‘JAZZ ON THE WATER’
Cape Breton Jazz Festival celebrating seventh year
While “Jazz on the Water” is the theme of this year’s Cape Breton Jazz Festival, never accuse festival founder and organizer Carl Getto of being wet behind the ears.
Going into its seventh year, this year’s festival will feature the usual mix of established stars and local heroes but Getto is using his years of experience as a festival organizer to also include new partnerships, a new main location and even a few free events to hopefully entice people over to the ticketed concerts. This year’s festival runs Thursday until Aug. 11.
“It takes time developing partnerships — fortunately the people I have dealt with at the Sydney Waterfront Festival and with the Ride for the Cure have been tremendously wonderful people to deal with,” says Getto. “That makes the whole process smooth and pleasant.
“The benefit of striking these partnerships is that you’re reaching out to a whole new segment of people, drawing them in to the shows, making them aware of the shows and hopefully, ideally, setting it up so they’ll have a blast at the shows that as a result they’ll equate fun shows with the Cape Breton Jazz Festival.”
While previous festivals have been held at local lounges, most of the paid events this year will be held in a room behind Flavour on the Water restaurant at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion. In addition to plenty of seating, those attending will also be able to order food and beverages during the events.
This year’s schedule features a variety of shows featuring such musicians as the Bill Stevenson Trio, Kirk MacDonald, Holly Arsenault and Michel Barnes and even a night devoted to different music styles featuring fiddler Dwayne Cote, Jason MacDonald, Crowdis Bridge and Jordan Musycsyn. Getto says there’s something for everyone, including himself.
“I am a fan of Bill Stevenson and his trio, which is on the opening night,” he says. “Bill is an unappreciated master of playing and singing in the blues jazz style.”
If summer has been tough on your wallet, try attending one of the two free shows, including one
on Aug. 10, 7-9 p.m., outdoors on Charlotte Street featuring the Booty Boppin’ Brass Band from Halifax. This band, made up of the top horn players from Halifax, has been featured on the main stage at the Halifax Jazz Festival and can be seen in this YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?time_continue=25&v=Pjf4oqOUSGQ.
Also see for free the Whiskysmoke Blues Band from Antigonish and blues vocalist Theresa Malenfant and guitarist Scott Medford when they appear at 8 p.m. in the outdoor beer tent in Membertou during the Cape Breton Bike Rally on Saturday.
“The idea behind that is to get people who maybe wouldn’t think of going to one of our ticketed shows because they’re not all that familiar with the music but the two free shows are designed to be extremely assessable or user friendly to all music listeners.
Getto remains enthusiastic when it comes to
promoting local jazz talent. Most shows have some local content and some are devoted wholeheartedly to local performers, such as the show, Jazz Fest Celebration on Aug. 8, with Russell LeBlanc, Ethan Ardelli, Bruce MacKinley, Johnny Hawkins, Matt Nicholson, Debbie Keating, Scott Rodney, Tyler MacDonald and others.
“It’s a priority of mine to get as many local people involved as I can.
“This jazz fest show allows everyone to take part — this is a bit of recognition for what they do and they don’t get enough recognition for the efforts and the talents they have so this is an opportunity to show what they can do and how hard they have been working.”