Colleen Allen heads up 5th annual jazz fest
The Steel City Jazz Festival celebrating its fifth anniversary? Who woulda thunk it?
“When we started planning the first Steel City Jazz Festival in 2012, it wasn’t a sure thing we would make it past Year 1, let alone to Year 5,” wrote SCJF artistic director Chris Ferguson in a news release. “The festival has grown and evolved with the jazz scene in Hamilton and we’re excited to see where it goes next.”
For the festival’s fifth iteration, a six-day affair, which kicks off Tuesday, Oct. 24, Ferguson has tapped multi-instrumentalist Colleen Allen as artist-in-residence. The Alberta-born, Toronto-based Allen is a Mohawk College alumna who also studied with Pat LaBarbera at Humber College where she is a faculty member in the jazz studies program. Performance-wise, she has backed various jazz and pop artists ranging from Jackie Richardson to Molly Johnson to Holly Cole to Emilie-Claire Barlow to Rik Emmett to David Clayton Thomas, and is a resident artist with the Soulpepper Theatre Company.
“Colleen Allen is a fantastic, versatile musician who has really embraced our vision of what the artistin-residence position can be with the lineup of artists she has chosen to perform with,” wrote Ferguson.
Allen will headline thrice during the festival, first on opening night in the Artword Artbar, 15 Colbourne St., with a quartet consisting of Mohawk alumnus, Stoney Creekraised, Toronto-based keyboardist Adrean Farrugia, bassist Mike Downes, drummer Ben Wittman and guest vocalist Genevieve Marentette. On Friday, Oct. 27, Allen brings her Caribbean-soaked jazz sextet, Kalabash, with Gareth Burgess on steel pans, Mike Shand on keyboards, Joaquin Hidalgo on drums, Andrew Stewart on electric bass and percussionist Anthony Pierre, to Mills Hardware, 95 King St. E., a venue new to the SCJF. She’ll close the festival on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. in the Artword Artbar with “Alto and Tenor Madness,” an obvious tip of the hat to Sonny Rollins’s 1956 album “Tenor Madness” with John Coltrane on the title track. The lineup on that gig includes Allen, Mohawk music prof Darcy Hepner, Pat Collins on bass, and the aforementioned Messrs. Farrugia and Wittman.
She’ll also jam on the sax and flute with her colleagues in the Barry Livingston Group — ex-Hamiltonian Livingston on piano, vocalist Suba Sankaran, bassist Kobi Hass, and drummer Paul Fitterer — when that jazz-world music ensemble makes its Hamilton debut at the Artword Artbar on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m.
Allen will also hold a free workshop on improvisation on Oct. 28 at noon in the Artword Artbar.
The SCJF will expand upon last year’s talking heads series with a
free talk by Dr. John Chong on physical and mental health for musicians on Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. in the Artword Artbar, and a panel discussion about the Hamilton jazz scene on Sunday, Oct. 29, at 2 p.m. in the Hamilton Public Library’s Central Branch, 55 York Boulevard.
In addition to all this, the SCJF will also showcase other artists such as jazz violinist Drew Jurecka on Oct. 25 at 8 p.m., and vocalist Alex Pangman and Her Alleycats on Oct. 26 at 8 p.m., both in the Artword Artbar.
For the complete lowdown and ticket prices, note that some events are free, log on to steelcityjazzfest.com.