Esteban Seunarine + The Kind Ghosts at Jazz Winnipeg

ABOUT THIS EVENT

Esteban Seunarine has built a musical language from everything he was never supposed to combine. The rhythms of the Caribbean and Latin America were the sound of his childhood home; the indie and folk scenes of the Canadian prairies were the sound of the city that claimed him. He didn't choose between them, and he still hasn't. That refusal sent him to Brandon University, where he studied jazz performance under Eric Platz, Marika Galea, and Greg Gatien — and where he discovered the music that would reshape everything: the fearlessness of 1960s post-bop, the raw propulsion of 1970s jazz fusion, the hard-hitting groove and lyricism of 1990s hip hop. Through all of it, a conviction crystallized: that groove and intention are the twin centres of music worth making. His drumming carries this history without being burdened by it. Simultaneously rooted and restless — hitting hard while moving fluidly — he draws on jazz, rock, folk, hip hop, electronic, Latin, and Afro-Cuban music in his playing, and pulls bands toward moments nobody planned for. He describes his pursuit as finding "where structure meets total freedom." Every performance is a negotiation of exactly that. Among his touchstones: Mark Guiliana, whose playing lives with equal fluency in acoustic jazz and electronic music; and Tommy Crane, whose groove-centred, pop-and-rock-informed jazz moves between worlds without losing its footing in any of them. His compositions occupy similar territory — cinematic and atmospheric, jazz improvisation moving through pop and rock structures, the wide-sky indie-folk warmth of Winnipeg as present as any conservatory influence. Think Jeff Parker: that particular, unhurried way of holding jazz, post-rock, and electronic music in the same hand. The music rewards deep listening without requiring it. Over the years, Seunarine has brought that approach to stages alongside Grammy-winning and Juno-winning artists — Sara Gazarek, Jason Palmer, Luis Deniz — and influential voices across