Current News

GJF website now features music of performers

1. GJF website now features music of performers
2. Tin in Concert - eBar – Sunday, Sept. 7
3. 2008 Colloquium: Highlights
4. Early Bird Festival Passes – deadline has passed

1. GJF website now features music of performers

The Guelph Jazz Festival website (guelphjazzfestival.com) now allows you to listen to musical clips from all the 2008 festival artists as you read their bios. We’ve added an audio player that lets you enjoy your favourite performers online or listen to musicians you’ve never heard of – then decide who you’d like to see live in concert during the festival. Browse all the artists’ tracks here.

2. Tin in Concert - eBar – Sunday, Sept. 7

Final festival concert just announced! Tin will perform at the The Bookshelf's eBar, Sunday, September 7, 7 P.M. Admission is $6. (41 Quebec Street, Guelph, 519-821-3311, ebar website)

Formed in the spring of 2005, Tin mixes the talents of Karl Skene, Joel Fulford, Steve Beauchamp, Stephen O’Brien and David Bazinet. In a short time, this Guelph band has composed music that has appeared on Fleeting (2005), two Burnt Oak Records sampler CDs (2005 & 2007) and Help Hype CFRU (2007). Rare performances highlight improvisation and a different instrumentation for each song. Listen to Tin’s creative mix of haunting melodies, unconventional song structures and sonic experimentation at here

3. 2008 Colloquium: Highlights

The Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium is one of the few events in North America to combine a scholarly colloquium with a music festival. We’re entering our twelfth year of engaging scholars, music aficionados, and the general public in discussions of the creative, political, and social impacts of improvised music.

This year’s colloquium offers a stimulating mix of panels and keynote addresses by top scholars along with eclectic workshops and concerts featuring Festival artists. Co-presented with the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice research project (ICASP), it’s a three-day buffet of stimulating workshops, panel discussions, keynotes and concerts – all for free!

The 2008 Festival theme addresses ways that people use improvisation and imagination to create community and to turn exile into art. Diversity is a key idea here: you’ll find presentations on topics ranging from African jazz to Brazilian music, from digital improvisation to freestyling among First Nations youth.

Don’t miss the following highlights at this year’s colloquium:

New this year:

Wed., Sept. 3, 5-6:30 P.M. - presentations and a poster session by participants in ICASP’s inaugural Summer Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.

FREE Concerts:

Thurs., Sept. 4, 1-2 P.M. – Mantana Robert’s Coin Coin: Prologue

Thurs., Sept. 4, 5 P.M. – Rouge Ciel

Fri., Sept. 5, 10:15-11:15 A.M. – SAFA

Three keynote speakers:

Wed., Sept. 3, 9:15-10:30 A.M. - Cultural theorist George Lipsitz takes us to post-Katrina New Orleans. He’s also speaking on a panel at 2:15-3:30 P.M. (“Rebuilding Community: New Orleans Perspectives”).

Thurs., Sept. 4, 3:45-4:45 P.M. - Linda and Michael Hutcheon offer a fascinating portrayal of the racialization of jazz and opera.

Fri., Sept. 5, 9-10 A.M. - ethnomusicologist Deborah Wong explores tradition and intercultural fusion in Japanese American taiko drumming.

All Colloquium events and concerts take place at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 358 Gordon Street (at College), Guelph. For more details on this year’s colloquium, visit here.

4. Early Bird Festival Passes – deadline has passed

Early Bird Festival passes are no longer for sale. Regular Festival passes may still be purchased for $250, but there are a limited number of passes available. Buy your passes early to avoid disappointment.

A Festival pass admits you to all 12 ticketed concerts including six with reserved seating (at the River Run Centre).

Festival passes may be purchased on-line, in person or by phone through the River Run Centre. For more information on buying tickets or passes, visit here.