Kieran Overs

Kieran Overs (bassist) was born on December 22, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been active on the Canadian music scene since 1970, first on guitar and electric bass and for the past 30 years on acoustic bass. He is a B.Mus. graduate of the Humber/BCOU Music Program and holds a Masters Degree from McGill University in Montreal. He has studied bass with renowned Danish bassist Neils-Henning Orsted-Pederson and arranger Rick Wilkins. Working in Toronto as a sideman with such artists as Zoot Sims, Chet Baker, Sonny Fortune, Dewey Redman, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Bill Charlap, Harold Mabern Jr., John Stetch, Carol Sloane and Bill Mays, Brian Dickinson, Pat LaBarbera, Alex Dean, Kirk MacDonald, Nancy Walker, Lorne Lofsky, Ted Quinlan, and touring internationally with Moe Koffman, Dizzy Gillespie, and Jane Bunnett, he has established a solid reputation in Canadian jazz.

Overs has three CDs to his credit on the Unity/Page label as leader/producer and more than 80 as a sideman. He was one of only eight jazz artists selected to represent Canada on the four CD, 50-artist boxed set ‘HERE AND NOW – a Celebration of Canadian Music’ produced by the Canada Council to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations (released world-wide in October 1995). A profile of Overs’ career can be found in Mark Miller’s book “The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada.”

In addition to his freelance work, Kieran is an adjunct faculty member of the music departments at Humber College (Toronto) and Mohawk College (Hamilton), and is active as a freelance musician, clinician and bandleader. His current band is an all-star lineup of Canadian musicians, Overs’ Eleven.

AWARDS:

• 2008 Juno award for vocal jazz recording of the year; Make Someone Happy/Sophie Milman and Juno nomination for vocal jazz recording of the year; The Very Thought Of You/Emilie-Claire Barlow
• 2007 National Jazz Awards of Canada, nominated: Best Bassist of the Year
• 2006 Juno (contemporary jazz) “radio Guantanamo” Jane Bunnett
• 2003/2004 McGill Graduate Studies Fellowship
• 2002/2003 National Jazz Awards of Canada, nominated: Best Bassist of the Year
• 2003 National Jazz Awards of Canada, nominated: Best Jazz Recording of the Year
• 2002 Juno nomination for best mainstream jazz recording ‘Spirituals & Dedications’ Jane Bunnett
• 1998 Prix de Jazz du Maurier with The John Stetch Trio
• 1991 Juno (world music) Spirits of Havana/Jane Bunnett

 

Video Clips

 

“Speakeasy”   Ted Quinlan (guitar), Kieran Overs (bass), Ted Warren (drums)

“I Hear A Rhapsody”  Ted Quinlan (guitar), Kieran Overs (bass)