Jazzfest books summer headliners, relocates for year to plaza at City Hall
Dapper pop-jazz trumpet star Chris Botti, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and fusion banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and his band the Flecktones will play the TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival this summer, the festival’s website says.
The site also says these three main stage concerts will take place in Marion Dewar Plaza, rather than across Laurier Avenue in Confederation Park, where mainstage jazz festival concerts have been held for many years.
Festival spokeswoman Suzan Zilahi said Friday that “significant construction” is to take place at Confederation Park during the festival dates and as a result, it won’t be available. Other venue details are still being finalized, she added.
The festival runs from June 21 to July 1. Botti, who played the festival in 2015, 2012 and 2009, returns to the festival’s main stage on opening night.
Bridgewater, a 67-year-old who has won three Grammy Awards, is to present music from her most recent album, a collection of soul hits called Memphis ... Yes, I’m Ready, which nods to her hometown.
She will play the main stage on June 24. Fleck is to play June 28 with his unique jazz-meets-rockmeets bluegrass jam band, which previously played Confederation Park in 2011.
Individual tickets for the Botti, Fleck and Bridgewater concerts are not yet available.
Festival bronze, gold and youth passes are available for $99, $199 and $327 respectively, with fees and tax included, at ottawajazzfestival.com.
Meanwhile, the festival’s February weekend event, the TD Ottawa Winter Jazz Fest, is to take place Feb. 8 to 10, featuring several concerts each night at La Nouvelle Scène on King Edward Avenue. Among those shows are night-closing concerts by Toronto vocalist Barbra Lica (Feb. 8), saxophonist Chet Doxas (Feb. 9) and New York pianist Fred Hersch (Feb. 10).