09/04/2025
With summer winding down, The Jazz Room is back with another spectacular season of performers! We are so lucky to have such an intimate and music-focused venue in our community!
The Jazz Room season opens Friday night with a long-time favourite Dave Wiffen Quintet!
Dave Wiffen received a BMUS (performance) from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Masters of Music (Jazz and Contemporary Media, performance) from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester New York. Right after graduating, he toured North America and Japan with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and has since performed all over the world including England, Mexico, Holland and Dubai.
He has performed with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Orchestra London, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Manteca, The Peter Appleyard Jazz Orchestra, The Spitfire Band, and The New Berlin Chamber Ensemble.
He has backed up such diverse artists as Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Brecker, Jerry Mulligan, The Tenors, Dinah Shore and Steve Allen, among many others.
He has been the saxophone instructor in the music department at Wilfrid Laurier University since 2000 and held the same position at Western University for seven years. He has been a member of many pit orchestras including the Stratford Festival and the Toronto productions of The Full Monty and The Producers.
He has appeared on numerous recordings, including nationally broadcast television and radio commercials, two Juno nominated jazz CD’s and has recorded a live CD at the Jazz Room that was produced by the Grand River Jazz Society.
He was a member of Blues legend Mel Brown’s band for 10 years and appears on the CD, “Homewreckin’ Done Live”.
