Ottawa's Annual Jazz Festival
The TD Canada Trust International Jazz Festival - June 21 to July 1
Ottawa's annual jazz fest presents its most recognizable lineup in years. The result? Record sales.
"Wow!," marveled multi-instrumentalist Jane Bunnett a few short years ago, looking over the densely populated reaches of downtown Ottawa's Confederation Park, "this festival has really grown!"
One expects equal exclamations of surprise and delight from this year's returnees, which include the always popular Branford Marsalis, slated to open the Ottawa Jazz Festival's 27th edition on June 21st.
The TD Canada Trust International Jazz Festival, despite being dwarfed by Ottawa's premiere musical event, the misnamed BluesFest, is alive and thriving; advance sales, in fact, are on the precipice of setting a record.
It's a development attributable, at least in part, to the competition; BluesFest, with its increased premium on big, genre-violating names (Bob Dylan? Van Morrison?), has forced Ottawa's other cultural events to go deep, each compelled to look for marquee go-to men to carry the ball.
Hence, this year's Jazz line-up is its most consistently recognizable in years, featuring icons such as Dave Brubeck and cross-over celebs like The Neville Brothers. Heck, they've even gone so far as to bring some big names back from the dead, via big band salutes to trumpet Gods Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson, and a night on which sax man Don Byron will pay tribute to Junior Walker.
Having said all of this, longtime Festival artistic director Jacques Emond would rather go to his grave than present less than a dense, diverse and thoroughly dynamic programme, stocked with his pet loves: recent discoveries, Cuban and African imports, and exposure-deprived Canadiana.
And so the Fest features just as much for the connoisseur as for the one-timer or the tourist, in classy side venues such as the National Arts Centre studio and the Library and Archives Canada auditorium.
There is also plenty of exposure provided to Ottawa's indigenous jazz talents, from veteran bassist John Geggie to up and coming reed man Petr Cancurra, thanks to an increasingly popular after-work series, a newly established composers' forum, and that Festival mainstay, the late night jam sessions (which, over the years, has permitted local cats to play rough with old lions like Sonny Rollins and Branford's trumpet-blowing bro Wynton.)
Performers, prepare yourselves! No longer is Ottawa that quaint stopover before or after that big gig at the mega-Fest in Montreal. You'll be hearing it from a lot more musicians: this festival has really grown.
The TD Canada Trustc International Jazz Festival takes place June 23 -July 1.
For information, visit www.ottawajazzfestival.com Stay tuned to this site for interviews and reviews.
