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Festival Overview: Experience Guelph Jazz

The 16th annual Guelph Jazz Festival kicks off next week, running for five intensive days from Wednesday Sept. 9 to Sunday Sept. 13, at various locations in Guelph, Ontario. It offers:

• both free and ticketed concerts, including a 12-hour series of outdoor performances at the Saturday jazz tent
• a diverse array of cutting edge jazz performed by artists from near (Ontario, Quebec, BC and Nunavut) and afar (Ethiopia, Mali, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S.)
• a new series of "outstallations" - outdoor events designed to reach new audiences in public spaces (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)

The jazz styles on offer range from free-form improvisation, to Jewish-Cuban fusion; from a big band saxophone take on Jimi Hendrix, to an African / Canadian world music collaboration; from Quebecois interpretations of Thelonius Monk, to Dutch punk blended with Ethiopian jazz; and from Afrobeat groove powered by bicycle generators, to country-and-western influenced Montreal jazz.

Ticketed concert highlights

• The legendary World Saxophone Quartet (France/USA) playing the Hendrix Experience at the River Run Main Stage concert, on Saturday night
• An opening night concert by throat singer Tanya Tagaq of Nunavut, with Jesse Zubot and Jean Martin, on Wednesday
• Bass player Joëlle Léandre (France) performing solo and with the Stone Quartet (Thursday and Saturday)
• A intensive free-form jazz duo, with David Murray (saxophone) and Milford Graves (percussion), on Sunday
• Pianist Marilyn Crispell playing in three different configurations: with her own own trio that includes sax player Fred Anderson and drummer Hamid Drake (Friday), with The Geggie Project led by bassist John Geggie of Ottawa (Saturday), and with the Stone Quartet led by Léandre (Thursday)
• Local favourites The Tallboys (Kevin Breit, Matt Brubeck and Jesse Stewart) closing out the festival on Sunday night in the club-atmosphere ebar

Free concert highlights

• Toronto sax legend Jane Bunnett opens the Saturday jazz tent with a KidsAbility collaboration
• Quebec band Rodeoscopique plays their spaghetti-western style of improvised country and western music
• Toronto's Shuffle Demons lead a street parade, then crash the downtown tent
• Guitarist Michael Occhipinti introduces Sicilian-influenced jazz from his critically-acclaimed new CD
• Odessa / Havana brings their award-winning mash-up of Jewish and Cuban music to the tent
• Afrobeat groove and funk from Toronto's Mr. Something Something
• an enticing selection of excellent local food prepared by Guelph chefs at the Guelph Wellington Local Food Tent on Saturday

The Outstallations

The three new "outstallations" are a unique series of outdoor events designed to reach new audiences and present unconventional music in Guelph's public spaces:

• Three Parades - counterpoint parades of musicians converging and diverging on downtown streets, centred on the St. George's Church bell tower (by Scott Merritt and Jeff Bird) - Sunday
• Acoustic Orienteering - a soundscape walking tour of interacting musicians and the public in downtown street spaces (by Scott Thomson) - Friday
• Percussion in the Park - featuring music created spontaneously by professionals and kids using found instruments and playground equipment (by Jesse Stewart) - Friday

In summary, the 2009 Guelph Jazz Festival will be a genre-bending, pan-generational festival with something for everyone - from families with strollers to late-night noise trollers.