Home » Jazz Musicians » Reg Schwager

Reg Schwager

Reg Schwager is one of Canada’s leading jazz guitarists. His reputation has led to him performing with internationally acclaimed jazz artists such as Mel Tormé, Pepper Adams, Hank Jones, Junior Mance, Jimmy McGriff and Zoot Sims, and such celebrated Canadian jazz musicians as Diana Krall, Rob McConnell, Peter Appleyard, Oliver Jones, Dave Young and Don Thompson. Recent highlights include television, concert and club performances in the US, Japan and the Bahamas with master jazz pianist George Shearing.

As described in the Halifax Chronicle “Schwager has managed to become the hottest of rising Canadian musicians…Schwager’s solos sprout like vines in the jungle, tangled and tough, and winding through everything. His fluency and jazz literacy are encyclopedic. And his tasteful elaborations of the changes seem to end all too soon.”

Reg has been active in establishing the RANT studio, and this has resulted in the release of two recordings of the Reg Schwager Trio, “Never Swim Alone” RANT 9101 and “Know Your Zones” RANT 9108. In these he performs his own powerful originals as well as re-interpreting bebop classics. His group has appeared across Canada in clubs and at jazz festivals from Halifax to Vancouver as well as in Europe, and has recorded “Resonance” for the Justintime label. Newly released is his compact disc entitled “Border Town” RANT 9724.

Reg composes jazz songs and has written and recorded arrangements for these with the Dave McMurdo Orchestra. He was awarded an honorable mention in the ASCAP/IAJE Dizzy Gillespie Commissions in the category of Emerging Jazz Composer.

With his sister Jeannette Lambert, he has developed a repertoire of vocal jazz compositions, combining his music with her lyrics, as on “Forget Me Not” RANT 9209. This duo has a long history of performing jazz standards together from the time that they were very young until today. He also performs regularly with his wife, cellist Kiki Misumi, in Canada and also in Holland where Reg continued his studies in music composition in Amsterdam in 1993 with an award from the Canada Council for the Arts.

The Schwager/Oliver Quintet: Senza Reza

Read "Senza Reza" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
July 20, 2023

Canada became the first country beyond the USA to have developed its own vibrant jazz scene. What do major jazz artists like Oscar Peterson, Maynard Ferguson, Gil Evans, Rob McConnell and Diana Krall have in common? They're all Canadians, like the players of The Schwagger/Oliver Quintet presenting their debut on Senza Resa, an Italian phrase meaning “No Surrender," which conveys the approach to the music from five of Canada's most exciting award-winning jazz musicians. The album represents the ...

Album Review

Richard Whiteman: Very Well & Good

Read "Very Well & Good" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 9, 2021

One of the finest jazz musicians on the Canadian jazz scene, Toronto-based pianist / bassist Richard Whiteman lays down what he considers, perhaps, his best recording to date on the audacious Very Well & Good. A long established pianist for decades, Whiteman picked up the double bass in 2004 and has not put it down since. On this sparkling album the pianist performs on the double bass, leaving the keys to Amanda Tosoff, and presents nine of his best compositions ...

Album Review

Dave Young Quartet: Ides Of March

Read "Ides Of March" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 21, 2020

Maybe the finest compliment you can bestow on an individual in our COVID-19 times is that he/she is a solid citizen, someone who takes it upon themselves to protect others from the dangers of this horrible virus. What does this have to do with the music of bassist/bandleader Dave Young? First, it is fundamental that all great jazz is built upon the foundation of a timekeeping bassist. Second, as evidenced by Young's Ides Of March, his solid hand upon the ...

Album Review

Mario Romano: The Journey So Far

Read "The Journey So Far" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 5, 2020

Argentinian-born, Canadian-based pianist Mario Romano delivers his fourth album as leader with The Journey So Far, essentially a compilation project that takes tracks from previously recorded albums and presents them in new light. A successful real-estate developer with a strong musical background, Romano spent most of his life building a business career and after achieving uncommon success, returned to jazz after 2010. He has since become an integral part of the Canadian jazz scene and has created a high-profile with ...

Album Review

Peter Campbell: Old Flames Never Die

Read "Old Flames Never Die" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 11, 2020

There's a “square peg, round hole" problem holding vocalist Peter Campbell back in the renown department. He doesn't fall into the resounding soul-stirrer category, à la Gregory Porter, the bop poet-philosopher niche, ruled by Kurt Elling, the pure experimentalist's camp, typified by Theo Bleckmann, the neo-soul realm, occupied by José James, the group-minded singer-songwriter space(s), elevated by artists like New York Voices' Peter Eldridge, or any number of other fairly clear-cut categories. The world of male vocalists is, perhaps, the ...

Album Review

Al Muirhead's Canadian Quintet: Undertones

Read "Undertones" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 17, 2018

Swing was the thing, until alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and pianist Bud Powell helped give birth to bebop, and alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman set jazz free. Not that swing ever went away, it just got bumped into the back seat. So when “Confirmation" and “Dance of the Infidels" wailed on the dashboard radio, Johnny Hodges' alto sax sang sweet notes out of one of the back windows, Lester Young blowing them out the other. But ...

130

Album Review

Reg Schwager & Don Thompson: Live At Mezzetta

by Jerry D'Souza
July 3, 2002

One of the joys of listening to music is to come upon an album that crystallizes the essence of a song. Reg Schwager and Don Thompson bring that trait to a fulfillment that suffuses the soul with its warmth and elegant beauty. That they do so is not surprising. They have been working together for several years and entwine musically in quiet eloquence, living each moment, breathing new life into every one.

This album came about by ...

Recording

Reg Schwager releases album of guitar and bass duets

Source: Reg Schwager
November 15, 2011

TORONTO, ON (CANADA): On November 15th, 2011, Jazz From Rant will release Toronto guitarist {Reg Schwager}'s 11th recording as a leader, “Duets" (rant 1142) which features collaborations with four internationally respected Canadian bassists—{Don Thompson}, {Dave Young}, {Neil Swainson} and {Pat Collins}. Reg Schwager is a four-time winner of Canada's National Jazz Award for Guitarist of the Year. From 1994-2004, Schwager toured and recorded with master jazz pianist George Shearing, and he has also worked with Diana Krall, Peter Appleyard, Rob ...
read more

Event

Chalkers Pub & Bistro Presents Reg Schwager with Kiki Misumi Quartet on Saturday, December 20

Source: All About Jazz
December 20, 2008

Chalkers Pub & Bistro presents Reg Schwager with Kiki Misumi Quartet on Saturday, December 20, 6-9 p.m. for no cover charge. Reg has played with most of the top Jazz performers in Canada and beyond, has appeared on over 80 commercially released recordings and written hundreds of Jazz compositions. Last year he conducted an impressively successful Jazz guitar seminar for us. Hell be accompanied tonight by special guest Kiki Misumi, a cellist and singer-songwriter whos showcased in 17 countries and ...
read more