Kelsley Grant is a Toronto-based trombonist, composer, arranger, and educator working mainly in the jazz idiom.

Grant received his Bachelor of Music from McGill University, and completed his graduate studies at the renowned Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Shortly after leaving New York, he joined trumpeter Maynard Ferguson’s Big Bop Nouveau band, with which he toured the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and England.

He has performed with numerous music legends including Aretha Franklin, Jackie Richardson, Frank Sinatra Jr., Michael Bublé, Maria Schneider, Michel Legrand, Nicholas Payton, Sophie Milman, Ranee Lee, and Nikki Yanofsky. He toured with the musical, Forever Swing, and has played in Toronto productions of Anne, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Rat Pack, Kinky Boots, Matilda, Chicago, and Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations.

Grant has been nominated twice for Trombonist of the Year by the National Jazz Awards. He recorded a solo record in 1999 entitled Jgq. Later, his Quintet the Jefferson-Grant Quintet, which he co-leads with saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, won an Opus Award for their first record As One (2003), and was nominated as Acoustic Ensemble of the Year by the National Jazz Awards. He has served as a faculty member at McGill University, the University of Montreal, and the University of Toronto.

Currently, Grant is the chair of MusicFest Canada’s jazz division, and the coordinator of Humber College’s Introduction to Commercial Jazz Music program. He recently became musical director of the JAZZ.FM91 Youth Big Band and continues to give master classes and clinics at universities across Canada.

Awards

• Opus Award (2003)