The Steve Kaldestad Quartet jazz band will perform classic selections from the Great American Songbook on Saturday to kick off the faculty concert series at Coquitlam's Place des Arts.
Actually, the four reported "Canadian jazz heavyweights" should really dub themselves the "Great Tri-Cities Performers."
A Port Moody resident and accomplished saxophonist, Kaldestad will be joined by long-time friends and playing partners Tilden Webb, a pianist, and Jodi Proznick, a bassist. The three met while attending music school in Montreal in the 1990s and Webb and Proznick eventually married and, ironically, now reside in Port Coquitlam.
The quartet's drummer, Jesse Cahill, is originally from Victoria and another McGill University music product who now lives in New Westminster.
"Jesse's not truly from the Tri-Cities but New West is about as close it gets," Kaldestad said with a chuckle in a phone interview with The Tri-City News.
Kaldestad, 39, started playing sax at the tender age of 10 with the popular Regina Lions Junior Band.
"I knew then that's what I wanted to do," said Kaldestad, who's married with one child and another on the way who also teaches music at North Vancouver's Capilano University. "Every pop music song had a sax solo in it and I said, 'Now that's the instrument I want to play.'"
First, though, he was introduced to the sax sound by an older music teacher in Regina, where he first heard big-name jazz greats, such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, whom he considers his ultimate favourite today.
"I was just following my whims at the time and my ears told me that was great music," Kaldestad said. "[Rollins] is known for his melodic inventiveness. He can play for five hours and it's never the same thing twice. [The sax] is only 12 notes but with him you'd never know it."
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show on Saturday are $15 for adults and $13 for students/seniors and can by purchased by calling 604-664-1636.
