Toronto-based jazz guitarist, composer and educator Daniel Bado is the 2019 winner of the Mary Alice Stuart Scholarship.
The founding chair of JAZZ.FM91, Mary Alice Stuart, made an unparalleled contribution to the organization, helping to make JAZZ.FM91 the successful enterprise that it is today.
To honour her legacy, a program was developed in 2009 that awards scholarships to outstanding emerging jazz artists who are completing their studies at the post-secondary level. The directors of the four Toronto-area schools that offer a jazz curriculum (Humber College, Mohawk College, University of Toronto, York University) are asked to nominate an outstanding student from their respective programs. All of the nominees receive an honorarium and the recipient receives $2,500 to support their education.
Brad Barker presented the award to Bado live on the air on Monday, July 15.
Bado developed his love for music at a very young age, through listening to and singing gospel music at home and in his church choir. He started playing guitar at the age of 13, with his father only teaching him how to play open A, D and E chords on guitar. From then on, he would spend countless hours a day learning guitar himself through recordings, books and online resources.
After being self-taught for almost four years, Bado decided to take guitar lessons from film composer and guitarist Sean Baillie in order to prepare himself for jazz school. Bado was accepted into York University’s jazz program starting in September, 2015. For his first two years at York University, Bado had the privilege of studying privately under one of Canada’s finest jazz guitarists, Roy Patterson. He has now been studying privately under the tutelage of world-renowned jazz guitarist, Lorne Lofsky. He also studies jazz composition under esteemed Canadian composer and drummer Barry Elmes.
Bado has also studied and played in ensembles at York University under Lorne Lofsky, Frank Falco, Mark Eisenman, Kelly Jefferson, Kevin Turcotte, Al Henderson, Barry Elmes, Brian De Lima, Casey Sokol, and Mike Cado.
Bado leads a jazz quartet that plays jazz standards, modern compositions and Bado’s own original compositions. In addition to playing jazz, he also plays fusion, funk, R&B, hip hop, pop, blues, rock, free improvisation, country and folk music. He can be found performing and recording in many Toronto based groups including Funk the System, The JC3, Ollie Del Mastro and the Cosmic Folk Orchestra, The Jones Quartet, and Keaton Beyer. In addition, Daniel performs regularly at many corporate and private events. He has had the opportunity to play at venues such as The Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Lee’s Palace, Theatre Passe Muraille, 187 Augusta, The Super Wonder Gallery, Junction City Music Hall and The Supermarket, among others.
Bado has been fortunate enough to be a part of Toronto’s growing music scene, and has shared the stage with some of its best up-and-coming musicians, including Nico Levy, Ben Carney, Jeremy Worden, Sam Ruttan, Jon Catanus, Matt Bawtinheimer, Christopher Anderson-Lundy, Peter Eratostene, Kaelin Murphy, Cole Mendez and Leighton Harrell. Bado is on the faculty of the Ontario Conservatory music school in Toronto, where he shares his passion for music by providing private and group lessons to children and adults of all ages. He is committed to nurturing his students’ creative expression of their compositional and improvisational guitar skills as he fosters their love of music.
Bado is now in his fourth year of study at York University. Upon graduating, he intends to work as a full-time guitarist, composer and music educator.