BRAD MUIRHEAD

Musician and educator Brad Muirhead is a classically trained trombonist who made the switch to jazz as an original member of Hugh Fraser’s Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation (VEJI). Since that transition Muirhead has become a notable and versatile presence of the Vancouver Jazz community on bass trombone, tuba, and euphonium. Muirhead was also an original member of John Korsrud’s Hard Rubber Orchestra and he has performed with Claude Ranger’s Jade Orchestra, Francois Houle, Tribal Dynamics, the Miles Black Sextet, The Hugh Fraser Quintet, Lunar Adventures, and the RazzMaJazz Ensemble as well as with Ray Anderson, George Lewis, and many others. Muirhead also composes for his own groups, Brass Roots and Primal Orbit, as well as writing commissioned works. His recording credits include the Fred Stride Jazz Orchestra, NOW Orchestra, Matthew Good, and George Lewis. Aside from his full-time work as a high school band instructor, Muirhead is active in the community with The Carnegie Street Band, the Deet Street Band, and The East Van Jazz Orchestra.

The interview was conducted by Tegan Ceschi-Smith, then an ICASP graduate research assistant who was part of the Carnegie Centre Jazz Band. The Carnegie Centre provides a range of social, recreational and educational programs for the residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. In the interview Brad Muirhead discusses the Carnegie Jazz program for residents of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.

The Carnegie Jazz Band: Community Music in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. An Interview with Brad Muirhead

A full transcript of the interview is available here.

Further, check out a reflective piece by Tegan Ceschi-Smith describing and analyzing her experience as part of the Carnegie Centre Jazz Band here.