“A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.” — Leonard Bernstein
If you watched the film Maestro this past year, you saw this quote flitting across the screen during the opening credits. So often these days we search for absolutes and forget that one of the joys of music is that it asks as many questions as it answers. It is an art form full of possibility, and that is especially true of jazz. With its ephemeral, improvisatory foundation, what makes jazz so exciting is that it’s dependent on the specific alchemy of the moment, and hence unrepeatable. This year marks the 39th Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Just think how many moments of wonder and musical magic that run contains! The festival kicks off with Downtown Jazz, returning to šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl'e7énḵ Square –Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza with local favourites and visiting superstars. Come for the music and stay for the sun, friends, and dance moves. Granville Island is our daily homebase, packed with 47 shows over 10 days. Come to the island for the afternoon and stay until the wee hours of the morning for wideranging shows exploring the many corners of improvised music, from Festival newcomers like Lakecia Benjamin and Ulysses Owens Jr., to returning favourites like Wayne Horvitz.
If you want to go big, join us for our Marquee Series featuring three wide-ranging artists: Killer Mike, Julian Lage, and Veronica Swift. You won’t be disappointed.
So much of our festival is about community. Our partners add such depth to the festival, and we’re grateful for their support. Catch shows co-produced with returning partners like the
Talking Stick Festival, Queer Arts Festival, and Western Front. We’re happy to welcome new partners this year like A Week in Paradise, who are co-presenting ambient legend Laraaji, and Tyrant Studios, who will be hosting our nightly artist jams. Without our partners, our artist in residence and education programs would not be possible. We have three amazingly diverse artists in residence this year: Shahzad Ismaily, Sakina Abdou, and DJ O Show. You’ll have multiple opportunities to catch them during the fest in performances and as part of educational events and artist talks.
We’re delighted to expand our education offerings with the inaugural New Improvisers Studio and a refresh of the High School Jazz Intensive, now called the Vancouver Youth Jazz Orchestra. Both these projects offer free education and mentorship to young musicians exploring the wide world of improvisation and jazz.
Thank you to you, our audience, our volunteers, our artists, and all our many wonderful public and private partners for continuing to make the Jazz Festival the warm and vibrant community event it has become. We are so proud of this event and how it has emerged out of the pandemic, and look forward to sharing it with you for many years to come. Join us with your ears and hearts open, ready to explore the cracks between the notes and the meaning between the questions and the answers.
—The Staff of Coastal Jazz
Our activities take place on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations upon whose territory we are honoured to produce this Festival.
BCLC
False Creek Ferries presents Band on a Boat! Meet us by Canoe Bridge in Olympic Village for more
Thanks for being part of the Coastal Jazz family!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meredith Bates
Karen Dar Woon
Barbara Kaminsky
Hyosub Kim
Shora Parvaresh
Julia Úlehla
John D. Whyte
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Nina Horvath
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR: Eduardo Ottoni
MARKETING DIRECTOR: Leesa Butler
ARTISTIC PROGRAMMING AND LOGISTICS: Jeremy Page
ARTISTIC PROGRAMMING: Cole Schmidt
DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION: Zac Baccardax
PATRON SERVICES MANAGER: Dannielle Rutledge
INDIVIDUAL GIVING MANAGER: Luke Resoun
SPONSORSHIP MANAGER: Carlo Diano
MARKETING ASSISTANT: Frankie Brave
FUNDRAISERS: Further Together
FOUNDING DIRECTOR EMERITUS: John Orysik
ARTIST HOSPITALITY COORDINATOR: Jenny Lee Craig
ARTIST LOGISTICS AND COMMUNICATIONS, COPYWRITING: Stephen Lyons
BAR MANAGER: Ian Wardle
BOX OFFICE SUPERVISOR: Denice Jagic
FESTIVAL BRANDING: Massif Creative
FOOD, BEVERAGE & EXHIBIT MANAGER: Guy Ciprian
PRODUCTION MANAGER: James Ong
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: liisa hannus
SITE MANAGER: Tom Jones
TRANSPORTATION MANAGER: Bruce Suttie
VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR: Allison MacLeod
VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR ASSISTANT: Larissa Lau
VENUE MANAGERS:
Hannah Mikuska
Elizabeth Glancy
Courtney Komanansky
Paula Luther
Gordon Watkins
Olivia Martin
PUBLISHER:
Glacier Media
Gail Nugent, Publisher; Tara Rafiq, Design and Production Manager
Coastal Jazz & Blues Society
2nd Floor, 295 West 7th Avenue Vancouver, BC, V5Y 1L9
Phone: 604.872.5200
Email: cjbs@coastaljazz.ca Web: coastaljazz.ca @coastaljazz
Website: coastaljazz.ca or showpass.com/o/coastal-jazz-blues-society
Box Office Phone: 604.872.5200 ext 5
Toll-free North America: 1.888.438.5200 ext 5
In-Person Sales at the Coastal Jazz Office: Please call ahead to make an appointment.
Ticket prices vary by seat and venue. Additional service fees apply to all listed ticket prices.
PLEASE NOTE:
• No refunds or exchanges.
• Print-at-Home & Mobile tickets: Your tickets arrive as a PDF and the barcode, or QR code, must be legible; if it doesn’t have a barcode/ QR code, it’s not a ticket!
• All of our tickets are provided through Showpass. Tickets purchased through unauthorized third-party sellers CANNOT be guaranteed as valid.
Events from 8-10:30pm are $10 (except June 30, $20) at the door only. Cash and card accepted.
5pm performances at Revue Stage are PWYC (pay what you can). No one turned away for lack of funds.
Tickets for North Shore Jazz events are available through the BlueShore at CapU ticketing site. Visit capilanou.ca/centre, or call 604.990.7810.
Tickets for Laraaji June 25 are available from A Week in Paradise via ra.co/events/1901799
Tickets for Tyrant Studios are available through tyrantstudios.com/tickets-schedule
Admissions for the Club Series can be purchased directly from the individual clubs on the night of the show. Please contact the club for pricing, accessibility, and other information. Contact information is located on the Club Schedule, page 24.
There are reserved accessible seats at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and Vancouver Playhouse. Other venues are general admission. If you have accessibility needs, please call 604.872.5200 ext 5 or email boxoffice@ coastaljazz.ca for assistance. For North Shore Jazz events, call 604.990.7810.
Presented by
Come hear BC’s burgeoning young talent! Music education is an essential part of the Jazz ecosystem, and this initiative showcases ten of the best high school jazz combos and big bands from Metro Vancouver and around the province. With great young players and dedicated educators stepping up to the Festival stage, it's always a highlight of the Downtown Jazz weekend.
Saturday June 22 & Sunday June 23, 12-5:45pm: Robson Square, Ice-Rink Level. See the schedule on page 23.
Community Partners:
The High School Jazz Intensive has a new look! Building on the HSJI tradition, Coastal Jazz has partnered with the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra and the Fraser MacPherson Jazz Fund to co-present an exciting new initiative: the Vancouver Youth Jazz Orchestra. Beginning in June, this free multi-week residency will provide high school students in the lower Mainland a unique opportunity to play alongside members of the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra in a big band directed by guest conductor Brent Taylor. Up to 21 talented teens are selected from an audition process open to students in Grades 9-12 from over 150 schools across the Lower Mainland. Successful applicants receive extensive rehearsal sessions, mentorship
and group instruction from local professional musicians, and the opportunity to perform live on stage at Performance Works (Sunday, June 30, at 1pm).
Coastal Jazz and Western Front are pleased to present the inaugural year of The New Improvisers Studio, a week-long educational initiative for 12 young musicians aged 17 to 24. The New Improvisers Studio supports collective explorations in musical improvisation through the mentorship of a world-leading improviser and invited guests from the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. This year the Studio will be led by the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist—and 2024 Coastal Jazz Artist in Residence—Shahzad Ismaily, and throughout the week will feature guest artist/ mentors Claire Devlin, Mili Hong, Sunny Kim, Matthew Ariaratnam, Aviva Endean, Meredith Bates, Sakina Abdou, and Peggy Lee in sessions with the New Improvisers. The program will culminate in an improvisation session open to the public on Friday, June 28, at 11am.
and Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion.
Founded in 1973, Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre that supports local, national and international multidisciplinary exchange and experimentation. 303 East 8th Ave will be a hub for a wide range of talks and experimentations featuring festival artists and the broader community.
All events are free and open to all, and are a way for fans of the music to connect in an intimate space with some of the artists we’ve invited from near and far who will be performing in various settings throughout the Festival. This is a rare opportunity for listeners to hear about some of the motivations, practices and philosophies that keep these artists tuned to their lifelong creative activities.
June 24, 3-5pm - Shahzad Ismaily
Shahzad Ismaily is a Brooklyn-based musician, composer, engineer, and founder of Figure 8 Recording. The New York Times called him “one of music’s most in-demand collaborators, flitting like a mischievous butterfly through genres as diverse as honeyed folk, rambunctious free jazz and spectral meditations sung in Urdu.” Over the last thirty years he’s played electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synths and all manner of instruments procured in life’s travels. He’s done work for dance and theatre, and recorded and performed with a diverse crew of artmakers, including Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Laura Veirs, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marianne Faithfull, Faun Fables, Feist, Bryce Dessner, Keiji Haino, Ceramic Dog, Secret Chiefs 3, Sam Amidon, Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and more.
Moderated by scholar, composer and vocalist Julia Úlehla, known for her synthesis of ethnomusicology and incandescent modern composition in the long-running Dálava. That ensemble, performing June 29 at Revue Stage, explores the nexus of ritual and performance, evoking the liminal intensity of layered temporalities and ancestral presences.
June 25, 3-5pm - Daniel Wilfred, David Wilfred, and Peter Knight (of Hand to Earth)
Hand to Earth has quickly developed an international reputation as one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary music ensembles, and this workshop/discussion will feature three of its members. Daniel and David Wilfred are keepers of Yolngu Manikay, indigenous songs from North East Arnhem Land that can be traced back more than 40,000 years, making them the world’s oldest continuously practised music tradition. Daniel sings of the stars, of fire, and of the cooling rain, while the drone of David Wilfred’s didgeridoo and atmospheres created by trumpeter/sound artist Peter Knight make for a bold sound that Jazzwise called “testing at times, mesmerizing at others, but always extraordinarily intriguing in its organic synthesis of the ancient and contemporary.”
Moderated by musician, composer and educator Meredith Bates. A JUNO Award winner with Pugs & Crows, and a nominee for her recent solo album, Tesseract, she co-leads Gentle Party and Sound Migrations and founded instrumental sextet Like the Mind, with renowned improvisers from Canada and Sweden. She’s artistic director of the Vancouver Improvised Arts Society.
June 26, 3-5pm - DJ O Show
Passion, positivity, and professionalism make 2024 Coastal Jazz Artist in Residence DJ O Show one of the most sought-after DJs working today. O Show—a.k.a. Orene Askew—is a proudly Afro-Indigenous member of the Squamish Nation who embraces and embodies teachings
from both of her cultural backgrounds. Winner of the 2022 International Indigenous Hip Hop Award for DJ of the Year, she’s received a BC Indigenous Business Award, a Vancouver Pride Society StandOut Award, and the Alumni of Excellence Award from Capilano University, DJ’d for the Canucks, Whitecaps, and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, and opened for Kevin Hart and Russell Peters. She’s also a powerful, inspirational speaker who has travelled to numerous communities to share knowledge and uplift folks of all ages. DJ O Show stays true to her love of hip hop and R&B, laying down beats that pack dance floors from Vancouver to Vegas, and from Toronto to Texas, while spreading the positive message that diversity makes beautiful music!
Moderated by vocalist, songwriter, performer, disability support worker, and arts administrator Gillian Thomson. Of mixed Haida and European background, Gillian co-leads indie soul-pop band Sister Says with her brother Robert, sings jazz standards and original folk-soul songs, and has participated in theatre collectives as an actor and a vocal coach.
In association with Talking Stick Festival.
June 27, 3-5pm - Sakina Abdou
Based in Lille, France, saxophonist/flutist Sakina Abdou explores free improvisation and broadly experimental contemporary music with the likes of Eve Risser’s Red Desert Orchestra, Raymond Boni, Satoko Fujii, Dedalus, and the daring experimental collective, Muzzix. Of FrancoNigerian origin, an upcoming collaboration will feature drummers from Niger and flutist Yacouba Moumouni, under the auspices of CNCM Athénor. Her multifaceted sound is sometimes caustic, sometimes full of grace and quietude, and always full of suspense and surprise, as evidenced on Goodbye Ground, her debut album for the cutting edge New York label Relative Pitch Records. “She can be as fiery as she is fierce, but what has impressed me is Abdou’s ability to bring moments of
swing-derived blowing to the equation, evoking Lee Konitz as much as Peter Brötzmann” (The Quietus).
Moderated by scholar and percussionist Dylan van der Schyff. A leading figure in the Vancouver improv and creative music scene for decades, he’s performed extensively with Peggy Lee, John Butcher, Dave Douglas, Misha Mengelberg, Rob Mazurek, Evan Parker, and many others. He is now Professor (Associate) in Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where his research focuses on developing possibilities for thought and action in practical areas such as improvisation and creativity, performance, and music education.
With the support of the Consulate General of France in Vancouver.
Please visit coastaljazz.ca/education for more information and a detailed schedule.
Each year, Coastal Jazz is proud to offer free 1pm workshops and lectures at Tom Lee Music Hall, in the heart of downtown.
From June 24 - 28, learn in an intimate setting from some of the most engaging and thoughtful musicians working today, including visiting artists, Vancouver expat Tyson Naylor (Berlin), David Stackenäs (Stockholm) and Halifax's Sam Wilson (pictured), as well as local lights Mary Ancheta and DJ O Show.
JUNE 29 • QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE
Atlanta’s favorite son Killer Mike gets recognized as many things — a rapper, an advocate for the disenfranchised, an entrepreneur, a Bernie Sanders whisperer, and a leader in political and social justice causes. His criticallyacclaimed 2023 album MICHAEL earned him three GRAMMY Awards (Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Performance) for its
complex portrait of Black southern masculinity. While Killer Mike has been an active solo artist for over 20 years, he’s also collaborated with some of the biggest names in hip-hop (including Outkast, Jay-Z, Big Boi, T.I., Black Thought, and more), and is widely renowned as half of the popular hip-hop super duo, Run The Jewels, with whom he’s released four studio albums alongside his partner in rhyme, EL-P.
With guest DJ Shub.
JUNE 24 • VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE
With her interpretive ingenuity, bracing songwriting, and innate gift for entertaining a crowd, Veronica Swift is not just one of the most dazzling singers of her generation, she’s also one of the most versatile. We hear moments of inspiration from Chopin and Beethoven, Puccini and Antônio Carlos Jobim, Queen and Nine Inch Nails, as Swift stirs opera, European classical music, bossa nova, blues, industrial rock, funk, and vaudeville into the melting pot of her dynamic, joyful modern jazz.
JUNE 25 • VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE
Julian Lage roves a broad landscape of American music, delighting in the deliberate crossing of wires between gospel, rural blues, California singer-songwriter sunshine, and skronky jazz. "Possessed of an unflappable technical facility and seemingly boundless curiosity” (The New York Times), the always astonishing New York-based guitarist has collaborated with Gary Burton, Béla Fleck, John Zorn, and scores of next-level creative players. His adventurous and deeply attuned trio features bassist Jorge Roeder and renowned Bad Plus drummer Dave King.
In collaboration with like-minded cultural organizations, our Artist in Residence program brings multifaceted artists to town for a wide range of activities that go far beyond featured concerts. Whether it’s talks, rehearsals, brand-new collaborations, or community outreach activities, artists-inresidence spend time creating and sharing knowledge while soaking up what the Festival and Vancouver have to offer. This year, we’re proud to partner with Western Front to host Sakina Abdou, Shahzad Ismaily, and (alongside Talking Stick Festival) DJ O Show.
French saxophonist/flutist Sakina Abdou explores free improv and broadly experimental contemporary music with the likes of Eve Risser, Raymond Boni, Satoko Fujii, and the experimental collective, Muzzix. Her multifaceted sound is sometimes caustic, sometimes full of grace and quietude, and always full of suspense and surprise. “Radical but controlled, she designs improvisations that are abstract as well as warm and sensitive” (Vital Weekly). During the Festival, Abdou will give an artist talk, perform solo, in an improv trio, as part of Wayne Horvitz’s 14-piece Electric Circus, and be a visiting mentor as part of the New Improvisers Studio program.
Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist/composer Shahzad Ismaily has been called the “musician’s favourite musician.” A deeply empathic player, he’s shared in improvisation, tonal shifts, and rhythmic movement with a wildly diverse crew of artmakers, including Nels Cline, Milford Graves, Bob Dylan, Butch Morris, and Marc Ribot. Love in Exile, his collaborative trio with Arooj Aftab and Vijay Iyer, was nominated at the 2024 GRAMMYs for Best Alternative Jazz Album, a new category added to reflect the explosion of envelope-pushing hybrid forms of creative music. Ismaily will lead the New Improvisers Studio through a week of mentoring and workshops, culminating in a public performance, participate in an artist talk, collaborate with fiery local duo Peregrine Falls, and join Abdou for improv with drummer Dan Gaucher, and in Wayne Horvitz’s Electric Circus. Winner of the 2022 International Indigenous Hip Hop Award for DJ of the Year, Orene Askew—aka DJ O Show—is a proudly AfroIndigenous member of the Squamish Nation who embraces and embodies teachings from both of her cultural backgrounds. One of the most charismatic, positivity-emanating DJs around, she’s also a passionate speaker and teacher who’s travelled the country to spark
inspiration in folks of all generations, DJ’d for the Canucks, Whitecaps, and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, and opened for Kevin Hart and Russell Peters. A former Squamish Nation Council member, she’s received a BC Indigenous Business Award, a Vancouver Pride Society StandOut Award, and the Alumni of Excellence Award from Capilano University. DJ O Show will give an artist talk, a workshop, and will be laying down hip hop and R&B beats for three unforgettable nights of soulful shaking at our official late-night party spot, Ocean Artworks.
The residencies allow time for new ideas, inspirations, and activities to pop up, so check our socials for updates as the Festival progresses!
Shahzad Ismaily Artist Talk moderated by Julia Úlehla
June 24 · Western Front @ 3pm
DJ O Show Artist Talk moderated by Gillian Thomson
June 26 · Western Front @ 3pm
Sakina Abdou Artist Talk moderated by Dylan van der Schyff
June 27 · Western Front @ 3pm
Peregrine Falls + Shahzad Ismaily
June 27 · Revue Stage @ 9:30pm
DJ O Show Workshop
June 27 · Tom Lee Music Hall @ 1pm
New Improvisers Studio with Shahzad Ismaily
June 28 · Western Front @ 11am
Sakina Abdou (solo)
June 28 · Revue Stage @ 5pm
DJ O Show
June 28-30 · Ocean Artworks @ 10:30pm
Sakina Abdou, Shahzad Ismaily & Dan Gaucher
June 29 · Revue Stage @ 11:30pm
Wayne Horvitz Electric Circus (with Sakina Abdou & Shahzad Ismaily)
June 30 · Performance Works @ 7:30pm
Read more about all of this year’s extraordinary artists at coastaljazz.ca/guidebook or use this handy QR code:
FRI. JUNE 21
JUNE 22 SUN. JUNE 23 MON. JUNE 24
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
630 Hamilton Street
DOOR 6:30PM, SHOW 7:30PM
The Playhouse
600 Hamilton Street
Fortune Sound
147 East Pender Street
DOOR 6:30PM, SHOW 7:30PM SUMAC with Moor Mother
DOOR 7PM, SHOW 7:30PM
Performance Works
1218 Cartwright Street
DOOR 6:30PM, SHOW 7:30PM
INNOVATION SERIES
Revue Stage 1601 Johnston Street
DOOR 4:30PM, SHOW 5PM
Revue Stage 1601 Johnston Street
DOOR 8:30PM, SHOW 9:30PM
Ocean Artworks
On Granville Island
1531 Johnston Street
SHOW 8:30PM
Tyrant Studios
1019 Seymour Street
DOOR 9PM, SHOW 9:30PM
Irreversible Entanglements
TUE. JUNE 25
JUNE 26
JUNE 29
JUNE 30
Killer Mike with guest DJ Shub
Julian Lage
aja monet
Hand to Earth: The Crow
Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y We All Break
Amalia Umeda
Eirik Hegdal
David Stackenäs
Tyson Naylor
Kenton Loewen
Emmeluth's Amoeba
Peregrine Falls + Shahzad Ismaily
Bellbird Empanadas Ilegales
Kevin Romain's Salience Network Tiny Pyramids
Teresa Marie and The Three
Sakina Abdou
Peter Knight & JP Carter
Robin Holcomb
Torsten Müller
Dylan van der Schyff
Wayne Horvitz Electric Circus
Saba Amrei
Lisa Cay Miller & Adrian Avendaño
Emad Armoush
Josh Zubot & Parmela Attariwala
Team Hegdal Dálava Horse Lords
Janette King
John Gross
Campbell Ryga Quintet
Pasquale Grasso Trio feat. André Lachance and Andrew Millar
FRI. JUNE 21 SAT. JUNE 22 SUN. JUNE 23 MON. JUNE 24
Western Front
303 East 8th Avenue
JUNE 24-27 Artist Talks 3-5PM
JUNE 28 Performance 11AM • FREE
Performance Works
1218 Cartwright Street, Granville Island
1:30-3:30PM • EXCEPT JUNE 30 1-2PM FREE
Ocean Artworks
1531 Johnston Street, Granville Island
4PM FREE
Tom Lee Music Hall
728 Granville Street
1-2PM FREE WORKSHOPS
INNOVATION LATE NIGHT
Revue Stage
1601 Johnston Street, Granville Island
DOORS 11PM SHOW 11:30PM • FREE
Journeys to the Bandstand
A conversation with author Chris Wong
Biboye Onanuga Quartet
Sister Jazz Quintet
Shahzad Ismaily Moderated by Julia
TUE. JUNE 25 FRI. JUNE 28
Daniel and David Wilfred & Peter Knight (Hand to Earth)
Moderated by Meredith Bates
WED. JUNE 26 THU. JUNE 27
DJ O Show
Moderated by Gillian Thomson
Kjetil Mulelid Trio
Cat Toren
John Korsrud Quintet
Sakina Abdou Moderated by Dylan van der Schyff
Konrad Agnas Rite of Passage
New Improvisers Studio (Performance) Raagaverse
Sam Wilson Trio
Mary Ancheta Tyson Naylor DJ O Show
Taras Luka Sextet
Dan Gaucher Quartet
Chris Gestrin Trio Celebrates Shirley Scott
Sam Wilson
Brian Horswill Karlis Silins Gard Nilssen
Sakina Abdou Shahzad Ismaily Dan Gaucher Earth Ball
C'mon Downtown! Music, fun activities for kids, food trucks, licensed bar, bike parking, and more!
SATURDAY, JUNE 22
SUNDAY, JUNE 23
Cambie Secondary Jazz Ensemble 12:00pm
Jason Winikoff Hot 5 12:30pm Peggy Lee Band 12:30pm
Fleetwood Park Secondary Jazz Ensemble 1:15pm
Parlour Panther 2:15pm Blue Moon Marquee 2:15pm
Archbishop Carney Secondary Jazz Ensemble 2:30pm
Oak Bay Secondary Jazz Ensemble 12:00pm
Langley Fundamental Secondary Jazz Ensemble 1:15pm
Eric Hamber Secondary Jazz Ensemble 2:30pm
Itamar Erez Quartet 3:45pm GEORGE 3:45pm
McRoberts Secondary Jazz Ensemble 3:45pm
UBC Jazz Ensemble 5:00pm
Juana Molina 5:30pm Y La Bamba 5:30pm
New Westminster Secondary Jazz Ensemble 3:45pm
Heritage Woods Secondary Jazz Ensemble 5:00pm presented by presented by
Kassa Overall 7:30pm Odario 7:30pm
We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.
300 Water Street • 604-689-2832 waterstreetcafe.ca/2nd-floor-gastown
BRUNCH SETS: 11:30AM
EVENING SETS: 6:30PM & 8:30PM BRUNCH $13/HAPPY HOUR $6 / EVENING $18
755 Beatty Street • 604-688-6368 frankiesjazzclub.ca
SHOWS 8PM
$20 EXCEPT JUNE 21 & 22 $30-$40, JUNE 27 & 28 $40-$50
The Infidels presents Frankie's After Dark WEEKEND SHOWS 11PM $10
1 Alexander Street • 604-288-1704 guiltandcompany.com
DOORS 6PM
EARLY SHOW 1 SET / LATE SHOW 3 SETS (2 SETS JUNE 21, 22, 28, 29)
$6 PER SET ADDED TO BILL
1019 Seymour Street • 604-417-0756 tyrantstudios.com
DOORS 9PM SETS 9:30PM $16 ADV, $20 AT DOOR
7 East 7th Avenue • 778-946-1677 fabriquestgeorge.com
$10
1728 Commercial Drive • 604-253-0888 vivaceonthedrive.ca
$10 AT DOOR
Happy Hour Piano Lounge: Shannon Thue 4:30-5:30pm
Jennifer Scott, Karla Mundy, and Dawn Pemberton Evening
From New York: Lezlie Harrison
Jesse Cahill Trio
Miles Black + Dave Say Brunch
John Gross Trio Evening
Bill Coon Duo Brunch
Shruti Ramani Trio Evening Thad Bailey Mai Trio Evening
From New York: Lezlie Harrison Atley King Quintet
Bruno Hubert CD Release
Colin Sankey 7pm
Big Easy Funk Ensemble 10pm
Aquiles Navarro & Tcheser Holmes
Dean Thiessen Trio 7pm David Ward 7pm
Frankie Hidalgo & the MVPs 10pm Lache Cercel 9pm
Michael Meroniuk 7pm
Francis Henson Trio 9pm
Bryan Chung & Co.
Vamp Til Cue (Wilson/Korsrud/ Li/Sholberg/ Caballero) Eli Davidovici’s Shapes Trio ft.
Burik Sharon Minemoto Trio
Maddock Trio 2pm Jillian Lebeck Trio 2pm
Brent Mah Trio Evening Dan Howard Trio Evening
Ruthie Ha Trio Evening
Please
Dave Robbins Sextet Jon Bentley Quartet
Triology with Scott Hamilton WED. JUNE 26
Triology with Scott Hamilton
Happy Hour Piano Lounge: Jillian Lebeck 4:30-5:30pm
Bonnie Northgraves Hot 4 Evening
Diane Lines Duo Brunch
Juhli Conlinn Trio A Tribute to Edith Piaf Evening
Jason DeCouto Duo Brunch
Mackenzie Tran Trio Evening
Black Space Jam feat. Shamir Virgo 7pm Neal Ryan 7pm
Stephen Nikleva Band 9pm
Hot Jazz Wednesdays feat. Josh Roberts 9pm
Kevin Romain's Salience Network Tiny Pyramids
Sarah Lewis 7pm
GroundUp feat. Pax Mergana 9:30pm
Tom Wakeling’s “North by Northwest” Mike Clement Trio CD Release
Tyson Naylor Trio Junk Story
Susana Williams 7pm Ivan Hartle 7pm Mai Garnica 7pm
Cannery Row 10pm Los Duendes 10pm
Teresa Marie and the Three Igneous Ard n’ Saul
Latin Music Sundays feat. Brejera 9pm
Andy Hunter-James Danderfer Quartet 6pm
Terminal City Brass Band 7pm Boomdaddy 9pm
John Lee Trio 2pm
Brad Turner Quartet 11am
Mostly Marley 9pm
Mike Kenney 9pm
BlueShore at CapU
2055 Purcell Way
604-990-7810
capilanou.ca/centre
DOORS 7PM SHOW 7:30PM Free Series
Civic Plaza
14th & Lonsdale
Lynn Valley Village 1277 Lynn Valley Road
The Shipyards 125 Victory Ship Way
West Vancouver Memorial Library 1950 Marine Drive
Mary Ancheta Quartet 7:30pm West Vancouver Memorial Library
Lamia Yared 1pm Civic Plaza
Terminal City Brass Band 1pm Lynn Valley Village
Pick up a copy of our spring/summer issue—available now at local restaurants, wine bars, independent liquor stores and wineries, or subscribe at bc.vitis.ca.
Marois Vocal Project: An Homage to Dave Brubeck
Mimosa 1pm Civic Plaza Scott Smith and the Midnight Riders: Allman Brothers Celebration 7pm The Shipyards
JUNE 26 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
The themes on surrealist blues poet aja monet’s 2024 debut album when the poems do what they do centre around Black resistance, love, and the inexhaustible quest for joy. The songs are insistent and unrelenting, with some reminiscent of jazz club virtuosity and melee while others serve as a healing balm, moving like a call to intercessory prayer. A 2024 GRAMMY nominee for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, aja is a conduit for her oratorical predecessors. At any given time you’ll find the revolutionary spirit of Audre Lorde and the Last Poets, you’ll feel June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, and even the expressive ephemerality of a passing blue note.
She cut her teeth within the walls of the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, where in 2007, at age 19, she became the youngest Grand Slam Champion in the venue’s history. Since then, her work has continuously found new depths and new resonances. aja monet is a griot, a storyteller, a chronicler, and your grandmother telling you about her first love all at once. These aren’t poems for poets, but poems for everyone. A woman of letters and storm, aja monet’s poems do not roar in pentameter, but rather in storm surge, because “who’s got time for poems when the world is on fire?!?!”
She’s joined by Ben Williams bass, Logan Richardson sax, Justin Brown drums, and Javier Santiago keys
JUNE 27
For Amalia Umeda, every performance tells a big story, for the very first time. The Warsaw-based violinist traverses a wide emotional landscape where authenticity, raw tension, and risk-taking are the earth, sea, and sky. Saxophonist/clarinetist Eirik Hegdal has worked with Jeff Parker, Joshua Redman, and Pat Metheny. The former artistic leader of the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Hegdal has written for the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and his crackling quartet, Team Hegdal. Called “cunningly enigmatic” by Jazz Weekly, Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs brings extended technique, an armada of pedals, and a novel, disruptive approach to solo work and collaborations with avant-garde heavyweights like Thurston Moore, Mats Gustafsson, and Ken Vandermark. The Vancouver-born, Berlin-based keyboardist Tyson Naylor “has an impish sense of humour that shows an affinity for the merrymakers of the ICP Orchestra. You can hear Misha Mengelberg’s spare, subtle intervals and dry-martini wit in his playing, though it’s Mengelberg filtered through Brad Mehldau” (Signal to Noise). A fount of expressive fire, the multifaceted, JUNO Award-winning drummer Kenton Loewen cut his teeth in Vancouver’s free jazz, indie-folk, and DIY punk underground. He’s one half of daring punk-jazz duo Peregrine Falls, one tenth of avant-Arabic ensemble Haram, and one hell of a drummer.
Thanks to Jazztopad Festival (National Forum of Music), Wroclaw, Poland.
JUNE 26 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $10 AT DOOR
Driven by concepts of isolation and resurgence, Bellbird’s 2023 debut album Root In Tandem is the culmination of several years of composing and music-making by the Montreal-based collective of tenor saxophonist Claire Devlin, alto saxophonist and bass clarinetist Allison Burik, bassist Eli Davidovici, and drummer Mili Hong. Recorded during the winter at a lakeside cottage in Saint-Zenon, Quebec, the album represents a communion of four distinctive spirits putting all their creative weight into a shared artwork, using a unique instrumentation of two woodwinds, bass, and drums to explore sonic landscapes that allude to harmonic structures without being restricted by them. Pan M 360 called Root in Tandem “a thoughtful, skilful achievement that balances its post-academic rigour with sincere emotional investment and some great musical ideas.”
JUNE 22 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE
Biboye Onanuga is an imaginative British-born, Nigerian-Canadian drummer and composer. A recent MacEwan University Music graduate, Biboye has quickly become a key figure in the Edmonton scene through his instrumental hip-hop/jazz band Good Information
and the two-year (so far) tenure of his weekly music series, New Standards. Inspired by innovators like Ambrose Akinmusire, Jamire Williams, and Mikel Patrick Avery, Biboye uses instrumental music’s abstract, ephemeral essence to reflect life in a modern world built for speed, with a heart built for the calmer pace of human connection. Finding its voice somewhere between jazz and hip-hop, Onanuga’s quartet bends and leans into a spiritual aesthetic and submits itself to the moment. With Christopher Fraser guitar, Chad Galpin bass, and Josh Krushel keys
JUNE 23 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET STAGE @ 2:15PM • FREE
Winners of the 2024 JUNO Award for Blues Album of the Year, Blue Moon Marquee swings, jumps, and grooves their way through jazz clubs, dance halls, folk fests, blues haunts, hospitals, prisons, markets, motorcycle joints, dive bars, and prestigious concert halls.
"Part haunting, part joyous, and sneakily infectious” (Elmore Magazine), the spirits of Delta blues, ragtime, Howlin' Wolf, and Django Reinhardt flow freely through this raw trio of guitarist/vocalist A.W. Cardinal, one-woman rhythm section Jasmine Colette—aka Jasmine Ohlhauser, aka Badlands Jass—on vocals, bass and percussion, and Darcy Phillips on organ. Together, Blue Moon Marquee "plucks the danger from a Tom Waits melody, dances it a little further over the line with dark magic, teases the rhythms, and raises a toast to back alley jazz" (Canadian Music).
Presented in association with Talking Stick Festival.
JUNE 28 • REVUE STAGE @ 11:30PM • FREE
Oslo-based drummer, composer, producer and bandleader Gard Nilssen is one of the European jazz scene’s most active drummers, bringing an energetic, creative, musical, groovy, and fearless dynamic to his own groups Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity and Bushman´s Revenge, ongoing membership in Maciej Obara 4tet, Team Hegdal, and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, and work with the likes of Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Joshua Redman, Ambrose Akinmusire, Bugge Wesseltoft, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Mike Stern, Jamie Saft and Ingebrigt Flaten.
Pianist Brian Horswill and bassist Karlis Silins are two of Vancouver’s most adventurous free improvisers. One half of the minimalism-meets-chaos quartet KneeJerk, they’re equally adept at melodic twists and turns, controlled, confounding clatter, and textural exploration.
JUNE 26 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE
This new quintet boasts two unique composers, an ensemble of uncommonly gifted accompanists, and an array of distinctive contemporary compositions. Cat Toren is a pianist and composer with six critically-acclaimed albums under her leadership and a JUNO Award earned with Pugs & Crows. Described as “vibrant, earthy and spiritual” by UK Vibe, the empathic Vancouver-born, US-based Toren’s atmospheric abstractions and harmonic layering combines deep human warmth with creative fire. Composer and trumpeter John Korsrud is the leader and principal composer of Vancouver's 18-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra. His compositions have been commissioned by The American Composers Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, and Turning Point Ensemble. Korsrud's diverse musical experiences include collaborations with Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Five Alarm Funk, and punk legends DOA.
Toren and Korsrud are joined by three of Vancouver’s most sought-after musicians in saxophonist John Nicholson, bassist André Lachance, and drummer Kevin Romain.
JUNE 29 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE
Known as the Queen of the Organ, pianist and Hammond B-3 master Shirley Scott helped define the sound of small-group soul-jazz, and created a lasting template for the organ and sax trio sound. Mixing swinging bebop with gospel and blues traditions, she came to prominence in the '50s on seminal albums for Prestige alongside saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, including the 1958 hit In the Kitchen. The trio of Hammond organist Chris Gestrin, tenor saxophonist Steve Kaldestad and drummer Todd Stewart formed in 2023 to celebrate the release of Queen Talk, a live archival recording of Shirley Scott on the Reel to Real label. For this performance they’ll perform material from that release as well as pieces from Scott’s classic, cooking repertoire.
JUNE 29 • REVUE STAGE @ 9:30PM • $27 PLUS FEES
Led by vocalist/keyboardist Julia Úlehla and guitarist Aram Bajakian (Lou Reed, John Zorn), the “utterly captivating” (Vancouver Sun) Dálava takes Czech folk melodies transcribed over 100 years ago by Úlehla’s great-grandfather and places them in a compelling contemporary context. Cinematic and wide-ranging, the music of Dálava is beautifully rendered and hauntingly expressive. With cellist Peggy Lee and violinist Josh Zubot, the groundbreaking Dálava offers a “stunning fusion of Middle European melody, rock energy, and scratchy avant-jazz textures” (Georgia Straight).
JUNE 29 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 1:30PM • FREE
The Dan Gaucher Quartet brings together disparate musical traditions, from improvised soundscapes and interpretive graphic scores, to jazz classics from the 60s and 70s and lesser known post rock gems from the 90’s. Featuring trumpeter Feven Kidane, bassist Dan Howard and pianist Quincy Mayes, the quartet circles crystalline refractions of familiar melodies and ancient instincts.
ARTIST TALK, MODERATED BY MEREDITH BATES
JUNE 25 • WESTERN FRONT @ 3PM • FREE
Hand to Earth has quickly developed an international reputation as one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary music ensembles, and this workshop/ discussion will feature three of its members. Daniel and David Wilfred are keepers of Yolngu Manikay, indigenous songs from North East Arnhem Land that can be traced back more than 40,000 years, making them the world’s oldest continuously practised music tradition. Daniel sings of the stars, of fire, and of the cooling rain, while the drone of David Wilfred’s didgeridoo and atmospheres created by trumpeter/ sound artist Peter Knight make for a bold sound that Jazzwise called “testing at times, mesmerizing at others, but always extraordinarily intriguing in its organic synthesis of the ancient and contemporary.”
Moderated by musician, composer and educator Meredith Bates. A JUNO Award winner with Pugs & Crows, and a nominee for her recent solo album,
Tesseract, she co-leads Gentle Party and Sound Migrations and founded instrumental sextet Like the Mind, with renowned improvisers from Canada and Sweden. She’s artistic director of the Vancouver Improvised Arts Society.
In association with Western Front, International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and Jazztopad Festival (National Forum of Music), Wroclaw, Poland.
JUNE 24 • TOM LEE MUSIC HALL @ 1PM • FREE
Called “cunningly enigmatic” by Jazz Weekly, Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs brings an artfully disruptive spirit to solo work and collaborations with avant-garde heavyweights like Thurston Moore and Ken Vandermark.
His idiosyncratic approach to contemporary jazz and free improvisation includes prepared guitar, conventional techniques, and the electronic possibilities of a growing armada of pedals. As a soloist, he often focuses on the organic sound-possibilities and timbres inherent in acoustic guitars. Orkesterjournalen called his solo album, Bricks (Clean Feed) “one of the most brilliant albums I’ve heard in a long time, so personal that it’s hard to describe.”
Stackenäs has played on over 70 recordings and toured Europe, the US, Japan, and the Middle East as a soloist and with various groups. His collaborations are many, among them Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Lina Nyberg, Sofia Jernberg, Rhodri Davies, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Paul Lovens, Axel Dörner, Paal Nilssen-Love, Jim O'Rourke, and Tatsuya Nakatani.
JUNE 21 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 10:30PM • FREE
Hailing from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation village of Eslha7an, Ta7talíya Paisley Eva’s been filling local club, party, and festival dance floors with a high energy mix of obscure underground tracks and beloved classics for over ten years. Her choice, chance-taking selections are plucked from house, disco, new wave, pop, and whatever keeps people moving.
Presented in association with Queer Arts Festival.
JUNE 28/29/30 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 10:30PM • FREE
Coastal Jazz Artist in Residence Orene Askew, aka DJ O Show, brings energy and passion to everything she does. Winner of the 2022 International Indigenous Hip Hop Award for DJ of the Year, she’s a proudly Afro-Indigenous member of the Squamish Nation who embraces and embodies teachings from both of her cultural backgrounds.
With an outgoing personality and loads of charisma, O Show is not only one of the most positivity-emanating DJs around, she’s also a speaker and teacher who has traveled across the country to spark inspiration in folks of all generations, hosted/MC’d/DJ’d for the Canucks, Whitecaps, and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, and opened for Kevin Hart and Russell Peters.
DJ O Show remains true to her love of hip hop and R&B, laying down beats that pack dance floors from Vancouver to Toronto, Las Vegas to Texas, and anywhere else in need of some soulful shaking!
Presented in association with Talking Stick Festival.
DJ O Show Artist Talk, moderated by Gillian Thomson
June 26 • Western Front @ 3PM • FREE Presented in association with Western Front and International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.
DJ O Show Workshop
June 27 • Tom Lee Music Hall @ 1PM • FREE
JUNE 29 • QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE @ 7:30PM • $59$99 PLUS FEES
Social activism and a feverish dance party make a tantalizing combination, and 2022 JUNO Award winner for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year, Dan “DJ Shub” General is the grand marshal we nominate to lead this jubilant parade. Shub is a true original: a title-holding battle DJ/producer, a joyful collaborator and a non-stop creator who skillfully weaves craft, message and heritage. Since exiting A Tribe Called Red, Shub has continued adding jewels to his “Godfather of PowWowStep” crown. War Club is Shub’s latest celebration of Indigenous power: a special filmed on Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve in Ontario that features Shub’s trademark finger-smoking scratch-a-thons, an all-ages cast of traditional dancers, and plenty of bustles shaking to outstanding musical collaborations with Phoenix Pagliacci, Boogát and Fawn Wood that tells the tale of a young girl searching for her brother with the help of an enchanted war club. Shub’s uncompromising pride in Aboriginal heritage and talent is the driving force behind his art. Join the parade – Shub’s made sure there’s enough hip hop, Indigenous culture, power, protest and humanity for all of us.
Direct support for Killer Mike.
JUNE 30 • REVUE STAGE @ 11:30PM • FREE
Earth Ball has been embracing complete improvisation since 2019, with a collective sound enriched by its members’ work in experimental groups like Shearing Pinx, Kamikaze Nurse, Eschatons, Psyche-
delic Dirt, and CROTCH, as well as in collaborations with artists like Deerhoof, Chris Corsano, and William Hooker.
They’ve hit remarkable milestones for such a new project, with four releases to their credit, including the new LP It's Yours on British label Upset The Rhythm, supported by a UK tour with drumming legend Chris Corsano. With a commitment to spontaneous composition and unrepeatable performances, Earth Ball push the boundaries of improvisation and sonic exploration, taking psychedelic free jazz punk rock into new transcendental territories.
With John Brennan drums, Jeremy Van Wyck guitar, vocals, Isabel Ford bass, vocals, Kellan McLaughlin guitar, Liam Murphy sax.
JUNE 30 • REVUE STAGE @ 5PM • PWYC ($5-$20)
A meeting of three of the West Coast’s most attuned improvisers, each as notable for their impressive musicality as their ability to bridge diverse genres, disciplines, and communities. Syrian/Canadian multi-instrumentalist/singer Emad Armoush (Haram) melds traditional Arabic music, free improv, and electronic manipulations alongside some of Canada’s finest creative musicians. In 2023, Drip Audio released Emad Armoush’s Duos, five creative dialogues with Francois Houle, Jesse Zubot, Kenton Loewen, JP Carter, and Marina Hasselberg. His quintet Rayhan’s sophomore album comes out this fall. Violinist Josh Zubot’s adventuresome talent alights on jazz, classical, folk, and the avant-garde’s back-40. A veteran of Montréal’s vibrant music scene (Patrick Watson, Land of Kush), he’s found a perfect home in the genre-defying West Coast improv community since 2017, working with Tony Wilson, SICK BOSS, and Dálava, and international artists like Darius Jones and Gerald Cleaver. Rhythm Changes called the new album from Zubot’s Strings project “one of the most active and energetic albums without drums that you'll ever hear.” Violist Parmela Attariwala interweaves performance, creation, and academia. She’s released three critically-acclaimed Attar Project albums of works for violin and tabla, collaborated extensively with visual artists and choreographers—both as a composer and a movement artist—and created music for film and opera. Active in genre-bending sound since 1994, Attariwala has worked with Carla Bley, Ravi Naimpally, Anthony Braxton, Don Thompson, and Vancouver New Music. In 2022, she co-founded Understory, an online creation network for Canadian improvising artists.
JUNE 26 • REVUE STAGE @ 9:30PM • $27 PLUS FEES
A Danish/Norwegian quartet stacked with some of the freshest, most creative players on the Scandinavian jazz scene, Emmeluth's Amoeba is “provocative, mind blowing, and emotionally engaging” (Salt Peanuts).
Pianist Christian Balvig has made a mark leading his own ensemble, playing with the colossal Danish supergroup Efterklang, and composing for large orchestras like the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra. Guitarist Karl Bjorå has recorded and toured extensively with groups like Megalodon Collective, Yes Deer, and his own band. Drummer Ole Mofjell is a force of nature who’s played with ECM recording legend Jon Balke and Norwegian powerhouse guitarist Hedvig Mollestad. And last but not least, the exceptional Oslo-based Danish alto saxophonist, bandleader, and composer Signe Emmeluth has made a strong imprint on Nordic jazz in recent years through her work with Kresten Osgood, Trondheim Jazzorkester, and Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra.
When we hear the ever-searching Emmeluth's Amoeba moving fluidly from free jazz to chamber music, “we are listening to the jazz of today" —Jazz i Norge Thanks to Music Norway, Norwegian Jazz Federation, Norsk Kulturfond - Fond for lyd og Bilde, and Norwegian Arts Council.
JUNE 27 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $10 AT DOOR
A “delicious, psych-fried take on Latin American dance music” (Exclaim!), Empanadas Ilegales blends interlocking cumbia rhythms, hypnotic guitar melodies, and experimental salsa sax lines with surf rock, free jazz, and West Coast psych. Featuring members hailing from Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, and Canada, the pulsing Vancouver-based septet’s latest record, Creepy Mambo, pays homage to cumbia cult classics while adding a giddy mix of contemporary experimental synth sounds, slinky dub grooves, and feverish percussion departures.
Ricardo Perez guitar, effects and vocals, Daniel Hernandez Pinto bass, Jaime Millan guitar, Daniel Ruiz drums, percussion and vocals, Sangito Bigelow congas, Andrea Milagros percussion, and Jocelyn Waugh trumpet.
JUNE 22 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $10 AT DOOR
Feven Kidane is a dynamic Vancouver-based trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. A member of several of the city's music scenes ranging from jazz to spoken word to psychedelic country, Feven's well-known in circles both underground and above. Feven brings her newly-formed sextet, true poets in their own right and voice, to this year’s Fest: Nebyu Yohannes trombone,
Noah Franche-Nolan piano, John Nicholson tenor sax, Milo Johnson bass, and Edmonton's Biboye Onanuga drums
JUNE 21 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $10 AT DOOR
“Canada's next big thing in down-and-dirty rockin’ blues guitardom” —Toronto Star
Garret T. Willie gives rock 'n' roll a formidable 21st-century kick in the ass with his heartbreaking and hilarious stories, hardscrabble blues, and hard-stomping rock 'n' roll. Hailing from Kingcome Inlet, off the coast of BC, the uncommonly wise, witty and weathered 23-year-old’s heavy back story gives him more right than most to sing the blues, but there’s a helluva lot of raunchy fun going on alongside the exorcisms of tragedy and trauma.
Willie knows what makes the blues tick. Schooled in all the right source material, from Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, and Muddy Waters, to Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee, to the Stones, AC/DC, and George Thorogood, with a little outlaw country flavour on the side, Garret T. Willie doesn’t just rip it up on the guitar, he does it with the gut-busting honesty of someone who understands that if you ain’t lived it, you shouldn’t sing it.
With Quinn Colpman rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Lucas Renshaw bass and backing vocals, and Michael Wilford drums.
Presented in association with Talking Stick Festival.
JUNE 23 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET STAGE @ 3:45PM • FREE
From vintage funk to infectious electronic futurism, this energetically enigmatic group “likes to blur the distinctions between the knotty virtuosity of jazz and the broad appeal of pop” (Pitchfork). Known as the leader of the prolific and constantly surprising Claudia Quintet, drummer/composer/bandleader John Hollenbeck formed GEORGE remotely during the pandemic. The group finally met in Montréal to record 2023’s Letters to George, followed that summer by shorts, four re-composed remixes based on improvisations from their initial remote recording session. With Anna Webber tenor sax/flute, Sarah Rossy voice/ keyboards, and Chiquita Magic keyboards/voice alongside Hollenbeck, GEORGE’s sound is firmly planted outside any categories or labels, but "magic happens in the margins and the middle, between analog and digital textures, genre detours and a collective will which is dogmatically subject to change" (DownBeat).
JUNE 26 • REVUE STAGE @ 5PM • PWYC ($5-$20)
Led by vocalists Daniel Wilfred and Sunny Kim, Hand to Earth has quickly developed an international reputation as one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary ensembles. Daniel is a keeper of Yolngu Manikay, indigenous songs from North East Arnhem
Land that can be traced back more than 40,000 years, making them the world’s oldest continuously practised music tradition. Sunny moves between English and Korean, intoning gestures that invoke the rawest of elemental forces. Together they sing of the stars, of fire, and of the cooling rain, while the drone of David Wilfred’s didgeridoo and atmospheres created by trumpeter/sound artist Peter Knight, clarinetist Aviva Endean, and violinist Amalia Umeda draw on the minimalism of Brian Eno and Jon Hassell to create a bed for these beautifully contrasting voices.
Songlines UK’s 5-star review of the unprecedented ensemble’s debut release raved that “while many contemporary projects strive to combine ancient and modern influences, this innovative and ethereal musical alliance actually achieves that lofty goal –with old cultural ground being respected, while new artistic ground is broken. Hand to Earth is a truly exquisite album.”
Presented in collaboration with Jazztopad Festival (National Forum of Music), Wroclaw, Poland.
The Crow was co-commissioned by Melbourne International Jazz Festival and Jazztopad Festival.
JUNE 30 • REVUE STAGE @ 9:30PM • $27 PLUS FEES
Baltimore Magazine called Comradely Objects, the jaw-dropping 2020 album from Horse Lords, “meticulously controlled chaos—a masterpiece of creative freedom, contrasts, and contradictions.”
With dizzyingly obsessive rhythmic energy, Andrew Bernstein sax, percussion, electronics, Max Eilbacher bass, electronics, Owen Gardner guitar, electronics, and drummer Booker Stardrum give frenetic gravity to an avant alloy of influences and approaches.
The band’s palette includes the mantra-like repetition of minimalism and global traditional musics, complex counterpoint, the subtleties of microtonality, and a breadth of timbres and textures drawn from all across the avant-garde. Echoes of late-70s No Wave, mathy post-rock, and insistent, iterative composers like Arnold Dreyblatt and Terry Riley ring through their restlessly musical ripples, drones, chugs, and hypnotic ascents.
JUNE 22 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
A free jazz quintet with an experimental punk mentality, Irreversible Entanglements is “the most thrilling band in jazz right now” (NPR). Driven by poet/ vocalist Camae Ayewa’s (aka Moor Mother) searing narrations of Black trauma, survival, and power, Irreversible Entanglements brings first-wave free jazz’s tradition of resistance acutely into the present. This is deeply improvised rhythm music full of love, protest, and social commitment; IE are honouring tradition, speaking to the present, and making sonic claims on the future. Featuring bassist Luke Stewart, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, and drummer Tcheser Holmes, their new album Protect Your Light—on the legendary Impulse! Label— is “a major statement from artists who are as much the new wave of jazz as John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp et al were in their day” (The Wire). IE came together spontaneously, organically, in April of 2015 at “Musicians Against Police Brutality,” a day of protest sound and discussion in Brooklyn. All were artists and activists of varying degrees: Philadelphia-based Ayewa and Neuringer, and D.C.-based Stewart as veterans of the Mid-Atlantic noise-hardcore-experimental scene, while Holmes and Navarro as recent New England Conservatory grads. The studio albums that followed—2020’s Who Sent You? and 2021’s Open The Gates—developed this legend further.
In 2023, IE signed to Impulse! Records and released its most accomplished work to date, Protect Your Light, primarily recorded at New Jersey’s historic Van Gelder Studios. It features eight examples of how IE’s collaborative composition strategies and Ayewa’s in-communion verses result in some of the most potent music being made in the now, music with communal light and love at its heart. Get to that love on time—don’t force history to guide you.
JUNE 22 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET
STAGE @ 3:45PM • FREE
Guitarist/pianist/composer Itamar Erez “expands the musical cultures and geographical borders of the Middle East with passionate flamenco and Latin music themes, the lyricism of Brazilian bluesy Choro and, obviously, the freedom of jazz" (Salt Peanuts). Erez has released six albums and performed at renowned venues like the Barbican in London, Sydney Opera House, and that mountaintop of arts performance, New York’s Carnegie Hall. As far-ranging as he is, both musically and geographically, “it’s hard to locate Itamar Erez’s music in any particular place or time, other than here and now” (Stir). Playing selections from his engrossing new album Mi Alegria, Erez's quartet features some of the Canadian jazz scene’s boldest, most sensitive players including Sam Davidson clarinets, Jeff Gammon bass, and Kevin Romain drums.
JUNE 28 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $10 AT DOOR
Through the prism of alternative R&B, house, and pop, Caribbean-Canadian vocalist/producer/multi-instrumentalist Janette King’s What We Lost unpacks the complexities of grief with a wisdom you wouldn’t wish on someone so young. It's a statement that—like contemporaries Victoria Monét and Snoh Aalegra—fuses deeply personal assessments of life with glass-half-full soundscapes that “ought to place her right near the top of the list of this country's up-andcoming R&B artists” (Exclaim!). In 2023, Janette wrote and performed on two tracks off Gayance’s Polaris Prize-shortlisted album Mascarade, and released the dance EP How Sad in to celebrate Pride Month. Ahead of a much-anticipated sophomore album to be released this October, she’s joined by Alex Dobson bass, Jonny Tobin keys, and Ian Cardona drums
JUNE 22 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET
STAGE @ 12:30PM • FREE
The Jason Winikoff Hot 5 plays early swing and New Orleans trad jazz from the seminal 1900-1930s era, pulling influence from pioneers like King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Jelly Roll Morton, as well as contemporaries like Shannon Powell, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Herlin Riley. Bandleader Jason Winikoff cut his teeth playing and studying Black American Music in New Orleans, where he lived for seven years. In 2018, the ethnomusicologist, drummer/percussionist, and educator moved to Vancouver and became a fixture in the trad and swing scenes, quickly gaining notoriety for his bouncy grooves, high energy drumming, raspy vocals, and focus on the long-form New Orleans repertoire. Expect barn burners, bluesy ballads, irresistible grooves, polyphonic horns, and – most importantly – fun! Winikoff’s Hot 5 keeps tradition thriving with in-demand Vancouver swing musicians Bonnie Northgraves trumpet, Joe Abbott reeds, Dean Thiessen keys, and Noah Gotfrit bass
JUNE 29 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $10 AT DOOR
A master of saxophone multiphonics, Vancouver-based American tenorist John Gross has worked with Billy Mintz, Tony Malaby, and Lionel Hampton. Saxophone Journal called him “a phenomenon of knowledge and experience” and “one of the most meaningful players on the scene.” Nevermind theory and technique, which he commands in spades, John Gross “plays his life on the horn.” JUNO Award-winning alto and soprano saxophonist Campbell Ryga was a founding member of the late, great Hugh Fraser’s Quintet. He’s appeared on more than 90 recordings, including a sublime release with New York pianist Renee Rosnes and work with PJ Perry, Ross Taggart, and Michael Bublé (on the GRAMMY-winning Crazy Love).
Playing timeless soul jazz and swinging standards from the 50s and 60s by the likes of Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Jimmy Rowles, Tad Dameron, and other luminaries, the Gross/Ryga Quintet features guitarist Tom Wherrett (ElkHorn), Chris Gestrin on Hammond B3, and drummer Joe Poole.
JUNE 21 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE
conversation
Wong, whose Journeys to the Bandstand: Thirty Jazz Lives in Vancouver chronicles the creative lives and musical journeys of 30 extraordinary artists who have helped shape Canada's West Coast jazz scene. Chris Wong dedicates each chapter to one remarkable artist, or a small group of impactful musicians mostly based in Vancouver, as well as some American musicians who have made an indelible impression on the city’s jazz community. Journeys to the Bandstand weaves a first-person perspective with extensive written and audio-visual history gathered from articles, books, letters, recordings, films, and more. It is a compelling collection of long-form portraits and an incomparable chronology of key events in Vancouver's jazz history. Writer Chris Wong is a self-professed lifelong music nerd and aficionado of jazz and other genres. Journeys to the Bandstand is his first book, a passion project honed over more than a decade.
JUNE 22 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET
STAGE @ 5:30PM • FREE
Though it may sound hyperbolic, The Wire deemed Juana Molina’s music “essential for all humans on planet Earth.” We assure you that this is not an overblown assessment. A master of mysterious experimental pop, Juana Molina is one of modern music’s most original and visionary artists. Her career trajectory has been unique, from massive success in the 1990s as a comedic actress in her native Argentina, to the forging of an inimitable, off-kilter style of music that contains—but is not constrained by—elements of folk, ambient, and electronica.
“Creating a slippery soundtrack for the subconscious” (Spin), Juana Molina’s hypnotic performances combine live loops, effects created on-the-fly, and deft guitar playing that “dips deep into the unknown and brings back unexpected brilliance” (MOJO).
JUNE 25 • VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE @ 7:30PM • $45$65 PLUS FEES
Speak To Me, Julian Lage’s fourth album for Blue Note Records, is full of virtuosic dispatches from an ongoing search for narrative beyond words. Intimate in tone and expansive in intention, it roves a broad landscape of American music, delighting in the
deliberate crossing of wires between gospel, rural blues, California singer-songwriter sunshine, and skronky jazz. "Possessed of an unflappable technical facility and seemingly boundless curiosity” (The New York Times), the always astonishing New York-based guitarist has collaborated with Gary Burton, Nels Cline, Béla Fleck, John Zorn, and scores of next-level creative players. His adventurous and deeply attuned trio features bassist Jorge Roeder and renowned Bad Plus drummer Dave King.
JUNE 22 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET STAGE @ 7:30PM • FREE
“Raw, underground, and chaotic,” Kassa Overall is “one of modern jazz music’s most audacious futurists” (Pitchfork). The GRAMMY-nominated emcee, singer, producer and drummer melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions. Since his 2019 debut, Overall has established himself as a rhythmic innovator and a visionary poet who addresses the injustices of the carceral system, the pharmaceutical industry, and anti-black racism, while wrangling with the perils of his own mental illness. On ANIMALS, his 2024 album on Warp Records, Kassa pushes his kaleidoscopic, subversive vision further, layering Roland 808s against avant-garde drumming—in the vein of his mentors Elvin Jones and Billy Hart—alongside all-star collaborators like Danny Brown, Lil B, Nick Hakim, Laura Mvula, Vijay Iyer, and Shabazz Palaces. ANIMALS pushes Kassa’s lyrical message further, too. As an entertainer and as a black man in America, he reckons with the
two-sided truth that to perform one’s freedom for an audience can mean succumbing to life inside a cage. Kassa’s joined by Tomoki Sanders soprano sax, drums and percussion, Bendji Allonce congas and percussion, and Matt Wong keys.
JUNE 25 • TYRANT STUDIOS • $16 ADV/$20 AT DOOR
Salience Network is a modern jazz ensemble led by drummer/composer Kevin Romain. Dramatic, spontaneous creation and razor-sharp precision come together on stage with Romain's longtime collaborators Jeff Gammon bass, John Nicholson tenor and soprano saxophones, and Feven Kidane trumpet. Through dense polyrhythms and snaking melodies, they explore Romain's hyperfixations on the neuroscience of emotion, circadian biology, coffee extraction theory, cool animals, and anti-colonial resistance. The Salience Network’s debut album, recorded to tape at Vancouver's Afterlife Studios and released in November 2023 on the Infidels Jazz label, is a somber document punctuated by moments of humour and hope."
Following the set, the group will host an open jazz jam, sharing the stage with visiting artists and local players alike.
JUNE 29 • QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE @ 7:30PM • $59$99 PLUS FEES
Atlanta’s favorite son Killer Mike gets recognized as many things – a rapper, an advocate for the disenfranchised, an entrepreneur, a Bernie Sanders whisperer, and for his widely lauded advocacy work on political and social causes – which yielded him Billboard’s inaugural 2020 Change Maker Award. Most recently his critically lauded 2023 album MICHAEL earned him three GRAMMY Awards (Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song & Performance for “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS”) for its complex portrait of Black southern masculinity. The honors marked his first awards from the Academy since taking home the Grammy for Best Rap Performance Duo or Group for his 2001 collaboration with Outkast, “The Whole World.”
While Killer Mike has been an active solo artist for over 20 years, releasing numerous studio projects while also collaborating with some of the biggest names in hip-hop (including Outkast, Jay-Z, Big Boi, T.I., Black Thought, and more), he is also widely renowned as half of the popular hip-hop super duo, Run The Jewels, with whom he has released four studio albums alongside his partner in rhyme EL-P. Their most recent, 2020’s RTJ4, soared to the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 and was met with widespread
critical acclaim, landing at #1 on NME’s The Best 50 Albums of 2020 list. Named the 2020 Spin Magazine Artist of the Year, Run The Jewels have won eleven Libera Awards, including the 2021 A2IM Humanitarian Award, took home four Clio Awards, including two Gold-winning Music Marketing campaigns, and received a 2018 GRAMMY nomination for Best Rap Song.
In addition to his success as a musician, Killer Mike has gained wide recognition beyond the industry. He has acted in several films, including Baby Driver, Idlewild, and ATL and showed up TV cameos on Ozark and Billions. He also provided voiceover for the 2021 Netflix film America: The Motion Picture and is the host of multiple series including the Emmy Award winning PBS show Love & Respect with Killer Mike, Facebook’s Roll’N with Killer Mike, and Netflix’s Trigger Warning with Killer Mike, while also turning in regular speaking appearances on Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Real Time with Bill Maher.
JUNE 26 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 1:30PM • FREE
"The affable and sometimes extroverted music of Mulelid shatters the popular misconception that all contemporary Scandinavian piano trios are trapped in a glacial echo chamber" —Jazz Journal
Since their 2017 debut on the prestigious Rune Grammofon label, the Kjetil Mulelid Trio has distinguished itself as one of Norway's leading piano trios. While they do travel quite comfortably in the calm yet constantly unfolding sound world that is distinctively Nordic, Mulelid, bassist Rune Nergaard and drummer Andreas Winther, effortlessly conjure additional layers, tones and textures that evoke Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans, while veering off on surprising, telepathically-linked group improvisations that call upon each player’s broad creative experience.
Called “magical” by The Wire, Mulelid’s beguiling compositions expertly balance energetic, rhythmically complex and harmonically rich music with refreshing, evocative melodies.
Thanks to Ministry of Cultural Affairs - Norway, Norwegian Jazz Federation, and Music Norway.
JUNE 27 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 1:30PM • FREE
One of Sweden’s most sought-after drummers, Konrad Agnas makes his debut as composer/bandleader with Rite of Passage, where he unites collaged hip-hop fantasias and Alice Coltrane-inspired spiritual jazz with rhythmic frameworks evoking the minimalism of Terry Riley and Moondog. Agnas’ compositions are equal parts precision and feel, propelled by the granular, multi-dimensional drumming style that he’s brought to work with Nadah El Shazly, Bakgrundsmusik, Johan Lindström Septett, Rebecka Törnqvist, Pat Metheny and Pugh Rogefeldt. Rite of Passage features some of the Scandinavian jazz scene’s finest creative players in Per Texas Johansson sax/clarinet/ flute, Torbjörn Zetterberg bass, and Johan Graden piano/organ
Supported by the Swedish Arts Council.
JUNE 27 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
“Benjamin exudes star-quality and authority in equal measure.” —textura
New York-based saxophonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin is one of the most sought-after and respected players in jazz today. The Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Alto Saxophonist, Jazz Journalists Association Up & Coming Artist of the Year, and three-time GRAMMY nominee first attracted attention for her warm, resonant tone and dynamic playing, and she’s held it as a composer who uses traditional conceptions of jazz, hip hop and soul as a jumping-off point for the formidable, funk-inflected originals of her new album, Phoenix
Benjamin honed her chops with Clark Terry and Terri Lyne Carrington, and is a noted accompanist for vocalists like Gregory Porter and Theo Crocker. Along the way, she’s worked with titans of contemporary jazz such as Robert Glasper, Brandee Younger, Jazzmeia Horn, and Anita Baker, and answered the bell for performances alongside Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, The Roots, and many more.
Her three-time GRAMMY-nominated album, Phoenix, is a deeply personal outing for the charismatic composer. True to its name, it’s a rebirth, but it also keeps an important thread of intergenerational jazz legacy alive, featuring guests that have inspired her musically and spiritually. Greats like Dianne Reeves, Wayne Shorter, Wallace Roney, and Angela Davis lent their considerable talents to Lakecia’s recreation of herself from the ashes, using her own melodic and assertive compositions as the vehicle.
“A crafty traditionalist who remains in step with the rhythms of the young generation” (The New Yorker), she’ll be joined by pianist Zaccai Curtis, bassist Elias Bailey, and drummer EJ Strickland.
JUNE 22 • CIVIC PLAZA 14TH & LONSDALE @ 1PM • FREE
Lebanon-born, Montreal-based Lamia Yared specializes in traditional Arabic, Turkish and Sephardic repertoires. She has trained with renowned masters in Lebanon, Turkey and Greece, honing her technique of Eastern chant and oud playing. With cellist Sheila Hannigan, clarinetist François Houle, percussionist Hamin Honari, and guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina.
JUNE 25 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $40$46
Laraaji is a visionary musician, composer, and mystic who has enchanted audiences worldwide with his ethereal and transformative performances. Born Edward Larry Gordon, Laraaji’s music transcends conventional boundaries, seamlessly merging ambient textures with cosmic vibrations, creating an immersive and deeply introspective sonic journey.
Laraaji has been an unwavering practitioner of celestial sounds, operating in his own lane for decades, an 80 year-young American multi-instrumentalist visionary sound artist LARAAJI NADABRAHMANANDA & one of the pioneers of the new-age and ambient philosophies. In the early 70s, Laraaji lived in New York, admired Eastern mysticism and performed in parks playing a vintage stringed instrument called “Zither.” In 1978 Brian Eno saw Laraaji’s Washington Square Village performance and helped him record and release an album called “Ambient 3: Day of Radiance.” The release introduced this American musician to a wide audience, and his next 40 albums made him a true legend of meditative music. Featuring special guests Michelle Helene Mackenzie and Hotspring.
Presented in association with A Week in Paradise.
JUNE 27 • BLUESHORE AT CAPU @ 7:30PM • $30
A one-time Vancouverite, Brooklyn-based guitarist Luca Benedetti (Jim Campilongo, Ron Carter) returns with his supercharged rhythm section, featuring bassist Tony Scherr (Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, Sex Mob) and percussionist Tony Mason (John Scofield, Joan Osborne, Charlie Hunter). Expect a thoroughly engaging improvisational take on folk, blues, jazz and rock.
JUNE 28 • BLUESHORE AT CAPU @ 7:30PM • $40
This 11-member ensemble redefines the boundaries of vocalese jazz with tight precision and dynamic energy. Led by visionary arranger and music director Réjean Marois, MVP delivers exhilarating reproductions of instrumental jazz repertoire, but with voices skillfully mimicking the nuanced tones of saxophones and brass instruments.
JUNE 21 • WEST VANCOUVER MEMORIAL LIBRARY @ 7:30PM • FREE
Inspired by the likes of Squarepusher, The Meters, John Scofield, and Prince, Canadian/Filipina keyboardist and composer Ancheta knows what’s up when it comes to arresting melodies and irresistible groove. Ancheta's quartet, featuring Trent Otter drums, Dominic Conway sax, and Matt Reid bass, will perform songs from their EP Level Up
Mary Ancheta Workshop
June 25 • Tom Lee Music Hall @ 1PM • FREE
JUNE 23 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
One of the most iconic rhythm sections in modern music, drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally were the insistent engine of DC post-hardcore legends Fugazi for over 15 years. In 2016, they formed Messthetics with guitar virtuoso Anthony Pirog, and released two albums of turbulent, propulsive, groove-laden instrumental art rock. Drawing on jazz, punk, dub, and free improv, they’re equally at home in an expansive take on Sonny Sharrock’s “Once Upon a Time” as they are in blazing, math-metal riff barrages. In late-2021, they were joined onstage by acclaimed saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, and sparks flew. Lally recalls a full-throttle passage when Lewis and Pirog began trading solos. As the intensity escalated, the bassist felt simultaneously challenged and exhilarated. “You’re just holding on and going, it sounds great,” he remembers telling himself. “Just keep going!” Thankfully for fans of next-level, genre-defying music, they have. Called “one of the modern titans of the tenor” by All About Jazz, the ecstatic fervour of James Brandon Lewis’ playing points back to John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and the rich tradition of the Impulse! label–a tradition that the combustive quartet is now a part of with their eponymous 2024 release.
For his part, Lewis relishes the chance to plug into the power of the Messthetics’ punk-adjacent milieu, calling their provocative real-time musical conversation a “high point of musical bonding and purely unapologetic energy! When you hear the Messthetics by themselves, that shit is cranking. And I'm always signing up to crank.”
JUNE 29 • CIVIC PLAZA 14TH AND LONSDALE @ 1PM • FREE
Bilingual (English/French) Vancouver quintet Mimosa draws on jazz, Brazilian sambas, 1960s French pop and cabaret music to concoct its own sound: gorgeous melodies, quirky lyrics, incredible grooves and sky-high improvisations. If Cleo Lane, Antonio Jobim and Serge Gainsbourg jammed, you'd hear close to what Mimosa has to offer. With Rebecca Shoichet, vocals, Anna Lumiere piano and accordion, Karen Graves sax, flute and vocals, Stefan Bienz bass and Bernie Arai drums
JUNE 21 • FORTUNE SOUND CLUB @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
How do you engage the stunning, evocative, haunting gift that is Moor Mother’s latest album The Great Bailout? Only by following the trail of potent verbal and sonic poetry. Only by letting Moor Mother be your guide.
Released March 8, The Great Bailout is Moor Mother aka Camae Ayewa’s ninth studio album, and third with ANTI- Records. Called “the poet laureate of the apocalypse,” by Pitchfork, Ayewa’s music contains multitudes of instruments, voices, and cacophony that take on themes of Afrofuturism, colonialism, commerce and collective memory with the forebearers of jazz, hip hop, and beat poetry in mind. Presented in association with Queer Arts Festival.
JUNE 23 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET
STAGE @ 7:30PM • FREE
A hip-hop artist, music curator, storyteller, and allaround renaissance man, Odario is embedded in the beat and submerged in the bass. The Guyanese-born Odario Williams was raised in Winnipeg, where he became a pioneer in Peg City's fast growing hip-hop community and founded the acclaimed Grand Analog. Today, the Toronto-based Odario is one of Canada's coolest voices, both on-stage and as the host of CBC Music's Afterdark, a nightly radio show that’s full of avant-flavours and infectious vibes. From beat poetry to bent grooves, the “funky, eclectic and conscious” Odario sound “fuses hip-hop, blaxploitation funk, and drum 'n' bass into a seamlessly effervescent entity” (Exclaim).
With DJ Ofield K, Warren Bray bass, Aubrey McGhee sax, and Biboye Onanuga drums
JUNE 22/23 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 10:30PM • FREE
Odario Williams fills the airwaves with his resonant voice and engaging musical journeys as host of CBC Music's Afterdark, a nightly radio show that’s full of avant-flavours and infectious grooves. For two nights, he’ll be filling the dance floor at Ocean Artworks with DJ sets that reflect the many-hatted entertainer’s far-ranging musical tastes. With contemporary hits, compelling soundscapes, and healthy doses of dub, hip-hop, funk, and soul, Odario Williams keeps the vibes vibrant Afterdark.
JUNE 21-29 • TYRANT STUDIOS
A cozy hidden gem, and the hippest little room in Vancouver, Tyrant Studios is the go-to spot for nightly jazz jams throughout the festival. The historic venue, located above Vancouver's legendary Penthouse Nightclub, has been a frequent haunt for the greats of performing arts history, including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Oscar Peterson. Come early for sets by Sharon Minemoto Trio, Kevin Romain's Salience Network, Tiny Pyramids, Teresa Marie and the Three, and more, then stay into the night as the headliners become hosts, sharing the stage with visiting artists and local players alike. We really can’t say much more, since these novel collaborations will take thrillingly unpredictable shapes. Come down and be part of Vancouver nightlife history in the making.
June 21 Bryan Chung & Co.
June 22 Vamp Til Cue (Wilson/Korsrud/Li/Sholberg/ Caballero)
June 23 Eli Davidovici’s Shapes Trio ft. Allison Burik
June 24 Sharon Minemoto Trio
June 25 Kevin Romain's Salience Network
June 26 Tiny Pyramids
June 27 Teresa Marie and the Three
June 28 Igneous
June 29 Ard n’ Saul
Doors 9pm, host sets 9:30pm ($16 adv/$20 at door), jams from 10:30pm (PWYC).
June 24-27 presented in association with Tyrant Studios and The Infidels Jazz.
JUNE 22 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET
STAGE @ 2:15PM • FREE
Parlour Panther bursts with irresistible charm, expressive emotional chemistry, and exceptional vocal and guitar skills. Frankie and Reidar, a trans non-binary couple, have been creating music together for 10 years. They made a splash in the Vancouver music scene with their 2018 debut Hot Magic, and followed that album’s success with Retrograde, recorded entirely in their home studio during the pandemic, and released to critical acclaim in 2021 on Coax Records. Now, with Saadi on synth and guitar and Jen on drums, the enchanting indie rockers are embarking on a new musical journey with the upcoming album BLOOM, an apt title for a band that’s always growing!
Presented in association with Queer Arts Festival.
JUNE 30 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $20 AT DOOR
Pat Metheny called Pasquale Grasso “the best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life.” It was the kind of endorsement most rising guitarists can only dream of, but what’s more impressive is that this exceptional player doesn’t sound like Metheny in the slightest. Nor does he follow in the paths of Scofield or Frisell. Born in Italy and now based in New York City, Grasso’s astounding pianistic technique is informed not by modern jazz guitarists, but by bebop pioneers like Bud Powell, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
He’s brought his sparkling, immaculately balanced tone, tasteful tinges of stride and boogie-woogie, deft chordal harmony and stunning single-note runs to interplay with Samara Joy, Sheila Jordan, Ray Drummond, Steve Grossman, Grant Stewart, and—for this special performance—a trio featuring André Lachance and Andrew Millar. Lachance is one of the finest and busiest bassists in Vancouver, known for his work with the Peggy Lee Band, Brad Turner, Chris Gestrin, and the Hard Rubber Orchestra, while Andrew Millar has established himself as one of the NYC scene’s first-call swing, trad, and straight-ahead jazz drummers since relocating from BC to Brooklyn back in 2015.
JUNE 23 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET
STAGE @ 12:30PM • FREE
“There's something remarkable about how Peggy Lee achieves a seamlessly orchestrated sound from a concoction of avant-garde, folk, modern jazz, chamber, and ambient musics. Even during the moments of dissonance, there's a peaceful flow that borders on enchantment” (Bandcamp Daily).
Formed in 1998, this melody-driven ensemble is cellist Peggy Lee’s vehicle for exploring improvisation within composition while spotlighting the idiosyncratic, brilliant individual voices that make up the group. Peggy wanted to bring together some of her favourite players who, at the time, hadn’t played a lot with each other. Over the years, with six records released, the individual voices have remained vivid and compelling while the overall ensemble sound has developed into its own rich entity. With Brad Turner trumpet, Jon Bentley tenor sax, Jeremy Berkman trombone, Tony Wilson electric guitar, Ron Samworth electric guitar, André Lachance bass, Dylan van der Schyff drums
JUNE 27 • REVUE STAGE @ 9:30PM • $27 PLUS FEES
JUNO-nominated breathers of instrumental fire, Peregrine Falls is Gordon Grdina on guitars and Kenton Loewen on drums. Sometimes their respiration is like a mother’s soft and loving coo, or a calm exhalation in a placid meadow, but it’s not long before it escalates to a pure, unbreathmintable chaos of demons screaming from the edge of an erupting volcano. This ain't your grandma's parlour music…unless your grandma's a total gem who likes their parlour to shake with Ethio/Cuban/Arabic-inflected punk rock and jazz metal.
They’re joined by the incomparable multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, who The New York Times called “one of music’s most in-demand collaborators, flitting like a mischievous butterfly through genres as diverse as honeyed folk, rambunctious free jazz and spectral meditations sung in Urdu”.
A deeply empathic player, Ismaily has worked with the likes of Laurie Anderson, Butch Morris, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Yoko Ono, Colin Stetson, and Marc Ribot. Love in Exile, the collaborative trio he shares with Arooj Aftab and Vijay Iyer, was nominated at the 2024 GRAMMYs for Best Alternative Jazz Album, a brand-new category added to reflect the explosion of genre-blending, envelope-pushing hybrid forms of creative music.
JUNE 28 • REVUE STAGE @ 5PM • PWYC ($5-$20)
It’s true: Peter Knight and JP Carter both play the trumpet. But that fact is only part of the larger, weirder, more deliciously bewildering truth about two of contemporary creative music’s most envelope-pushing, distinctive sound-shapers.
Melbourne-based Peter Knight uses extended techniques, electroacoustic processing, rhythmic overlapping, slow harmonic evolution, and subtle timbral evolution to shift our perceptions of linear time. In their “Best of 2022”, Headphone Commute called his latest solo album, SHADOW PHASE, "a carefully curated exercise in reflective restraint, dreamy atmospherics, and ebbing dynamics.”
One of Vancouver’s foremost ambassadors of invention, JP Carter has been a fog, an electrical storm, a swarm of locusts, a wistful memory and a harrowing premonition, a firefly in a jar and a barge-load of fireworks going off all at once in his wide-ranging improv collaborations and genre-agnostic work with Destroyer, Haram, Fond of Tigers, SICK BOSS, and more.
JUNE 28 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 1:30PM • FREE
This enthrallingly eclectic collaborative Indo-Jazz fusion quartet interweaves rich Hindustani classical traditions, dense and dynamic modern jazz, and poetic lyrics that tell of love, grief, longing, home, and hope. Featuring Shruti Ramani voice, Jodi Proznick bass, Noah Franche-Nolan piano/Nord, and Nicholas Bracewell drums, Raagaverse transports listeners to a parallel dimension of modal melodies, jazz harmonies, affecting stories, and gloriously collapsed frontiers.
JUNE 25 • BLUESHORE AT CAPU @ 7:30PM • $50
The master jazz violinist and the piano legend perform a rare live show. Barron is an eleven-time GRAMMY nominee known for his work with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Stan Getz. Regina Carter, recognized with the 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship, has collaborated with the likes of Wynton Marsalis and Dolly Parton. The duo’s album Freefall “is close to flawless”, says JazzTimes.
JUNE 29 • REVUE STAGE @ 5PM • PWYC ($5-$20)
Robin Holcomb’s songs “mirror a beguiling, bewildering world” (Rolling Stone). The Seattle-based pianist/ singer/songwriter first played with Vancouver improv all-star bassist Torsten Müller and drummer Dylan van der Schyff at the 2009 Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and the trio met most recently at Hamilton’s Something Else! Festival in 2022. Though they’ve only performed sporadically over the years, their connection is innate and undeniable. A kind of artistically astounding mutual appreciation society, these world-class artists dig deeply into every opportunity to create together. The trio will move fluidly through improvised exploration and novel interpretations of Holcomb’s songs, which have been called “staggeringly beautiful” by The New York Times, and “excellent and baffling, just as it should be” by Q Magazine
JUNE 30 • REVUE STAGE @ 5PM • PWYC ($5-$20)
A master of extended improv technique and ardently cerebral composition, the ever-investigative pianist Lisa Cay Miller coaxes out sounds from where few would imagine searching. Rising Iranian-Canadian vocalist Saba Amrei left Tehran at age 19 to study music at Capilano University’s award-winning program. A sublime improviser, she also leads the Saba Amrei Iranian Quartet, a dynamic group that focuses on jazz and Latin-influenced Iranian art music from before the 1979 revolution. Sound artist and drummer Adrian Avendaño is one of the city’s most intriguing and creatively omnivorous emerging musicians. His improvisation approach is informed by experimental electronic music, free jazz, soundscape composition, and deep listening.
JUNE 28 • REVUE STAGE @ 5PM • PWYC ($5-$20)
Based in Lille, France, saxophonist and flutist Sakina Abdou explores free improvisation and broadly experimental contemporary music with the likes of Eve Risser’s Red Desert Orchestra, Raymond Boni, Satoko Fujii, and the daring experimental collective, Muzzix. But it's as a solo artist that her multifaceted identity really shines through: hers is a powerful, precise sound, sometimes caustic, sometimes full of grace and quietude. On Goodbye Ground, her debut album for the cutting edge New York label Relative Pitch Records, Abdou’s intense and inventive solo explorations and extended techniques are full of suspense and surprise.
“She can be as fiery as she is fierce, but what has impressed me is Abdou’s ability to bring moments of swing-derived blowing to the equation, evoking Lee Konitz as much as Peter Brötzmann. She’s definitely one to watch.” —The Quietus
With the support of the Consulate General of France in Vancouver and Centre national de la musique (CNM).
Sakina Abdou Artist Talk, moderated by Dylan van der Schyff
June 27 • Western Front @ 3PM • FREE In association with Western Front and International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.
JUNE 29 • REVUE STAGE @ 11:30PM • FREE
2024 Coastal Jazz Artists in Residence Sakina Abdou and Shahzad Ismaily are joined in far-reaching sonic exploration by one of the West Coast’s most agile and
inquisitive improvisers, drummer Dan Gaucher (October Trio, SICK BOSS, Fond of Tigers, Destroyer). French saxophonist/flutist Sakina Abdou explores free improvisation and broadly experimental contemporary music with the likes of Eve Risser’s Red Desert Orchestra, Raymond Boni, Satoko Fujii, and the daring experimental collective, Muzzix. “Radical but controlled”, Abdou “designs improvisations that are both abstract as well as warm and sensitive” (Vital Weekly). Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist/composer Shahzad Ismaily has been called the “musician’s favourite musician.” The GRAMMY nominee has explored improvisation, tonal shifts, and rhythmic movement with a wildly diverse crew of artmakers, including Nels Cline, Milford Graves, Bob Dylan, Beth Orton, Eyvind Kang, Butch Morris, Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Marc Ribot.
JUNE 27 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE
Canadian guitarist/composer Sam Wilson blends finger-style guitar with the far-roving possibilities of jazz improvisation. Her current artistic muse is wild spaces and site-specific responses, as evidenced by her upcoming release Wintertides, featuring drummer Jen Yakamovich and bassist Geordie Hart (Malleus Trio). Written in the winter of 2022 on both the East Coast (Scotsburn, NS) and the West Coast (at Lena Residency, Galiano Island BC), it’s inspired by contrasting landscapes and the collaboration of bi-coastal communities. Her albums Into a Heart Pt. II and New Doors (Jackson/Wilson Duo) won Music Nova Scotia’s “Jazz Recording of the Year” in 2022 and 2023, respectively. "With a lyrical sensitivity to her instrumental compositions,” this rising talent on the national jazz scene “draws listeners in with subtlety and introspective levity." —Pop Matters - Best Jazz of 2019
Sam Wilson Workshop
June 28 • Tom Lee Music Hall @ 1PM • FREE
JUNE 23 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 8:30PM • $10 AT DOOR
Born of Scott Smith’s popular monthly show at Vancouver venue The Painted Ship, Adventures in Pedal Steel spotlights the instrument in all kinds of genres, from country, soul, indie-folk, and gospel, to wherever its beautifully arcing, aching shimmer can be found. With a crack band at his side, a revolving cast of fantastic guest singers, and an entirely different song list each month, the prolific and versatile Smith’s “Steel Nights” are a must-see for local music fans and a community hub for Vancouver’s busiest musicians to catch up with old friends and maybe sing a few Gram Parsons' songs with the band. Alongside fellow ad-
venturers Paul Pigat guitar, Jeremy Holmes bass, and Liam MacDonald drums, Smith will play classic pedal steel instrumentals, songs featuring the earthy, pure tones of vocalist Marin Patenaude, and selections from Smith’s ambient pedal steel album Lifeboat: Explorations in Pedal Steel.
JUNE 30 • THE SHIPYARDS @ 7PM • FREE
With the same instrumentation as the ’60s-era southern rock band, this Vancouver supergroup led by guitarist Scott Smith combines blues, country, jazz and psychedelia to celebrate one of the most distinctive sounds in rock, with classic songs including “Ramblin’ Man” and “Jessica.” With guitarist Emmett Jerome, organist Darryl Havers, bassist Jeremy Holmes, and drummers Geoff Hicks and Liam MacDonald.
JUNE 30 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE
Vancouver-based keyboardist Sharon Minemoto is a swinging and sensitive performer whose highly melodic style is loaded with fresh, innovative harmonic ideas. Her compositions run the gamut from introspective to funky, drawing wide-ranging influence from Herbie Hancock, Kenny Wheeler, Stevie Wonder, and Alexander Scriabin. In August 2023, her quartet featuring Jon Bentley sax, Darren Radtke bass, and Bernie Arai drums released their second album, Dark Night, Bright Stars, on the Cellar Live label.
JUNE 24 • TYRANT STUDIOS @ 9:30PM • $16 ADV/$20 AT DOOR
Vancouver-based keyboardist Sharon Minemoto is a swinging and sensitive performer whose highly me-
lodic style is loaded with fresh, innovative harmonic ideas. Her compositions run the gamut from introspective to funky, drawing wide-ranging influence from Herbie Hancock, Kenny Wheeler, Stevie Wonder, and Alexander Scriabin. Her sharp Trio features Conrad Good bass and Bernie Arai drums. Following the set, the group will host an open jazz jam, sharing the stage with visiting artists and local players alike.
JUNE 24 • WESTERN FRONT @ 3PM • FREE
Shahzad Ismaily is a Brooklyn-based musician, composer, engineer, and founder of Figure 8 Recording. The New York Times called him “one of music’s most in-demand collaborators, flitting like a mischievous butterfly through genres as diverse as honeyed folk, rambunctious free jazz and spectral meditations sung in Urdu”. Over the last thirty years he’s played electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synths and all manner of instruments procured in life’s travels. He’s done work for dance and theatre, and recorded and performed with a diverse crew of artmakers, including Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Laura Veirs, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marianne Faithfull, Faun Fables, Feist, Bryce Dessner, Keiji Haino, Ceramic Dog, Secret Chiefs 3, Sam Amidon, Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and more.
Moderated by scholar, composer and vocalist Julia Úlehla, known for her stunning synthesis of ethnomusicology and incandescent modern composition in the long-running Dálava. That ensemble, performing June 29 at Revue Stage, explores the nexus of ritual and performance, evoking the liminal intensity of layered temporalities and ancestral presences.
In association with Western Front and International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.
JUNE 23 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE Sister Jazz Orchestra, Canada’s first all-female professional jazz orchestra, has been delighting audiences since 2019. Their mission: to showcase today’s top jazzwomen and inspire tomorrow’s.
The Sister Jazz Quintet offers a unique window into the artistry of five of the Orchestra’s world-class musicians. Led by soulful saxophonist/vocalist Ingrid Stitt, the dynamic small ensemble features trumpeter Heather Anderson, pianist/vocalist Shannon Thue, bassist Monica Sumulong-Dumas and drummer Jamie Lee in a delicious mix of innovatively-arranged jazz standards and original tunes.
JUNE 21 • FORTUNE SOUND CLUB @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
In a time of significant social upheaval, SUMAC pushes further into the extreme polarity of their expressionistic metal, fluctuating between meticulous discipline on one end, and untethered feral energy on the other. This navigation of chaos and control is a testament to the technical skills and tour-honed collective intuition of guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer), drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists), and bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, These Arms Are Snakes).
Their humanistic lyrics strike a compassionate tone that stands in stark contrast to the misanthropy of some heavy music, and their sonic approach is akin to free jazz or abstract noise, where the emotional resonance isn’t bound up in melody as much as in performance. Fusing heavy riffage, knotty structures, and expressionistic forays into epic, wildly dynamic narrative arcs, the music of SUMAC is by no means a salve or anodyne, but neither is it nihilistic. Rather, it's like a confrontation, a baptism by fire, a therapeutic razing. Ultimately, it’s a reminder of the life force that binds us together, and a clarion call to be an active participant in an evolving world.
JUNE 28 • OCEAN ARTWORKS @ 4PM • FREE Ukrainian jazz and classical accordionist Taras Luka’s 2023 album Part of the Journey is a sharp and sparking fusion of contemporary jazz and pan-Latin styles for accordion and jazz sextet. In addition to leading his engaging and rhythmically-layered small combo, Luka has worked extensively as a composer, conductor, music director, and sound designer for theatre. His Choral of Freedom for symphony orchestra, choir, and soprano was dedicated to children who have died as a result of the war in Ukraine. It has been performed by Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and was conducted by Oksana Lyniv at its debut at Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Italy. A master’s graduate of Odessa National Music Academy, his works have been nominated for composition prizes in Ukraine, and he’s performed across Germany, Italy,
Poland, Greece, Moldova and Romania. Now based in Vancouver, his group features fantastic local players John Nicholson sax, Dean Thiessen piano, Daniel Howard bass, Jamison Ko drums, and Liam Macdonald percussion
JUNE 28 • REVUE STAGE @ 9:30PM • $27 PLUS FEES
Eirik Hegdal is well-known for leading the impressive and populous Trondheim Jazz Orchestra from 20022017, where he composed audacious scores and collaborated with international greats like Joshua Redman, Pat Metheny, and Dave Holland. Team Hegdal is the Norwegian saxophonist/clarinetist’s compositional playground for the small band format, and over the course of five albums, the virtuosic, locked-in ensemble has been "undeniably responsible for the most stimulating music to come out of Norway in many, many years (DIG Jazz).”
With drummer Gard Nilssen, bassist Ole Morten Vågan, and Atle Nymo on tenor sax and bass clarinet, Hegdal combines exquisite melodic flair with a sometimes absurd sense of humor. Whatever game the Team is playing, the rules about genre boundaries are very permissive; these Spellemannprisen (Norwegian GRAMMY) winners snag a bit from Olivier Messiaen, a bit from Duke Ellington, Ornette, and Monk, and a bit of anything else that strikes their artistic fancy.
Thanks to Music Norway, Norwegian Jazz Federation, Norsk Kulturfond - Fond for lyd og Bilde, and Norwegian Arts Council.
JUNE 27 • TYRANT STUDIOS @ 9:30PM • $16 ADV/$20 AT DOOR
Vancouver-based jazz and R&B vocalist Teresa Marie takes inspiration from Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James, and is passionate about constantly learning from artists across a wide range of genres. With Teresa Marie and the Three, she performs a mix of her own imaginative arrangements of jazz standards, original compositions, and poetry, and shares the stage with
three incredible musicians: pianist Dean Thiessen, bassist Wynston Minckler, and drummer Tyler Murray. Following the set, the group will host an open jazz jam, sharing the stage with visiting artists and local players alike.
JUNE 23 • LYNN VALLEY VILLAGE @ 1PM • FREE
Formed in 2016 as one of the late, great Ouisi Bistro's house bands, Terminal City Brass Band plays a full-on range of good vibes, from trad jazz and funk to anything else that crosses their minds. The irresistible ensemble features Michael Coury trumpet, Tim Sars sax, Brian Harding trombone, Marc Lindy tuba, and Liam MacDonald percussion, plus everyone on vocals.
JUNE 26 • TYRANT STUDIOS @ 9:30PM • $16 ADV/$20 AT DOOR
Drawing on the vast and diverse catalogue of Sun Ra, one of music’s most prolific, pioneering, and confounding figures, Tiny Pyramids goes from in-the-pocket swing to controlled cosmic chaos and intergalactic improvisation. Classic charts point to uncharted territories for Dan Gaucher drums/ percussion/electronics, Colin Cowan bass/percussion/ electronics, and Tyson Naylor keyboards/percussion/ electronics.
Following the set, the group will host an open jazz jam, sharing the stage with visiting artists and local players alike.
JUNE 26 • TOM LEE MUSIC HALL @ 1PM • FREE Vancouver-born, Berlin-based keyboardist Tyson Naylor has performed internationally in very diverse musical settings, and he’s equally at home in free jazz, soul, indie rock, and chamber ensembles. He’s played with Destroyer, Frazey Ford, and Dan Mangan, avant-improvisers like Tristan Honsinger, Tobias Delius, Axel Dörner, Mats Äleklint and Lina Allemano, large ensembles like Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Turning Point Ensemble, and groups best filed under “other”, like Dálava, Ron Samworth’s Dogs Do Dream, Tiny Pyramids, Sun Ra’s Star System, SICK BOSS, and Limbs of the Stars.
Signal to Noise praised his Trio’s debut album, Kosmonauten (Songlines), noting that Naylor “has an impish sense of humour that shows an affinity for the merrymakers of the ICP Orchestra. You can
hear Misha Mengelberg’s spare, subtle intervals and dry-martini wit in his playing, though it’s Mengelberg filtered through Brad Mehldau.”
JUNE 28 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
A drummer who The New York Times says “takes a back seat to no one,” Ulysses Owens Jr. “balances excitement gracefully and shines with innovation.” The three-time GRAMMY Award-winner has been the driving force behind great artists like Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, Kurt Elling, Gregory Porter, and Wynton Marsalis, but over the past five years, Ulysses’ career has shifted from “young lion” side-man to leader and mentor, guiding the next generation of talent via his many performance, production, and educational outreach projects.
His eighth album as leader, A New Beat, was recorded at the legendary Rudy Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey and is out now on the Cellar Jazz record label. In the inter-generational tradition of Art Blakey and Betty Carter, Ulysses introduces the new ensemble Generation Y, building bridges to success and paying it forward by featuring a new crop of remarkable jazz talents that he’s discovered through his professorship at Juilliard and the other educational positions he holds internationally. With a repertoire that includes Mulgrew Miller, Roy Hargrove, George Cables, Wayne Shorter, and many others, Generation Y dynamically affirms the power of the jazz tradition and shows us that the future of the music is in very good hands. For this Vancouver show, the maestro calls on “young lions” Benny Bennack III trumpet, Alexa Tarantino sax, Tyler Bullock piano, and Thomas Milovac bass
JUNE 30 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 1PM • FREE Coastal Jazz, the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra, and the Fraser MacPherson Jazz Fund co-present an exciting new initiative: the Vancouver Youth Jazz Orchestra. This free multi-week residency provides high school students in the lower Mainland a unique opportunity to play alongside members of the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra in a big band directed by guest conductor Brent Taylor. Up to 21 talented teens are selected from an audition process open to students in Grade 9-12 from over 150 schools across the Lower Mainland. Successful applicants receive extensive rehearsal sessions, mentorship and group instruction from local professional musicians, and the residency culminates live on stage at Performance Works!
JUNE 24 • VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE @ 7:30PM • $40$60 PLUS FEES
Veronica Swift has been ascending to the upper echelon of 21st century jazz singers over the last few years; with the interpretive ingenuity, bracing songwriting, and keen arrangements of her new eponymously titled album, she’s most certainly arrived. While the Wall Street Journal has praised her “miraculous voice and innate gift for entertaining a crowd”, Swift’s not just one of the most dazzling singers of her generation, she’s also one of the most versatile. We hear moments of inspiration from Chopin and Beethoven, Puccini and Antônio Carlos Jobim, Queen and Nine Inch Nails, as Swift stirs opera, European classical music, bossa nova, blues, industrial rock, funk, and vaudeville into the melting pot of her dynamic, joyful modern jazz.
JUNE 30 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
Led by renowned keyboardist/composer/conductor Wayne Horvitz, whose “extraordinary melodic instincts make anything he attempts a riveting pleasure” (The Stranger), Electric Circus is a large and charged ensemble that uses sampled grooves, improvised sonic exploration, light projections, and a boatload of talent to reimagine classic soul, funk, rock, and psych.
Stepping away from the keys for this project, Horvitz uses “conduction” — in the tradition of Butch Morris — to guide players through a psychedelic montage of tight ensemble sections, full-on dance party grooves, and far-reaching improvisations that use motifs from classic recordings by James Brown, Willie Dixon, Captain Beefheart, Miles Davis, The Dead, The Pointer Sisters, Sun Ra, The Clash, and Parliament Funkadelic as jumping-off points towards thrilling new sonic possibilities.
After performing Electric Circus exclusively in Seattle since 2015, Horvitz is now presenting the band across Europe, Canada, and the US, using first-call local musicians and special guests. In Vancouver, Wayne will lead a stacked 14-piece ensemble featuring French saxophonist Sakina Abdou and Brooklyn-based Shahzad Ishmaily on electric bass — both
of whom will be doing a range of shows and projects this year as Coastal Jazz Artists in Residence — alongside local players Nikko Whitworth acoustic bass, Meredith Bates violin/viola, Kai Basanta drums, Jeff Younger guitar, Madeleine Elkins guitar, Chris Gestrin keys, JP Carter trumpet, Nebyu Yohannes trombone, Chris Kelly baritone sax, Gordy Li tenor sax, Jack Duncan congas/percussion, and vocalist Shruti Ramani.
JUNE 29 • PERFORMANCE WORKS @ 7:30PM • $37 PLUS FEES
Like most great art forms, jazz developed by combining previously distinct, disparate elements into something new. We All Break follows in this tradition with their remarkable merging of traditional Haitian Vodou music and au courant composition and improvisation on the groundbreaking Path of Seven Colors. Called “a marvel” by AllMusic, “a sublime magnum opus” by Jazziz, and “stunningly original and mesmerizing in its ritualistic power” by DownBeat, the extraordinary and innovative project is the brainchild of drummer/composer Ches Smith, well-known to fans of cutting-edge jazz, improv, and avant-rock through his work with Secret Chiefs, Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, John Zorn, Trevor Dunn, and many others.
Smith’s dedication to Haitian Vodou began more than twenty years ago. “My attraction was instant and strong,” he says. “I was captivated, likely because things central in the various musics I play — polyrhythm, polytonality, improvisation, extended timbral awareness, tension and release, channeled aggression and power, and most vitally surprise — I found again, and anew, in this traditional form.”
We All Break brings together world-class experimental musicians and creative improvisers in pianist Matt Mitchell, alto saxophonist Tim Berne, bassist Nick Dunston, vocalists Sirene Dantor Rene, Lalin St. Juste, and Tossie Long, and master drummers Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz, and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene to create something that’s not only “profoundly original, innovative and important”, but an “infinitely beautiful and pure, truly rare work that — at this level of quality — has never really been even imagined before (All About Jazz).”
JUNE 23 • DOWNTOWN JAZZ - GEORGIA STREET
STAGE @ 5:30PM • FREE
Drawing from a myriad of influences—from Mexican tunes from the 1930s to the experimental folk of recent collaborator Devendra Banhart—Y La Bamba ”suffuses their dream pop soundscapes with beguiling cumbia and mariachi rhythms'' (Rolling Stone). Their seventh album, Lucha, explores multiplicity— love, queerness, Mexican American and Chicanx identity, family, intimacy, yearning, loneliness—and chronicles a period of struggle and growth for lead vocalist and producer Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos.
At the advent of COVID-19 lockdowns, Mendoza Ramos moved from Portland, Oregon to Mexico City, and in returning to her parents’ home country, she revisited a lineage marred by violence and silence, while simultaneously deepening relationships with loved ones and herself. Full of vulnerability and pathos, it's a battle cry in the fight to be seen and to be accepted, if not celebrated, as a full self, in anger and compassion, externally and internally, individually and societally.
Lucha is as sonically sprawling and bold as its subject matter. Whether laying spoken word poetry into a minimal, avant-garde soundscape, or building intricate trestles of experimental pop and bossa nova rhythms for their melodic guitar interplay, "Mendoza is becoming a visionary, and her band continues to intrigue as it evolves" (NPR Music).
With the help of the generous individuals below (and those who wish to remain anonymous), Coastal Jazz—a not-for-profit society and registered charity—is able to provide the excellent level of programming, educational activities, and vibrant international offerings you experience every year.
Enormous gratitude to our outstanding Coastal Jazz donors!
IMPROVISERS
$2,500+
Dana Golden
Leonard Schein
David Mccann
Doug and Vicki Horswill
Mary Kippenhan
Mr and Mrs Gayle
Graham and Cooke
MELODY MAKERS
$1,000-$2,499
Helen Hansen
Lynn Buhler
Barbara Kaminsky
Christian Morrison
Thomas Adair
Nicholas Fedchuk
Patrick Julian
Nancy Sweedler
Greg Blake
brenda millar
Brian Buchanan in honour of Charlotte
Wynne
Charles K Pitts
Dennis Meakin
Kennedy Duncan
Foundation
Les Toth
Stan Zobac
BENEFACTORS
$500-$999
Roger Lee
Phil McIntyre-Paul
Douglas W
Regelous in honour of Pat Dietz
Arlene James
Francois Houle
Sue Lee
Leah Kaser
Michael Grunewaldt
George Heyman
Owen Plummer
Barbara Cooper
Rika Uto
Carol Boutin
Ron Remick
Steve Young
Christine Fedina
Denis Walker
John Hooge
Sandra Micheals
$200-$499
Stephanie Smith
Deryk Whitehead
Koichi Yokota
Barbara Kay
Jeanette
McConnell in honour of Ken Pickering
Deborah Roitberg
Selma Savage
Zahid Makhdoom
Daniel Mendelsohn
Mitchell Edgar
Jude Snaydon in honour of Geoff
Snaydon
Jaime Peschiera
Hans Schild
Christopher Sebert
Fawn Mulcahy
Henry Reimer
J. Gordon Marshall
William Joseph Whiteside
Bob Ayers
Eduardo Ottoni
Reena Taank
Laurine Nickel
Anita Eccleston
Douglas Hyndman
Jacqueline Gijssen
Parmela Attariwala
Pat Christiansen
Rob Van Nus
Simon Holwill
Hemang Acharya
Amanda Shintani
Raymond Wargo
Cappone D'Angelo
Dieter Nachtigall
Norma Boutillier
Paulette Lane
Randle Knill
Roger Aballini
SJ Rixon
meredith bates
Nick Provenzano
Lawrence Thiessen
Sue Horner
Manfred Gerschack
shora parvaresh
John Watson
Henry Karpus
Yano Kenji Dean
Alison Maclennan
Allen Lynch
Arthur Lukey
Barbara Monachino
Bill Cooke
Brian Klassen
Christopher Bates
Dean McDonald
Duff Waddell
Edward Byrne
Gary and Diane Stevens in honour of Larry Scott
James Clare
Joslin A Kobylka
Judith Williamson
Karen Buhler in honour of James Coverdale
Lance Husoy
Lawrence Jones
Lindy Sisson
Peter Herd
Peter Lang
priscilla mcdonald
Richard Hanson
William Sharpe
Zoe E Forsyth
FRIENDS
$50-$199
Clayton MacKay
J. R. (Richard)
Ayuen
Gary Rupert
Mary Tait
Brenda Colaire
Craig R. Poynton
Karen Schad
Paul Hayes
Chris Balma
Mathona Thomson in honour of T y
Wilsn
Nthabiseng Akolo
Petra Allmann
Karen Ranalletta
Alex Calcagno
Alvera Redekopp
Bruce Suttie
Cynthia Wright
Ellen Curham
Lee Smith in honour of Paul
Plimley
Lorraine Foster
Patricia WalbergAnhorn
Pauline Fisher
Ranko Petrovic
Ruby Maekawa
Alejandro Bryce
Ben Kyle
Brad Cramer
Bradan Decicco
Chika Buston
Darcy Heads
James Paterson
Kyle Bains
Margarita Berrios
Jeannie Bates
Jeff Christianson
Mark Lasseter
Dianna McKay
Jai Djwa
David Dillon
Clyde Reed
David Reid
Linda Houlahan
Louis Davidson
Christina Bell
Henry Chung
John Waye
Marilyn Bild
Peter Lee
Peter Dodek
William Chow
Kris Klaasen in honour of Jocelyn
Morlock
Susan Borax
Patrick Aldous
Deborah Cooper
Eric Luhta
Geoffrey Hicks
James Knutson
Jared Karse
Lauren Ferrand
Liam Simpson
Mariola Mrozewska
Matt Rudenko
Norma Bailey
Pavel Salmine
Ronald Robertson
Roy
O'Shaughnessy
Sheldon Bloomer
Jeff Brocklebank
David Rehorick
Michael Hinman
Pavel Efimov
Rod Mickleburgh
David Beneteau
Kelly Gheen
Joan Young
Alec McKay
Bill Bews
Bill Brooks
Bryan McCready
Charlie Hunter
Don McGinn
McGinn
Dzung Vo
Ed Grochowski
Garth Ramsey
George Harm
James Ong
Jean Fowler
John Vaillant
Joslin Kobylka
judith roche
kevin sanders
Linda Tenenbaum
Lou Duhamel
Lynne Triffon
Marilyn Kernahan
Mark Rickerby
Mary Maxwell Tait
Paul Naylor
Richard Marsella
Roxanne Rousseau
Tom Herbst
Zac Baccardax
Aaron Cendan
Charles Huyser
Keith Woods
Duncan WattsGrant
Robin Bajer
Christine Finskars
David Dunkley
Duane Fontaine
John Pringle
Michael Tolton
Robert Gander
Scott Hughes
Betty Lou Phillips
Beverley Como
Catherine Fallis
Cathy Griffin
Daniela Demetlika in honour of
Kimberly Shaw
David J Metzer
David Ostro
David Tobin
DD Kugler
Douglas Mcfee in honour of Dougal
McFee
Dwight Anglehart
Egill Joe Bjornson
Eric Strand
Eva Murray
Fay Kubacki
Geoff Hoare
Giancarlo Baruffa
Gordon Harding
Gordon Maze
Guy DuHamel
James Dupuis
James Kim
Jim Gaskell
Jonathan Ng
Leslie Morgan
Louise Wick
Mark Bender
Mark Hastie
Mark Moore
Maureen Zeal
Campbell
Michael Biggs
Patricia Glover
Paul Murphy
Robert Colby
Robin Ford
Sepideh Vahid
Shea Miles
Steven Josefowich
Tony Montague
Brion Bailey
Cian Lawlor
David Hendry
Kenneth Decker
Rob Clements
Sandra Rose
Graham Allen
Guylaine Matchett
william zienty
Dannielle Rutledge
Patricia Craig
Michael Matich
Ruth Douglas
Seelow Frank
Alexander Braidek
blair purda
Christina Woelz
Corinne Roth
Damian Kuehn
Harvey Krahn
Jeffrey Morris
Matin Momtazi
Naomi Constant
Peter Topolewski
Ronald Mckay
Virginia Adams
William Dare
Alyscia Smith
Bernice Cook in honour of Jean List
Daniel Tetrault
Joan Pritchard in honour of Barb Clay-Mackenzie
Patricia Nichols
Sharon Levings
desmond hodges
Devon Burnham
Indri Pasaribu
Sebastian Lippa
Patricia Webb
James Reimer
Katie Streibel
Gerald Yoshida
Feng Lin
Patricia Highland in honour of Cory Weeds
Sheila Fidler
Aileen Lau
Gerald Joe
Bill Hooker
Dominic Conway
Don Nicolson
ira applebaum
James McKenzie
James Meger
Jane Cherry
Jennifer Munro
Margaret Lee
Matt Petley-jones
Ben Kelly
david mackinnon
Matthew Ariaratnam
Neil Melliship
Nina Horvath
May Oltmann
Patrick Manghi
Terri Damiani
Bernadette Lagrito
Dale Harris
David Anderson
David Brown
Deborah Brakeley
Elizabeth Eccleston
Emma Chang
Gerald Quan
Howard Saunders
James Hutchison
James Scoates
Jane Ellison
Janice Smithaniuk
Jens Tonnesen
Joanna Maksay
John Malcolmson
Johnny Payette
Jonathan Thar
Judith P MacPherson
Lillian Tamburic
Lorraine Koren
Malaine Toy
Marianne Rev
Mark Scivier
Marshall Letcher
Max Bruce
Nou Dadoun
Pamela Kheong
Paul Ballinger
Persia Stevens
Rick Killam
Robert Kerr
Robert Moore
Shane Briggs
sharyn yuen
Sherman Woo
Sherry Masters
thomas grieve
Wakako Makari
William Clark
Simon Wosk
Sandra Kesic
Joanne Fairbrother
Brian Evans
Abdel Naroth
ali pollard in honour of Bob Pollard
Allan Carruthers
allan diamond
Anne-Marie Landry
Bergeron Charles
Brandon Thiessen
Brenda Tamke
Brian Cannon
Brian HallStevenson
Brian Nicol in honour of Thelonius Monk
Brian Wende
Carlos Becerra in honour of All Living
Jazz Musicians
Carman J. Price
Carol Bullen
Carol Roberts
carole Jinks in honour of Mona MvLeod
Cary Gertsen
Charles Hall
Christine Barnowski
Christine Flegal in honour of Monica
Flegal
Christopher Rose
Chritopher Lee
Crissy George
Dan Yeasting
Darby Honeyman
David Hopwood
Deborah Little
Dennis Larsen
Edwin Ochmanek
Eric Van Buiten
Georgia Hill
Gillian A. Walker
Herma Neyndorff
Howard Bartel
Hyosub Kim
Ian Perry
John Boyle
John Mabbott
Karen Babel-Klopp
Kevin Romain
Kimiyo Kamimura
Kurt Aydin
Lana Panko
Larry Garaway
Leandre RupertBailey
Lenore Rowntree
Lyn Blanchard
Lynell Anderson
Lynn Copeland
Marguerite Bizuk
Mark A Fernandes
Maxine Charlton
michael kagan
Michael Schmidt
Mike Carew
Mike Greene
Nancy More
Navjot Dhindsa
Paul Greisman
Paula Talaba
Peggy Geary
Peggy Monro
Penny Perry
Peter Mackrory
Rene-Marie Fountain in honour of Dan Tepfer
Robert Jones
Robert Picard
Robert R. Moore
Rudi Leibik
sharyn A. yuen
Sheera Waisman
Si Brown
Stephen Gaerber
Susan Willows
Ted Wong
Tom Hockin
Victor Holysh
Vinit Khosla
Willi Germann
William Hood
Xavier Li in honour of Joseph Li
Zbigniew Olak
Luke Resoun
anita lemonis
Thomas Hughes
Anthony Archbold
Deborrah Dunne
Doug Galloway
Gillian Walker
Gordon Walters
Joel Redekop
John Wright
Mel Ainsworth
Roger Obayashi
Andrew Black
Marc Dotto
Noah Connor
robert parent
David Kauffman
Samuel Macklin
Suzanne Starr
Thomas Koch
Schaun Tozer
Alison Taylor
Bruce Macwilliam
Hallein Darby
Stephen Lyons
Lyne Gareau
Alan CreightonKelly
Alex Rae
Andrew Arnold
Andrew Ross
Angie Mitchell
Beatrice Engel
clark falconer
Cory Cameron
Diana Chung
Dieter Mueller
Elizabeth Mueller
Ghazal Torres
Hayley Duff
Justin Vanloo
Katie Redburn
Kevin Elaschuk
lea paulson
Lindsey Growe
Melvin Date Chong
Michael Millman
Nancy Hood
Nancy Smith
Noreen Holt
Ron CHARLES
Ron Fisher
Vibeke Rasmussen
Wendy Fieber
Alexander Stockwell
Anne Marie Paquin
Bob Rebagliati
Caley Honeywell in honour of Micheal
Brecker
Carmen Castrucci
Carole Goldsmith
Cyrus Montazemi
Daphne Osoba
Denise Hui
Don Hamata
Douglas Gregg
Elaine Haakstad
Ethel Whitty
Ianina Veselovska
Jeanne Roy
Jill Kelly
John Cannon
Julie Hunter
Katherine Hoover
Kathleen Willock
Kerry Fitzpatrick
Kevin Lonergan
Laurie Rice
Lee Schmidt in honour of Lisa Schmidt
les braden
Mary Hardy
Mary Ungerleider
Mike Pidlisecky
patti gilbertson
Perry Staniscia
Rebecca Paulding
Susan Lomax
Thomas Czyczko
Tracey Sheldrick
Yolaine Mottet
Zbigniew Burdzy
Donna Lawrence
Dwight Hawes
Heidi Kurz
Amir Malekpour
Bruce Weinborn
Alina Griaznova
Pierce Kinch
Justin Wilson
Mara Cain
Rob Picard
Sarah Hillifer
Zachariah Matheson
John Wayne MacEachern
Karl DeJong
Stan P
Cale Simonson
Nick Watts
Ryan Klak
Brenda Jew
Christopher Smysnuck
james robert wood
Jason Chan
John Chen
Katherine Penfold
Kim Alison Fraser
Makoto
Wakabayashi
Martin McCarvill
Miran Aziz
Nicolas Martinez
Perry Booth in honour of Angelika Reuter
Robert Wright
Sarah Lumsden
Tracy Haynes
Vania Mello in honour of Chris
Dharti Patel
Steven Ruggles
Clifford Raymond
Since 1985, Coastal Jazz and Blues Society has been an integral part of the cultural landscape in Vancouver, and throughout the 2024 Vancouver International Jazz Festival, we plan to continue building upon that rich history. Each year, our team is dedicated to providing performance opportunities and programming artists who open up our eyes to new experiences, and create lasting memories for years to come.
As well as bringing some of the finest national and international artists to town, Coastal Jazz is at the forefront of supporting local artists, helping to develop youth talent, offering workshops and other educational opportunities, and providing barrier-free access to incredible music and experiences year-round. Without the support of our loyal donors, none of this incredible work would be possible. This
year, we’ll continue to reach out to our donors and to our community as a whole. With your help, we can keep creative music thriving in Vancouver for years to come.
On behalf of the team at Coastal Jazz, thank you for your continued support.
Luke ResounIndividual Giving
ManagerCoastal Jazz and Blues Society luke@coastaljazz.ca • 604-872-5200
The Coastal Foundation for the Performing Arts Fund was established in 2016 to support the long-term sustainability of the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society. Stable funding allows Coastal Jazz to continue its extensive free concert and education programs, commission new works, support community initiatives, and grow.
Did you know that funds donated are held in perpetuity? You can donate USD dollars, stocks, mutual funds, or leave us as a beneficiary in your will, all through the Vancouver Foundation. The Department of Canadian Heritage’s
Matching Grant program will match your gift up to 100%, potentially doubling your contribution!
When you donate to the Coastal Foundation for the Performing Arts Fund it’s a gift that lasts a lifetime, creating a legacy for you and an investment that will be valued for decades to come.
Contact: Mandy Pui at the Vancouver Foundation mandy.pui@vancouverfoundation.com 778.309.0960
Funded by the Government of Canada
We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia. PACIFIC TOYOTA DEALERS
Capilano University
Centre national de la musique - France
Consulate General of France in Vancouver
Deux Mille Foundation
Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation
Festival d'été
Fraser MacPherson Jazz Fund
Full Circle: First Nations Performance
International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
JAZZTOPAD FestivalPoland
Ministry of Cultural Affairs - Norway
Music Norway
Norwegian Jazz Federation, Norsk Kulturfond - Fond for lyd og Bilde
University of British Columbia
Vancouver Art Gallery
VIFF
Rick Reynolds— Luthier & Upright
Bass Supplier
Bob Rebagliati
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Learn more at douglascollege.ca
