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Sangam on Saturday; Nuit Blanche enters Council Chambers

1. Renowned artists featured at main stage Sangam performance

2. Nuit Blanche's crafty venues continue to intrigue

1. Renowned artists featured at main stage Sangam performance

Billed as the main event of the 2010 Guelph Jazz Festival, Sangam features three of the most renowned players to grace this year's festival lineup. Legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd is joined by internationally celebrated tabla player Zakir Hussain and prolific young drummer Eric Harland.

Charles Lloyd, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, earned his Masters in Music at USC in Los Angeles, California. Heralded as "a master of the tenor saxophone and flute" by the Washington Post, he is largely responsible for the cross-over appeal of free-jazz with fans of the burgeoning psych-rock movement of the 1960s. This led to shared billings with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Cream in venues normally used exclusively for rock concerts.

Zakir Hussain - born in Mumbai, India in 1951 to the legendary tabla player Ustad Allarakha - was a child prodigy who embarked on his first tour at the age of 12. His playing is marked by uncanny intuition and masterful improvisational dexterity, deriving from a life time of formidable study. His contribution to world music being unprecedented, he has shared the stage and studio with the likes of George Harrison, Yo Yo Ma, Van Morrison, Pharoah Sanders and Mark Morris.

Eric Harland is a renowned composer and percussionist who is a native of Houston, Texas. He was named first place in the "Rising Star Drums" category in Down Beat Magazine's 2008 Critics Poll. In the same year, he was heralded by the New York Times as "setting the rhythm of jazz's future."  Having recorded over 45 recordings with various artists, a number of them (Land of Giants & Black Action Figure) have been nominated for Grammy Awards. Other recordings include artists such as Dave Holland, Ravi Coltrane and Greg Osby.

The Sangam performance is part of a double bill with the Trio, featuring Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and George E. Lewis.

2. Nuit Blanche's crafty venues continue to intrigue

Having already announced the first batches of Nuit Blanche programming, the Guelph Jazz Festival continues to strengthen its first rendition of the event through its eclectic and imaginative bookings and venue usage.

Venues for the inaugural Nuit Blanche event include the Royal City Park riverbanks, where the Radiant Brass Band will be premièring a new piece by Scott Thompson entitled Riverradiant. A vibrant, although tranquil, outdoor sanctuary normally utilized for picnics and outdoor recreation will be transformed at 1 AM the night of the event to a site of effervescent public spectacle.

Guelph City Council Chambers will also house multiple pieces during the event, which include performances by Rich Marsella and the Lollipop People and Trio Tarana, as well as an original score performed live to Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film masterpiece, Metropolis, entitled Metropolis Re:Scored.

Bikram Yoga Studio will shed its identity of quietude and will house performances from the likes of Pauline Oliveros (solo accordion), Adam Linson (upright bass in conjunction with electronics) and Ben Grossman (solo hurdy gurdy).

The downtown Royal Bank parking lot will host the Polydactal Hearts' performance of Hello Adventure, a series of six, stop animation shorts projected on a screen, which will be accompanied by a live musical score performed by a six-piece orchestra. The parking lot will also be used for the CFRU Silent Dance Party, where multiple DJs will be spinning tracks on separate radio frequencies which attendees will be able to listen and dance to individually via radio headsets.