Jim Lewis

Jim Lewis is a freelance trumpet player, improviser, composer/arranger and educator. He is a member of the Paul Read Orchestra, Frank Lozano Group, Christine Duncan’s Element Choir, Frogmouth, and his own improvising Trio. He can be heard in clubs in the Toronto area, Ottawa, and Montreal as a sideman and with his own projects from duo to sextet. Jim has been featured on CBC’s Jazzbeat, and Radio-Canada, and has played Jazz Festivals and toured across Canada, the United States, and Europe with many of Canada’s most creative jazz musicians. He has written commissioned works for the Humber College Community Music School, the Jazz Mechanics Big Band, and Trinity College Jazz Band. Jim’s composition ‘Don’t Cry’ was featured in Jazziz Magazine (October 2006) Jim is a graduate of Humber College, the University of Toronto (Faculty of Education), and completed a Masters Degree in Performance (Concentration in Jazz) at the University of Louisville, where he studied trumpet performance with Dr. Michael Tunnell, composition and arranging with John LaBarbera, and improvisation with Jamey Aebersold. Jim is the Musical Director of the Ottawa Jazz Festival’s annual ‘Youth Jazz Summit', bringing together young jazz students aged 17 – 22 from across Canada to rehearse and perform during the Ottawa Jazz Festival. Jim has adjudicated festivals and presented workshops across Canada and in the U.S.A., including clinics, a research paper and performing groups at the International Association of Jazz Educators Conferences in Chicago, New York, Anaheim and New Orleans. Jim is currently a Sessional Instructor at The University of Toronto (Jazz Studies) where he teaches Trumpet, Jazz and Traditional Materials, Ear Training, Improvisation, Large and Small Ensembles, and Graduate Seminar in Jazz Literature, and is also an adjunct faculty member at Humber College.