Women’s Blues Revue Band
The Women’s Blues Revue Band has been a cornerstone of the Women’s Blues Revue since its inception in 1986. Over the years, the WBR Band has featured many of Canada’s most prestigious instrumentalists and blues musicians, including Donna Grantis, Brandi Disterheft, Suzie Vinnick, Sue Foley, Colleen Allen, Lily Sazz, Carrie Chesnutt, Rebecca Hennessy, Morgan Doctor, Christine Bougie, Emily Burgess, Lindsay Beaver and many more.
The Women’s Blues Revue Band perform continuously throughout the evening, supporting the featured vocalists and forming the foundation of the show.
This year’s Women’s Blues Revue Band includes:
Rebecca Hennessy (Trumpet & Bandleader)
Suzie Vinnick (Guitar)
Emily Burgess (Guitar)
Carrie Chesnutt (Sax)
Elena Kapeleris (Sax)
Colleen Allen (Sax)
Dale Anne Brendon (Drums)
Lily Sazz (Keys)
Carlie Howell (Bass)
BAND MEMBERS
Rebecca Hennessy | (Trumpet & Bandleader)
Rebecca Hennessy is a trumpeter, singer, composer and bandleader. In Nov 2020 she released her debut album as a singer-songwriter called “All The Little Things You Do” featuring Kevin Breit. There have been 8 other albums she released to date as bandleader or co-bandleader with Fog brass band, Hobson’s Choice, Sweet Pea and Way North. Rebecca is the bandleader and trumpeter for Massey Hall’s Women’s Blues Revue. In 2018 she won the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Jazz Artist Award and was nominated for Montreal Jazz Festival Grand Prix de Jazz in 2016.
Rebecca will be releasing another vocal album winter 2022, featuring Michael Herring, Kevin Breit, Dave Clark and Tim Shia.
Suzie Vinnick | Guitar
A Saskatoon native transplanted to the Niagara Region of Ontario, Roots and Blues singer Suzie 
Vinnick is a 3X Juno Nominee, CFMA Award winner, and a 10-time winner of the Maple Blues Award for songwriting, female vocalist, acoustic act and more. Suzie has a voice you’ve heard a thousand times and one you’ll never forget. It soars, it growls, it whispers and it shouts from a deep, deep well of emotion. The pure joy she exudes when she picks up that guitar is so worth the show.
Suzie has toured nationally with Downchild, Stuart McLean’s The Vinyl Café, the John McDermott Band and she performed for Canadian Peacekeepers in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf. She was also the voice of Tim Horton’s for 5 years.
Suzie’s latest roots and blues album will be released on September 23, 2022; the album is entitled Fall Back Home.
Emily Burgess | Guitar
Emily Burgess graduated with honours from Humber College’s prestigious music program at twenty-two years old, majoring in guitar. Direct from the hallways to the roadways, Emily began touring Canada and the U.S with the JUNO nominated 24th Street Wailers. Eight years and hundreds of shows later, she fronting her own band, The Emburys, and playing guitar with many different acts across Canada. Emily has shared the stage and traded riffs with guitar greats Jimmie Vaughan, John Primer, Garrett Mason, Suzie Vinnick, Sue Foley, and Sam Weber, among others. Burgess wrote two songs and took guitar duties for 2015’s JUNO nominated album “Wicked” by The 24th Street Wailers.
Since 2014, Emily has toured year-round with ‘The Baddest Band in the Land’, The Weber Brothers, bringing her constantly evolving approach and style to the band.
As a guitarist for the Women’s Blues Revue Band since 2014, Emily has had the opportunity to take her place alongside many of Canada’s top musicians at Toronto’s legendary Massey Hall every November.
In November 2017, Burgess released her debut solo album ‘Are We In Love?’, produced by The Weber Brothers. CBC music journalist Bob Mersereau calls the album “Empowering” and “A Big Winner”. John Valenteyn of The Maple Blues Newsletter writes “…she has a knack for writing attractive tunes that feature her biting lead guitar…a combination not often heard”. He adds that the album is “Gorgeously produced”.
Emily won “Best New Artist’ in 2018 at The Maple Blues Awards.
Elena Kapeleris | Saxophone
Elena Kapeleris is a Toronto-based saxophonist, vocalist, composer, bandleader, and educator, whose love of various styles of music has lead her from Jazz, to R&B, to Blues, to World Music and more. A graduate of the Humber College Jazz Performance program, Elena has studied saxophone with world renowned saxophonist Pat LaBarbera, composition with the great Don Thompson, and voice with Shannon Gunn.
Elena is currently a member of blues singer Rita Chiarelli’s touring band, Yetunde Ajasin’s Afrika Libre, and play with Kellylee Evans band, Jully Black’s group, The Jay Danley Ethiojazz Project and Larry Graves’ Surfire Sweat.
Kapeleris also leads multiple projects of her own, and is in the process of writing her second album. She is currently a private instructor of voice and woodwinds at Centennial College. During Elena’s career, she has performed with many other recognized artists such as Brandi Disterheft, Pat LaBarbera, Neil Swainson, Hilario Duran, Rich Brown, Tanya Tagaq, Eric St- Laurent, Sly Juhas, Colleen Allen, Rebecca Hennessy, Shakura S’Aida, Christine Duncan,
Ted Quinlan, and many more. She has played Massey Hall and the NAC in Ottawa multiple times with the Women’s Blues Revue. Kapeleris has performed with these great artists at many different venues in the city, as well as clubs and Jazz and Blues Festivals around the world.
Carrie Chesnutt | Saxophone
One part instrumentalist, one part cabaret diva, Carrie Chesnutt has had a dual career as saxophone and flute sideman and recording artist, as well as a One Woman cabaret dynamo. Carrie’s one woman show ran for 8 seasons in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as well as touring Costa Rica and Canada.
Carrie has performed at Canada’s Walk of Fame, played with Late Night With David Lettermans’ Paul Shaffer, blues legend Paul Butterfield, Canadas Queen of the Blues Rita Chiarelli, English songwriter and gay icon Tom Robinson, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, entertained at private parties for Rick Moranis and Tom Hanks, and opened for the one and only Phyllis Diller.
Carrie’s hard hitting funk band FAT LUCYs music has been described as soulful tight and muscular
A long time regular in the WBR house-band, ( and VERY glad to be back onstage this year! ) she is a persevering, wandering sax slinger for hire these days- in case you are looking.
Colleen Allen | Saxophone
Alberta born Colleen Allen plays all saxes, flute, and clarinet. She is a top call in Toronto for live shows, festivals, and recording projects. Recent performances include Sessionsx recordings with Gospel legend Carvin Winans, featuring Michael MacDonald, Take 6, David Clayton Thomas and Martha Reeves.
She has performed extensively with Molly Johnson, David Clayton Thomas, Holly Cole, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Marc Jordan, Shakura S’Aida, Jackie Richardson, Oliver Schroer, Cirque Du Soleil, SoulPepper Theatre, Brian Barlow’s Big Band and is a proud member of the Women’s Blues Review Band. She is also a member of Manteca, one of Canada’s premier fusion jazz big bands, and has recently been in the studio with them to record a new album, her third with the group.
Her first CD, “Colleen Allen,” is a beautiful collection of nine tracks displaying her many talents as instrumentalist, arranger, band leader and producer. Her sophomore disc features bassist George Koller, guitarist Rob Piltch and Snarky Puppy drummer, Larnell Lewis.
Colleen is a cherished musician on the Canadian music scene: a dynamic solo performer and flawless ensemble musician, known for her gorgeous, warm tone, soulful style, and brilliant soloing.
Dale Anne Brendon | (Drums)
Originally from London Ontario Canada, drummer/ percussionist Dale Anne performs with the Stratford Festival; drumming for the acclaimed Stratford productions of TOMMY (2013), Jesus Christ Superstar (2011), Evita (2010) and Billy Elliot (2019). Randy Bachman (Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive) chose Dale Anne to be the drummer for a project in 2014/ 15 which included recording an album (Heavy Blues) and touring North America. Dale Anne also travels with the North American act Jeans n’ Classics (rock band plus symphony orchestra) which has taken her from Jacksonville Florida to Anchorage Alaska and all points in between. Dale Anne’s classical music career has included playing percussion with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Orchestra London Canada, providing an opportunity for her to perform with world-class artists such as Marie Osmond, Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Harry Belefonte, Mel Torme and more! Dale Anne endorses: Sabian cymbals, Yamaha drums and Promark drumsticks.
Lily Sazz | Keyboards
Following her graduation from McMaster University’s music programme, studying with world-renowned concert pianist, Valerie Tryon, Lily’s musical journey has led her through many adventures, performing and recording with some of the top musicians in Canada, including Canada’s Queen of the Blues, Rita Chiarelli. She has been a member of the Toronto Blues Society’s Women’s Blues Revue band since 1995, and resides in Dundas, Ontario (part of Hamilton).
Her band, Cootes Paradise, released two CDs (2017 and 2020), one of them nominated for a Maple Blues Award for New Artist/Band of the Year, both produced by the (now late) legendary Nick Blagona (Deep Purple, Cat Stevens, The BeeGees, April Wine, Tom Jones, Alexisonfire, The Sheepdogs.
www.cootesparadiseband.ca www.lilysazz.com
Carlie Howell | Bass
Carlie Howell is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator, based in Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island.) They perform their own music with Carlie Howell and The DeHarms, Laranjeiras, and solo under the moniker Rose Quartz. Carlie has composed, arranged and created videos for Baque De Bamba, Os Tropies, The Queer Songbook Orchestra, The Afiara String Quartet, and the Continuum Contemporary Music Ensemble. Currently, they are producing a chamber orchestra recording with the Electric Storm Collective, and can be seen performing with Culture Reject, Tanya Davis, Andrea Superstein, Jenn Grant, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and Harmony House Theatre.
Their work has been supported by the Toronto, Ontario, and Canada Councils, Factor, and The Banff Centre for the Arts.
In addition to their work in the arts, Carlie is a social justice activist, dedicated to issues of gender rights, racial equity, food security, and abolition. They are the Queer Community Representative on the Music PEI board, volunteer with the PEI Advisory Council for the Status of Women, and are part of a Working Group on Basic Guaranteed Income
©2023 Toronto Blues Society. Design by Janine Stoll Media.
TBS logo and WBR artwork by Barbara Klunder
The Toronto Blues Society acknowledges the annual support of the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage, and project support from FACTOR< and the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Broadcasters, The Canada Council for the Arts, the SOCAN Foundation, SOCAN, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.