Cole Ridd

Congratulations to bassist Cole Ridd and saxophonist/clarinetist Clay Ridd of Winnipeg’s River East Collegiate, who went up against some of the best high-school jazz musicians in America at the Essentially Ellington competition on the weekend and came away champions. Jeff Kula runs a fantastic jazz program at River East; a few years ago when I was out there for something boring I sat in on one of the band’s afternoon rehearsals and it was not boring. Hey look, here’s Clay now. He even looks a little like Paul Gonsalves.