KatzToller at Toronto TD Jazz Festival

Brian Katz – guitar/piano and Ernie Tollar – sax/eastern flutes

Brian Katz is widely acclaimed for his personal approach to playing modern jazz and klezmer music on the classical guitar, and for his evocative compositions; saxophonist/ bansuri flautist/ney player, Ernie Tollar for his outstanding ability to synthesize diverse musical traditions. KatzTollar mostly performs original compositions and “comprivisations” (compositions made up on the spot!) in the “world jazz” genre: the music is rooted in the modern jazz tradition and extends outwards to embrace elements of Middle Eastern, East Indian, Classical and various world music traditions.

Ernie Tollar performed his first professional gigs at age 16 and has since toured Europe, India, Egypt, Kapuskasing, U.S.A., Argentina, Mexico and Canada. He has performed and recorded with an incredible array of artists including Holly Cole, Kenny Wheeler, Trichy Sankaran, Joe Lovano, Maze Mazé, Space Trio, as well as several bands with his wife, vocalist Maryem Tollar; their collaborative 2009 recording, “Cairo to Toronto,” garnered them a JUNO award nomination.

Of “Leaves Will Speak,” Brian Katz’s recent solo guitar recording, music critic, Stanley Fefferman of Opus 1 Reviews writes: “The whole vibe is Brian’s own blend of classical, medieval, Spanish, Jazz, Blues, finger-picking Folk, Greek, Middle Eastern and Klezmer— you can hear all those threads in the weave of this album’s harmonic fabric. You can enjoy the play of musical intelligence on this album, and dig into a rich horde of experience gathered along the way of Brian’s 30-year international career.”