZ, 2004)[3CD]
Live 2005: 2nd Annual Concert Tour – The Works of John Coltrane (SFJAZZ, 2005)[2CD]
Live 2006: 3rd Annual Concert Tour – The Music of Herbie Hancock (SFJAZZ, 2006)[2CD]
Live 2007: 4th Annual Concert Tour – The Works of Thelonious Monk (SFJAZZ, 2007)[2CD]
Live 2008: 5th Annual Concert Tour – The Works of Wayne Shorter (SFJAZZ, 2008)[3CD]
Live 2009: 6th Annual Concert Tour – The Music of McCoy Tyner (SFJAZZ, 2009)[2CD]