Friday April 11, 2014
We Are One Jazz Project (WAOJP) is a grassroots organization dedicated to strengthening community bonds. This is achieved by making a difference in the lives of elementary school children through the study and singing of jazz. We strive to inspire young Canadians by harnessing the beauty and power of jazz as a force for social change. Our mission is to deliver this unique program to a different "priority" area of Toronto each year. Read more
Monday, February 3, 2014
On a chilly Thursday morning in January, close to 300 grade school students packed the warm cafetorium at Westview Centennial Secondary School in Toronto and cheered as a few dozen of their peers took the stage. Read more
January 20, 2010
Founder and Director Howard Rees, proudly presents a creative and timely solution to the issue of disappearing arts programs in schools. After four months of weekly rehearsals in Scarborough Junior Public Schools, they invite you to witness how the power & beauty of Jazz ignites change in young lives. Read more
January 20, 2010
IT WAS BY chance that Howard Rees found the inspiration for a program that would bring the joy of jazz to Toronto youth. While cleaning one day, the Davisville Village resident uncovered pages composed years before by his mentor, jazz pianist Barry Harris. As he began to rehearse the melodies, the music evoked warm memories of the annual concerts he had performed while studying under the legendary musician. Read more
28 November, 2009
Three hundred rain-soaked public schoolchildren are piling into Walmer Road Baptist Church in the Annex neighbourhood at 9:30 a.m. The kids, along with a phalanx of facilitators and music teachers from Orde St. Public School, Ryerson Community School and Earl Beatty Jr. and Sr. P.S., are part of a four-month choral project developed by local jazz masters Howard Rees and Brian Katz.
22 January, 2009
Children can have questionable taste in music so it's always nice to hear they're enjoying a music form like jazz. It's even better news when they're also gaining a confidence-boosting experience – something far too rare in Toronto's low-income neighbourhoods.
22 January, 2009
Two hundred children standing, boys and girls, three deep across the wide stage, made you stir and sit back. Behind them on the stage sat a large senior string section from Earl Haig Secondary School, the Big Fish Jazz Orchestra from Earl Haig, and further up stage, the Earl Haig Jazz Singers, and buried in there was a mature jazz trio, too. Read more
17 January, 2009
Shermarke Mohamed is no longer afraid to answer questions in class thanks to a jazz program that has the once shy elementary school student singing in front of his peers. The novice 9-year-old singer, along with more than 200 students from seven North Etobicoke public schools transformed West Humber Collegiate’s quiet hallways into a symphony of melodies and harmonies on Thursday.
20 January, 2009
The Toronto District School Board has teamed up with Howard Rees’ Jazz Workshops to bring together young voices from northwest Toronto, a renowned jazz great and jazz musicians to perform a concert. One of the most celebrated voices in Jazz today, Dr. Barry Harris, along with special guest Charles McPherson, accompanied by the Earl Haig's Big Fish Jazz Orchestra and string ensemble... Read more
17 December, 2008
Students from several TDSB schools in Northwest Toronto perform in We Are One, a concert featuring jazz legend Barry Harris. It’s been said many times in so many eloquent ways: Music brings people together. John Denver once mused that “No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same.” Read more