Desarae Dee is an Award Winning Canadian Instrumental Fusion Artist, Composer and Producer who has made significant waves in the Canadian music industry since 2014. Known as “Toronto’s Queen of Vibes,” her passionate and meaningful sound combines a unique mixture of faith, soul, vulnerability and divine balance. Desarae is an established premier talent whose unique and unconventional playing style is both genre-bending and boundary-pushing. Desarae’s goal is to create music that resonates deeply with listeners and inspires them on their journey of self discovery. Alongside being a solo artist, Desarae is a Micro-Influencer who has reached tens of thousands of people and has garnished views in the millions on Instagram and TikTok with her diverse educational and creative music content.
Desarae has an extensive resume that includes national and international touring, press coverage and radio plays. She has released an abundance of music throughout her career, with some of her notable songs such as, "Late Arrival (Remix)," “Comfortable (ft. Macklyn),” "Holiday Soul," "Chilly Timing," and "Meditation," allowing her to become a recurring artist on CBC Music and NPR Music’s, “Jazz Night in America,” in addition to being a cover feature on Spotify's Fresh Finds Jazz in July 2022. Desarae was also the recipient of the 2022 SiriusXM Black Canadian Music Award powered by the SOCAN Foundation, alongside being a Yamaha Canada, Hammond Organ USA and Juicy Earz Artist, and recently becoming a GRAMMY Recording Academy Voting Member for the NYC Chapter. In September 2024, Desarae released her long awaited and anticipated debut full length instrumental fusion album, “Adventure: The Album” in celebration of her 10 year artist anniversary. Being an underrepresented artist in Canada, Desarae has been able to garnish much success by creating her own niche and lane in the Canadian music industry. Desarae is a rising star and a performer to keep an eye out for in the upcoming years. She continues to break gender, racial, social and cultural barriers with her unique approach to music, while forging a path for current and future Black Women Musicians in Canada.
Trinidadian-born Jesse Ryan is a saxophonist and composer with a keen interest in the connections between jazz and Afro-Caribbean musical traditions and in communicating transcendent ideas through his music.
His JUNO-nominated debut album Bridges is “...an aural explosion of stellar musicianship, that incorporates his explorations of his cultural roots and expertise in the modern jazz idiom...” — Medium Magazine, 2021.
He’s the 2020 recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award. As a sideman, he’s performed and recorded with Rachel Therrien, Amhed Mitchel, Larnell Lewis, Joy Lapps-Lewis, Daniel Barnes, Jojo Bowden, and Alex Bird. He’s been commissioned as a composer by the Nathaniel Dett Chorale to write the Virtues Suite for jazz quintet, string quartet, and chorale.
He currently serves on the board of directors for the Toronto Arts Foundation and is a P. Mauriat artist.
Yansi Alexavier is a composer, trumpeter and bandleader based in Toronto and New York City. He picked up the instrument at 7 and over the years developed his emotive composition and improvisation style by playing in NYC and Philly jam sessions. He's heavily inspired by the
works of J Dilla, Robert Glasper, Theolonius Monk, D'Angelo and many others.
These inspirations and his love for Black music led him to start the Toronto Neo-soul collective:
Souls of Black Folk. He also collaborates with many producers, instrumentalists and singers. Yansi's artistry draws from several genres such as gospel, rock, blues and hip hop - creating an organic, explorative style expressed through the medium of jazz and neo-soul. You can hear Yansi live at Davie Studios events like Listening Room Toronto, Neo in Your Soul and at various jazz clubs throughout Toronto and NYC.
