For Biboye Onanuga, Bachelor of Music in Jazz and Contemporary Popular Music ’21, February is a busy month. The talented drummer, who created the weekly New Standards music series at The Common (a fixture in Edmonton’s jazz community) is performing with 5 Artists 1 Love and presenting a Black History Month show at Yardbird Suite.

The inspiration for New Standards began back in 2019 when Onanuga and some friends saw a gap in performance opportunities in the Edmonton music scene. “Young people were looking for a place where they could cut their teeth amongst their peers,” he says.

After a short pandemic-related hiatus, the community-oriented jam was revived in 2022 and has been bringing a new energy to Wednesday evenings ever since. 

While New Standards began with a focus on providing spaces for emerging musicians to build their performance skills, there is also an effort to provide a space for underrepresented artists. Women make up 50 per cent of featured artists, and each February, Black and African musicians take the stage.

“Most of the music that we hear today – pop, rock and even folk – is rooted in the Black American music tradition,” says Onanuga. “I don’t think that’s something we always acknowledge, so this month is an opportunity to show that that tradition is still being held amongst people here.”

The music at New Standards is jazz-inspired, but branches out to include influences from classical music to rap.

“We’re all over the map,” says Onanuga. “The one thing that’s the through line is that every jam is entirely improvised. So sonically, a lot of what people hear is rooted in jazz, but it’s just improvised music.”

Mixing jazz with other genres is a passion that extends beyond New Standards and into his own composition. On February 23, he’s playing a show at Yardbird Suite with Blacktet as part of their Black History Month events lineup.

“We're playing what I'd call 21st Century Black American music – a lot of my own original music, and also music by everybody in the band,” says Onanuga. “It’s somewhat jazz-oriented, but also soul- and hip-hop-oriented music.”

In addition to his band and other projects, Onanuga has also spent the past few years drumming for 5 Artists 1 Love, an initiative started by fellow MacEwan alum Darren Jordan. Onanuga says that having Black-focused initiatives and opportunities is important, and he’s using his connections to bolster other musicians in Edmonton.

“We needed Darren to create 5 Artists 1 Love 18 years ago,” he says. “And it’s the same with New Standards. These things don’t just sprout out of nowhere. There's a lot of Black folks making things happen.”