A winter weekend filled with diverse sounds
Next year’s Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival, to be held during the second weekend of February, will stress Canadian female vocalists among its eclectic, 10-show lineup.
The four-day series, to be staged for the first time at La Nouvelle Scène on King Edward Avenue, will include shows that are by turns funky, swinging or avant-garde. The festival’s most celebrated international instrumentalist is the Puerto Rico-born U.S. saxophonist Miguel Zenón, whose quartet, a virtuosic band that plays thrillingly modern and original Latin jazz, will play the 9 p.m. concert on Thursday, Feb. 9, the festival’s opening night.
Among the festival’s singers are three Torontonians — smooth and sophisticated Juno Award winner Emilie-Claire Barlow (Feb. 10, 9 p.m.), intimate singer-songwriter Sienna Dahlen (Feb. 12, 6 p.m.) and retro stylist Tia Brazda (Feb. 10, 7 p.m.) — plus Ottawa-based French singer Mélanie Hartshorn-Walton (Feb. 9, 8 p.m.).
New York drummer Harris Eisenstadt, a Canadian ex-pat and leader of several bracing bands, brings his Old Growth Forest quartet to La Nouvelle Scène on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. The group includes the celebrated contemporary improviser Tony Malaby on tenor sax.
Two established Ottawa groups will play the series. The Atlantis Ensemble, a funky spiritual-jazz quintet led by Souljazz Orchestra keyboardist Pierre Chrétien, plays Feb. 10 at 8 p.m., while pianist/ trombonist Mark Ferguson’s lyrical, mainstream quartet plays Feb. 11 at 8 p.m.
To close the festival Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. on a hard-swinging note, the powerful Toronto saxophonists Kirk MacDonald and Pat LaBarbera perform in a quartet with bassist Kieran Overs and New York drummer Adam Nussbaum.
Tickets for the Zenón, Barlow and MacDonald/LaBarbera shows are $39.50, including tax and fees, at ottawajazzfestival.com. Tickets for the other concerts are $26.50, all in. Single-evening passes are also available, priced at $70 for each of the festival’s first three nights or $45 for Sunday’s two shows.