FOUR DECADES OF JAZZ
City has hosted giants of genre
Do you remember a time before music festivals came to the prairies?
It might not seem that long ago, but 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of jazz festivals in Edmonton, one of the first cities to host jazz festivals in Canada.
How we got to the Edmonton International Jazz Festival is a convoluted story that says much about funding for the arts, the fortunes of jazz music and the changing face of Edmonton.
Indeed, you might wonder what Edmontonians did in those short warm months before the many festivals that crowd our summer calendar arose, starting with the jazz and folk festivals in 1980.
That was Alberta’s 75th anniversary year. Credit the inspired thinking of Peter Lougheed’s government that it chose to approach fledgling arts groups like the Edmonton Jazz Society to foster the celebration. The idea was simple: If we give you $1 million, can you put on a jazz festival?
That was more than enough to put Edmonton on the map, and the Jazz City Festival was born, sporting top mainstream acts, including Sonny Rollins, Joe Pass, Phil Woods and Al Jarreau next to more cutting edge stuff like the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band, and the Gary Burton-Chick Corea duo. During that first year, 20 concerts were presented over one week.
In 1984, the festival began operating under a non-profit banner, and in 1986 the event moved from August to late June, expanding to 10 days. The following year, an association of festivals called WestCan Jazz formed to enable block bookings and the beginnings of a cross-Canada touring circuit.
Edmonton had always been a bit of a jazz town. The swing era saw packed dance halls here long before volunteers inaugurated the first Yardbird Suite in 1957. But Jazz City sported well over 100 shows and numerous free events.
The names that played Jazz City in that first decade read like an honour roll from the golden age of jazz: Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Horace Silver, fusion stars like John McLaughlin, giants of the avant-garde like Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy and Sun Ra, and new kids on the block like Bobby McFerrin and Wynton Marsalis.
Jazz City was quoting attendance figures of over 100,000 each year. Fans saw some of the best musicians on the planet.
The constant thread of cutting edge artists continued with Bill Frisell and Jazz Passengers, bands from Europe like Pierre Dorge’s New Jungle Orchestra, and into the 1990s the festival hosted dance parties with great Latin, African and funk acts.
Festival producer and founder Marc Vasey brought about most of this inspired programming. A transplanted trumpeter-broadcaster-impresario from Victoria, Vasey loved jazz and pursued top-drawer talents before they became famous. For 25 years, he promoted the festival like it was his own child, making it one of Edmonton’s most high-profile events.
In 1991, du Maurier became Jazz City’s name sponsor, as it was for most jazz fests across the country for over a decade, until the federal government limited tobacco sponsorship. Looking back, one could argue the festival became addicted to that funding and never adjusted when du Maurier had to pull out in the early 2000s.
Popular interest in jazz has always been susceptible to competing trends. By the 21st century, the jazz greats were dying off. Jazz was a smaller segment in the diffused world of new media, global music trends and changes to the way people were consuming music. Funding became increasingly difficult to find, and Jazz City’s 25th year was also its last hurrah as the festival fell into bankruptcy.
festival revival
But those swinging sounds still had an audience. That festival feeling couldn’t die.
When Jazz City was cancelled in early 2005, it fell to a younger generation of volunteers at the Edmonton Jazz Society to pick up the torch, creating the smaller, 60-event Yardbird Jazz Festival in just eight weeks. By 2007, a non-profit organization was in place and the Edmonton International Jazz Festival was born. TD Canada Trust signed on as the name sponsor in 2015.
Saxophonist-bandleader and educator Kent Sangster has headed up the festival since 2007 and the event has found considerable success, booking a smaller scale festival and bringing the diversity of jazz to an appreciative audience, staying financially solvent all the way.
“I think that we’ve rebuilt Edmonton’s festival to a place we can all be proud of,” Sangster says. “It’s always about trying to find a balance, and I do believe that there is a style of jazz for everyone, but we’ve also been able to stay true to jazz.”
Big band events with the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra and behindthe-scenes JazzWorks workshop sessions with select visiting acts have become a regular part of the program. This year, the festival kicks off with a show from P.J. Perry and Ranee Lee leading the EJO.
For anyone who loves music, this year’s lineup is one of the best and most affordable ever.
Seats for the festival-subsidized double bill at the Winspear Centre on Tuesday, featuring world-class artists, saxophonist Joshua Redman and singer Cecile McLorin Salvant, can be had for $29 plus tax.
“I was adamant about getting a real jazz headliner, and they are only doing a couple of dates in Canada,” says Sangster.
“If we are able to find some of the best people of their generation in the world, then we’re doing something right.”
There’s a nod to younger fans with the Next Gen Series that includes YouTube sensations like 15-year-old “old soul” piano
wunderkind Joey Alexander and his band, and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier, who returns to town with a full band at the Starlite Room.
Those crazy Toronto bop-rap veterans The Shuffle Demons play it again in a special show at Polar Park Brewing Co., while the final day of the fest features a reunion gig from the award-winning Edmonton Jazz Ensemble.
Performances take place at several venues. Happy hour and late night jams at the Chateau Lacombe offer free admission. Ditto for the outdoor Works with Jazz stage at the legislature grounds.
On June 29, that outdoor stage will host a special Jazz in the Park date from noon to 6 p.m., featuring bands led by Mallory Chipman, Audrey Ochoa, Poland’s Adam Czerwinski and the superb Latin jazz sound of Montuno West.
For complete details on performers, shows and tickets see edmontonjazz.com.