Canadian ConTENT
A Celebration of Canadian Singer-Songwriters
featuring Barbara Leah Meyer and Jan Randall
Canada has so much to be proud of musically speaking. Canadian artists have had a huge impact on our shared history, our unique identity as “Canadian” and our emotional connection to ourselves and others. Artists such as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Bruce Cockburn, Gordon Lightfoot Jan Arden, James Keelaghan (to name but a few) have touched our hearts and souls and been a part of our collective “coming of age” in a country rich in culture.
Barbara Leah Meyer and Jan Randall are Canadian artists with impressive track records and extensive experience on the national and international stage. They come together in this unique celebration of Canadian music to add their own brush strokes to Canadian classics, some more obscure gems and their own, original creations.
Barbara Leah Meyer
Barbara has entertained a variety of audiences across Canada and throughout Europe, Scandinavia, Japan and the Middle East, as a solo artist, with jazz ensembles, big bands and orchestras. She has been a featured artist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Baden-Badener Philharmonie, Yalta’s Krimm Orchestra, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen , the European Philharmonia Baden Baden, at the Baku Jazz Festival (Azerbaijan), and Canada Day celebrations in Istanbul and Ankara (Turkey). She has performed with such luminaries as Tommy Banks, PJ Perry, Ack van Rooyen, Victor Borge, Petula Clark, Bob McGrath, Russ Spiegel, Ronnie Gardiner and Colin Linden and the Dixie Chicks. As a member of the renowned German vocal group Ladies Nyght she appeared at numerous jazz festivals and on club and concert stages across Europe.
A native of Edmonton, she co-founded the popular Edmonton jazz vocal trio Alley Scatz which performed at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, the Edmonton Jazz City Festival, Expo 86, and with a United Nations Entertainment Tour to the Canadian Arctic, Cyprus and Israel.
1989 marked the release of Barbara’s first compact disc “Out On A Limb“. The album reached the Top 10 in several European countries. In 1997 she released her first jazz CD “Comes Love”. Described as “sultry, stunning and impeccable” this album showcases her lush vocals and the superb playing of some of Western Canada’s top jazz musicians. “Winter Child” (Laika Records – DE) was recorded in February 2001 in Frankfurt, Germany and features the masterful musicianship of some of the top names in the German jazz scene. Subsequent releases include CD recordings with the Baden-Badener Philharmonie, the German vocal trio Ladies Nyght (“How to Fly”) and an innovative and charming English/ German children’s’ CD entitled “Maple Surple – Sing Together!”. Barbara was honoured to have been selected as Female Vocalist of the Year at the 1992 ARIA (Alberta Recording Industry Association) Awards.
Jan Randall
Jan Randall produced award winning original scores for over 800 productions between 1985 and 2015.
In 2001, he created and supervised the music for the World Championships in Athletics, broadcast to a live audience of 4 billion in over 200 countries and featuring 45,000 dancers, 80 drummers, a 1000 voice choir and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Jan was Music Director for Second City TV, performing with Catherine O’Hara, Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Richard Kind, Ron James, Eugene Levy and Mike Myers. From 2011-2017 he composed the music for over 50 original song parodies and performed them live as the music director of CBC radio’s award winning The Irrelevant Show. As Music Director of the Banff World TV Festival, he performed with Bob Newhart, John Cleese, Martin Short, Steve Allen, Kelsey Grammer, and Dame Edna.
Jan has opened for Ray Charles, Bruce Cockburn, Iron Butterfly, and Fats Domino. He has performed
with Bo Diddley, Spencer Davis, Sha Na Na, Gary US Bonds, Otis Rush, Sam Lay and Amos Garrett.
He has recorded two albums of original songs: Good Fair World (2008) and Wait In Line (2019).