Guelph Jazz Festival is extra sharp after pandemic restrictions take a rest

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Guelph Jazz Festival is extra sharp after pandemic restrictions take a rest

The festival welcomed performers new and old to the royal city

ELENI KOPSAFTIS

The free Saturday concerts featured James Brandon Lewis Trio, Natural Information Society, Lido Pimienta and the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble. PHOTO BY ELENI KOPSAFTIS

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With a vast selection of bands and orchestras this past September, many gathered at the Guelph Jazz Festival this year to listen to a variety of performers put their own twist on the genre.

The Jazz Festival took place from Sept. 15 to 18 in various venues throughout downtown Guelph. Most concerts were ticketed at about $15 to $20, but the Saturday list featured a variety of artists playing for free in Market Square from 2 in the afternoon to 11 at night.

Carden St. was blocked off to make space for information and merchandise booths as well as the large stage. Portable water fountains allowed attendees to drink water for free, and some of the local shops set up outdoor patios.

Performances throughout Saturday included: the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble, Doghouse Orchestra, Doug Tielli’s Imaginary Brass Band, Bernice, James Brandon Lewis Trio, Natural Information Society, and Lido Pimienta. During the rest of the week, new and returning artists such as Land of Kush, Eric Chenaux, Plinc! Plonc!, Chippewa Travellers, and the Heavyweights Brass Band performed for the residents of Guelph.

Scott Thomson is one of the artistic and general directors for the Guelph Jazz Festival who took over after the founding director, University of Guelph director and professor Ajay Heble, left in 2017.

In an interview, he told The Ontarion, “We take pride in our programming that we give local and visiting audiences a taste of both something they’ve heard at the festival in previous years and also some brand new things.”

New to the festival include the aforementioned ensembles Land of Kush and Natural Information Society. The former is a 24-piece ensemble that uses a radical blend of different musical styles, some of which sticks to the better known songbased format while others focus more on electro-acoustics. Composer, guitarist, and oud player for the band is Sam Shalabi splits his time between Montreal and Cairo.

Meanwhile, Natural Information Systems is a nine-piece ensemble from Chicago who perform “trance-like, multilayered, and constantly evolving rhythmic material,” according to Thomson.

Returning to the Guelph Jazz festival for its 20th year is La Fanfare Pourpour, a group that played on Friday in Market Square as part of the Street Music Party. Hailing from Montreal, they’re a 19-piece Quebecois brass band

“They've been performing in some form or another for decades, so this is a celebration of those 20 years they’ve been playing in Guelph,” said Thomson.

The festival takes place every year in September and is truly a part of Guelph culture.

“We were so committed and determined that live music should be part of the cultural fabric of Guelph and also to give a lot of musicians the work that they needed pretty desperately [during the pandemic],” Thomson said.

“This year’s programming just builds on that momentum, energy, and spirit.”