MUSIC

MUSIC Jazz fest goes online (and largely free) for 2021

by Steve Newton

Things are looking good for Vancouver jazz fans this summer, pandemic or not. e TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival has scheduled a plethora of streamed concerts, talks, and workshops.

A er cancelling last year’s festival due to COVID-19, the Coastal Jazz & Blues Society has lined up more than 100 virtual events—including 52 that are free to view—for its 35th edition, which runs from June 25 to July 4. e festival will feature performances by B.C. artists as well as streams from New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, and Paris. e core of the free program features two daily performances from Ocean Art Works on Granville Island at noon and 1:30 p.m., one daily performance from Performance Works on Granville Island at 2:30 p.m., and one daily performance from Ironworks in Railtown at 4:30 p.m.

Artists featured in the free program include Dawn Pemberton, Alvaro Rojas, Cat Toren’s HUMAN KIND, DJ Kookum and Sierra Baker, Jillian Lebeck, Lydia Hol, Mary Ancheta, Anita Eccleston, Amanda Sum, the Krystle Dos Santos Band, Eli Davidovici, the Peggy Lee Cole Schmidt Trio (featuring Dan Gaucher), and Jasmine Jazz (featuring the Jodi Proznick Trio). e festival tradition of free workshops from Tom Lee Music Hall continues, with daily ones hosted at 3:30 p.m. on Zoom. e lineup of workshop leaders includes pianist Roisin Adams (June 27), guitaristpianist Itamar Erez (June 28), electronic musician and pianist Quincy Mayes (June 29), guitarist Gavin Youngash (June 30), guitarist Ayla Tesler-Mabe (July 1), and pianist Sharon Minemoto (July 2).

As far as international programming goes, the festival has partnered with friends in Europe for two multi-artist concert streams. On June 26 at 5:30 p.m., Trio Vatcher, Stadhouders, Petrucelli, Michael Moore’s Dice Cup, and OMAWI will perform live from Amsterdam’s BIMHuis. And on July 3 at 5:30 p.m., Roberto Negro, Duo Les Métanuits, and Papier Ciseau will perform live from Paris. All streamed performances will be available to view on Coastal Jazz & Blues Society’s YouTube channel from broadcast date to 11:59 p.m. on July 6. As far as ticketed concerts go, highlights include Snotty Nose Rez Kids—the hiphop duo of Yung Trybez and Young D— streaming live from Performance Works on June 25 at 8 p.m.; the improvisational Jamie Lee Trio, with drummer-composer Lee, streaming live from Frankie’s Jazz in the company of pianist James Dekker and bassist Marcus Abramzik on June 27 at 7:30 p.m.; and the Sun Ra Arkestra—known for melding Ellingtonian big-band swing with transcendent free jazz—streaming July 4 at 10:30 p.m.

Other ticketed shows to keep an eye on at this year’s jazz fest are keyboardist-composer Sharon Minemoto performing with her quartet—which includes saxophonist Jon Bentley, bassist Darren Radtke, and drummer Bernie Arai—on June 25 at 7:30 p.m.; captivating vocalist Laura Crema performing choice arrangements of genrespanning tunes with guitarist-composer Bill Coon, pianist Miles Black, and bassist Conrad Good on July 2 at 7:30 p.m.; and Vancouver blues matriarch Dallanah Gail Bowen celebrating the enduring legacy of Billie Holiday alongside pianist Michael Creber, bassist Miles Hill, and saxophonist Dave Say on July 4 at 7:30 p.m. e North Shore Jazz series features performances streamed live from the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts, including one from Suzie Ungerleider, the singer-songwriter formerly known as Oh Susanna, on June 26 at 8 p.m.

All online performances will take place in accordance with the Provincial Health O ce’s guidelines. g

DJ Kookum (right) and Sierra Baker are among the local musicians performing free shows at this year’s TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, which runs online from June 25 to July 4.

A toddler named August, who happens to be the child of director Deryn Robson, has a starring role in Dan Mangan’s new video as the boy confronts the difficult struggles of living under a lockdown.

For more information about this year’s TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, visit www. coastaljazz.ca.

On Our Radar: Mangan’s “Lay Low” has a message

by Mike Usinger

As anyone knows who has ever brought a child into the world, life is a wild roller coaster of emotions: tear-splattered rage, laughter- lled joy, lip-quivering sadness, and thanks-for-the-bottle contentedness. All of the preceding packed into a ve-minute window somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30 times a day. ank God for nap time.

And, as any adult who’s ever been a kid knows (which is to say everyone but Benjamin Button), time’s a weird thing when you’re little. Twelve days might as well be 12 years, which explains why it once seemed like you were never going to nish elementary school. And let’s not even get started on the yearlong-and-counting COVID-19 pandemic, which no matter what your age has seemingly stretched on for 12 centuries.

Childhood, time, and endless days at home all factor into the recently released video for “Lay Low” by Dan Mangan. e Vancouver singer-songwriter describes the video as follows: “Shot over the span of a year during a global pandemic, we follow the experience of a toddler confronting emotions of frustration, sadness, fear and happiness amidst life in lockdown.”

As for the star of the show, she was more than familiar with “Lay Low” before the lming started.

In his director’s statement Deryn Robson writes: “I had the pleasure of connecting with Dan almost a year ago when he reacted to an Instagram story of August, my then 2 year old child singing along to Lay Low. Dan’s music had become a staple within our ‘quarantines playlist’. August particularly loved the song, and would sing along unaware of the meaning or how it related to our current context.

“As was the case for many people, the slow down in work and the sudden, jarring pause to normal life provided lots of time for introspection and observation,” Robson continues. “It immediately became apparent to me that much of my own internalized feelings of uncertainty, frustration and fear were freely expressed by August on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. August, or Auggie as he would introduce himself, provided us with a perfect abstraction of our own, sometimes unspeakable frustrations with the world we suddenly nd ourselves in as we grapple with an uncertain future and a past we can’t return to.”

If you can watch it on Straight.com, pause to think about the reality that the three minutes and 18 seconds out of your life will be roughly equivalent to three days for those watching through a small child’s eyes. Except, maybe, for Benjamin Button. g