NEWS RELEASE
GUELPH JAZZ FESTIVAL
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Artistic and general director Scott Thomson and newly appointed assistant artistic and general director Karen Ng, with the support of the staff and board, are thrilled to announce the programming for the 2019 Guelph Jazz Festival, Sept. 11-15.
In the festival’s 26th year, the programming is the first by this dynamic new curatorial team. Thomson states: “Our 2019 festival offers the best in contemporary creative music regionally, nationally, and internationally, including virtuosos on wonderful instruments seldom or never heard at anything called a ‘jazz festival’: Pipe-organ, bagpipes, jaw-harp, harpsichord, pedal-steel guitar, hurdy-gurdy, and more.”
Thursday, Sept. 12 features a new collaboration, NAIL: Montreal duo Lori Freedman and Nicolas Caloia and the Amsterdam duo Ig Henneman and Ab Baars at the Royal City Church. Afterward, an intimate gathering at 10C Shared Space will feature the new project by Toronto’s Ryan Driver; The Titillators re-envision jazz standards in playful and psychedelic ways on eclectic percussion, synthesisers, street-sweeper bristles, and whistling.
The following night, Friday, present the double-bill of New York’s Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey and Hank Roberts (a Canadian-debut tour by the group) and Toronto veteran Brodie West with his Quintet at the Co-operators Hall at the River Run Centre.
Friday afternoon will feature a triple-bill of solo sets at Royal City Church with a focus on instruments that conventionally appear in folk- or popular-music contexts: Baltimore’s Susan Alcorn on pedal-steel guitar, Nova Scotia’s Chik White on jaw-harp, and Guelph’s own Ben Grossman on hurdy-gurdy. Later, at Silence, veteran American free improvisers Adam Rudolph and Hamid Drake come together as Karuna performing on a panoply of percussion and drums.
Saturday, Sept. 14 starts off with an extraordinary ‘pipe-based’ international double-bill by Breton bagpipe virtuoso, Erwan Keravec, and Brampton-born, Berlin-based master of keyboard instruments, John Kameel Farah, improvising on both synthesisers and the majestic Cassavant pipe organ at St. George’s Church.
Later, at Co-operators Hall, the polymath American composer-performer, Jen Shyu, presents Nine Doors, a powerful theatrical solo show comprising songs sung in eight languages and self-accompanied on as many instruments. That evening, at the Guelph Youth Music Centre, we present two international trios informed by chamber music influences: New York’s Tomas Fujiwara and his 7 Poets Trio (with Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid) and the Argentinian trio of Paula Shocron, Guillermo Gregorio & Pablo Díaz.
The ticketed concert series is rounded out on Sunday, Sept. 15 at noon, at the Guelph Youth Music Centre, with the ‘emeritus’ improvising duo from Montreal, violinist Malcolm Goldstein and guitarist Rainer Wiens, on a double-bill with a first-time ‘pipes and drums’ collaboration by Erwan Keravec and Hamid Drake.
Tickets and festival passes go on sale for the above concerts on 2 July through the River Run Centre box office, and online.
With the support of a Celebrate Ontario grant from the provincial Ministry of Tourism, the Festival very pleased to announce the return of the Friday Night Street Music Party in Market Square, the first of two days of free programming at that site. Friday's program will be 7 p.m.-12 a.m. featuring all-acoustic, human-powered dance music with performances by the legendary Alberta pow wow drum-and-voice ensemble Northern Cree Singers, the 20-piece Brazilian Samba ensemble Mar Aberto Maracatu, Toronto’s raucous trad brass band, the Eighth Street Orchestra, and more.
Saturday’s Market Square program, 1 p.m. - 12 a.m., returns to the format of previous years, with diverse acts playing from the stage: A second performance –– this one from the stage –– by the extraordinary Northern Cree Singers; Guelph’s hometown heroes Minotaurs; Toronto’s Atlas Revolt; a collaboratively led group Way North featuring musicians from Ottawa, Toronto and New York; Montreal trio Eyevin Trio playing the music of Thomas Chapin; the up-and-coming Toronto math-jazz trio Future Machines; plus community collaborations with the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble (directed by Brent Rowan and featuring Marianne Trudel) and the KidsAbility ‘Play Who You Are’ Ensemble (featuring Richard Burrows).
Furthermore, in collaboration with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) the festival features an academic Colloquium featuring a keynote talk-performance by David Rothenberg. Elsewhere, this free event will include lectures, artist talk-backs, and more –– more information about Colloquium programming will be made public in the weeks to come.
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