ALL THAT JAZZ & MORE
A conversation about lineup
When: June 21-July 1
Where: Marion Dewar Plaza, Ottawa City Hall
Tickets: Single-day tickets start at $35 for youths. Passes are $99 youths, $219 bronze, $347 gold.
To purchase or find out more: goto ottawajazzfestival.com or call the box office, 613-241-2633.
HUM: As a jazz critic who’s also a food critic, I can confidently say that this year’s TD Ottawa Jazz Festival is a smorgasbord of tasty musical options — some closely aligned to jazz, others less so.
SAXBERG: It sure is, and it has to be. Jazz festivals needed to do something to replenish their aging audiences. Of course, it’s not just our jazz festival that has embarked on a pretty deliberate phase of expanding their programming to include music that’s not strictly jazz — this has been happening all over. In my opinion, it’s made the jazz festival a lot more fun. Are you OK with it?
HUM: Well, Duke Ellington did say “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” But he also said, “There are only two kinds of music — good and bad.” So, I guess it’s in the spirit of the latter that we must welcome to the festival the sounds of not just funk and R ‘n’ B, with which jazz shares some musical DNA, but also Celtic fiddle, Inuit throat singing and an Israeli brass band. SAXBERG: Pardon me? Are you saying that Celtic fiddle, Inuit throat singing and Israeli brass bands belong in the category of “bad” music? HUM: Maybe I should rephrase...
SAXBERG: Maybe you should go off to your dark corner and listen to some endless noodling. I’m not a jazz snob — I like to see diversity, and we’ve got plenty of that in this year’s program. Check out the main stage lineup, for starters. There’s everything from bluegrass darling Alison Krauss to the fiery Latin dance tunes of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, plus soulful blues-rocker Boz Scaggs, the Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan, French nu-jazz producer St. Germain and the great vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, who’ll be singing Memphis tunes with her big-band Soulphony. Not to mention return appearances by banjo master Bela Fleck, the sassy soul outfit Lake Street Dive and Grammywinning trumpeter Chris Botti, who’s always a festival fave. Oh, and some guy named Herbie.
HUM: Typically when I look at this year’s slate of festival headliners, I’m thinking: “There are only two kinds of music — nostalgic and not as nostalgic.” In 2018, we have the retro appeal of Boz Scaggs and Chaka Khan offset by the youth and newer material of Lake Street Dive. And I’m expecting Herbie Hancock to mix some innovative electronic experimentations with his greatest hits. It’s not really a jazz festival until Hancock, who I have to say is one of the greatest geniuses in jazz, straps on his keytar and plays Chameleon.
Then again, you can look at the main stage and see two other kinds of music — vocal and instrumental — and guess that vocal music is the safest bet to draw the most music lovers outdoors. There is, of course, essentially a whole other festival going on at the National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage and First Baptist Church.
SAXBERG: It’s not so clearcut for me. If you want me to identify just two kinds of music at this festival, I’m going to say indoors and outdoors. I prefer the outdoor festival experience, with people roaming around, lounging on lawn chairs or blankets and dancing on the grass. Mind you, this year jazzfest is happening on the grounds of city hall (instead of Confederation Park), and I’m not sure how much grass is underfoot.
That will give it a different vibe. For me, the indoor spaces are mainly appealing in case it rains. Any recommendations on indoor shows?
HUM: Loads of them. For starters, circling back to the sound of traditional, swinging jazz, I’d cite the quartet of U.S. guitarist Russell Malone, a virtuoso who has played with Diana Krall among others, which plays First Baptist Church on June 23. That said, the lineup in that venue, which the festival is using for the first time due to renos taking place at the NAC, has other very promising shows of different musical flavours, from U.S. trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s electric-jazz project on June 26 to the unique and rhapsodic trio of Brit pianist Django Bates, to the what-will-this-possibly-sound-like collaboration of Finnish accordion whiz Kimmo Pohjonen and one-of-akind Canadian singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O’Hara. Although I have to warn you — at a certain point in any of these shows, there might be noodling.
SAXBERG: Kimmo Pohjonen and Mary Margaret O’Hara? The Hendrix of the accordion and the reclusive Canadian singersongwriter with a cult following ? Wow. That’ll be a trip. Sounds as fascinating as Tanya Tagaq teaming up on June 26 with Mari Boine, one of Norway’s most renowned Sámi artists. Tagaq is also part of the always-intriguing OLG After Dark series on the Tartan Homes Stage, located on the other side of City Hall, east of Lisgar Collegiate. She plays at 10:30 p.m. June 28. That’s where you’ll also find, ahem, the Israeli big band Marsh Dondura and Greilsammer, another Israeli band that incorporates Irish fiddle into their groove-driven fusion. You’ll love ’em.
HUM: If we’re going to talk about fascinating singers, we have to talk about Andreas Schaerer, the Swiss vocalist singing in the multinational quartet called A Novel of Anomaly, playing at the Fourth Stage on June 26. He has great presence and a stunning range of expressiveness, and the group he plays with is very evocative, both traditional and innovative at the same time. I’m not surprised that the festival’s programming manager, Petr Cancura, snagged this act after seeing them play in Germany last year.
Still, what I should really be making a pitch for is instrumental music, consigned to those dark corners you mentioned. If one point of this jazz festival’s eclecticism is to reach fans of other musical genres, I’d recommend that metal fans check out the hard-hitting group Starebaby at the Fourth Stage on June 28. Punk fans should find something to like in alto saxophonist Peter Van Huffel’s gritty trio Gorilla Mask.
SAXBERG: And let’s not overlook the contingent of super-talented local players. I’m digging jazz a lot more now than I was, say, five years ago, and this is largely the result of going to see Ottawaarea musicians do their regular club gigs. Some of my faves are trumpeter Ed Lister and his Prime Rib Big Band, singersongwriter Megan Jerome and her Together Ensemble, which features her hubby, Mike Essoudry, who has to be one of the best drummers in town, the irrepressible singer Kellylee Evans, who has not let a lightning strike nor a concussion deter her, and the intense punk-meets-freejazz whirlwind that is Fet.Nat, to name a few. I’m also stoked to see the Ottawa bluegrass champs The Dusty Drifters make an all-too-rare hometown appearance on the same day as bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss (June 26). Yee haw.
HUM: You’ve left out the hometown boys that will once again anchor the festival’s 10:30 p.m. jam sessions at Grill 41 in the Lord Elgin. Bassist John Geggie, guitarist Roddy Ellias and drummer Nick Fraser are like the festival’s institutional memory, having provided some of the you-had-to-be-there moments over the past two decades when visiting jazz players who were complete strangers played common repertoire together, magnificently. Heck, they’re even versatile enough to make good music with visiting soul singers, funk fiends or Tunisian lute players. You’ll note that I said “good music,” and not just “jazz.”