Multiple Juno Award winner MIKE DOWNES has been a major force in Canada’s music scene since the early ’80s. He has had the opportunity to work with a long list of international artists including Pat Metheny, Chris Potter, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman and Donny McCaslin, along with many of Canada’s top musicians including Don Thompson, Terry Clarke, Pat LaBarbera, Robi Botos, and Molly Johnson.
He has performed throughout Europe, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Iceland, the United States, and Canada. His extensive discography as a bassist, composer, arranger, and producer includes his own Ripple Effect (2014 Juno Winner for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year) and Root Structure (2018 Juno Winner win for Jazz Album of the Year – Solo)
Mike Downes is the Bass Department Head/Program Coordinator at Humber College in Toronto and author of The Jazz Bass Line Book and co-author of Jazz and Contemporary Music Theory.
“This bass ace is incapable of letting you down” – Midwest Record
“Mike’s time playing is delightfully inventive…his lines are clear, hip, and agile. His technique and intonation are extraordinary” – Kim Richmond, Jazz Player Magazine
“As gifted a composer as he is a bassist” – International Society of Bassists
“Downes’ playing is marked by an unerring and versatile technique, the kind of bass playing that’s never static yet nevertheless establishes a firm foundation” – Textura
Tonight’s performance by the stellar MIKE DOWNES TRIO also features piano giant ROBI BOTOS and guitar master TED QUINLAN, entertaining in the up-close-and-personal intimacy of the Home Smith Bar.