A Vancouver Jazz Festival Odyssey
I have been in Vancouver, Canada, taking in as much of the Jazz festival as I can. I tried to hit groups based upon repertoire and instruments (gotta have a trumpet!).You gotta make cuts, this festival is BIG and its literally impossible to take in the whole thing.
I concentrated on the smaller acts and, of course, the free stuff, of which there is plenty. The free concerts were located in several venues in two areas. The downtown area, two venues on a closed off street in an old district called “Gastown” and a venue in Victory Park, a few blocks away. The other area consisted of three locations on Granville Island, which doesn’t seem to be an actual island. I guess its is a catchier name than Granville Peninsula, but I digress.
The more commercial acts were given over to the main theaters in town, but there were also a large number of clubs and smaller stages around town, with minimal cover charges, $10-$15.
I am a fan of anything that swings, so I started off on Granville Island at the “Tap Room” of the Granville Island Brewery. This is a micro-brewery, on the island, the tap room is like a little pub. It was standing room only for the Jodi Proznick Quartet (Jodi Proznick b, Tilden Webb p, Steve Kaldestad ts, Jesse Cahill d). I managed to push my way in to a table, and sampled a very nice, and hoppy, India pale ale. No trumpet here, but the sax was enjoyable and the beat was infectious, with audience limbs bouncing along like a puppet show.
I had to leave before the end of the second set as I was hungry and had some ground to cover to get to my next act, the Hard Bop All-Stars. I stuffed down a burger at the Granville Island market, and took a water taxi across False Creek, then hoofed it for about 30 minutes to get to the Downtown venues. All of this took less time than I thought so I arrived to hear the last part of a couple more acts.
The first that I encountered was in Victory Square, a small green space in the heart of the downtown, with a stage at one end. The André Lachance Quartet was on stage (André Lachance g, Brad Turner d, Chris Gestrin o, Daniel Miles Kane ts) and the saxophonist was blowing his brains out. I stuck around for 15m and heard some great guitar soloing by André Lachance and then headed off to find the other venue.
When I got to the venue I encountered another really tight band, Dione Taylor, a stunning vocalist with Michael Shand piano, David French saxes, Jon Maharaj bass, and Joel Haynes drums. They finished up pretty quick after I arrived, so I wandered down the street as they had two venues at either end of the street, vendors in between, not to mention buskers here and there. At the other end there appeared to be a rock band playing.
Next up were the Hard Bop All-Stars with trumpeter Chris Davis, tenor saxophonist Mike Allen, Chris Gestrin piano, Adam Thomas bass, and Julian MacDonough drums. I’m a big fan this genre so I ate this one up and stayed for the whole show.
That was my day, but the festivities continued during the week. I went to a club called the “Jazz Cellar”. This place is like a jazz oasis. The owner is a saxophonist, Cory Weeds, and the audience is there to hear the music. The place is also a restaurant and the food’s pretty good to boot. But I was there to hear the Morgan Childs Quintet, (Morgan Childs d, Evan Arntzen s, Amanda Tosoff p, Chris Davis t, Sean Cronin b). These guys knocked me out, they played a Max Roach tune, Delilah, that sounded so good, it sent me to the music store the next day to buy a cup mute for my trumpet. I just had to make that sound.
Next night, back to the cellar, to hear Zapato Negro a band with a heavy latin influence. The members are from Canada, Cuba and Venezuela. Andre Carrasquero piano, Gilberto Moreaux drums, Myles Bigelow congas, Al Johnston bass, and Migeulito Valdes trumpet. The trumpeter was a screamer, and I think what they call a “pressure player”. They group had lots of charisma and they seemed to be having more fun than the crowd, which would be a lot, because the crowd loved these guys.
Next night, and I am getting a little sick of eating out by this point, BTW, I went to a restaurant called Ouisi bistro. The food was quite good here, but, despite the walls being covered with pictures of old Jazz players, they aren’t really set up for a band. They basically cleared a few tables and, there you go. Contrast this to the cellar that has given over a significant amount of floor space to a stage, and has invested in a grand piano and a sound system. The odd thing is that they appear to actually have a stage at the far end of the restaurant, but it was filled with tables. Despite the handicap, the band performed well, A trio with trumpet (or flugal), and piano (electric) and bass. The Michael Coury Trio played standards in a cool jazz style. The audience was quite loud and only maybe 1/3 seemed really there for the music.
Last night, and boy am I getting tired of eating out. To see the Brendon Davis Quartet, probably a bit of overload with these musicians, as its 3/5 of the Morgan Childs Quintet with Brendan Davis on bass and no sax. They played shorter and more sets, and for the most part different material. The one beef I had with this venue was the lack of a piano. They have a dedicated stage, smallish, but big enough for an upright. Like Ouisi, there were a group of hard core folks who came only for the music and then many more who were there to eat. The food was upscale, super tasty, with smallish portions that leave room for desert.
In summary, great festival, fantastic variety of groups and styles. The level of musicianship seemed excellent to me (I’m a layman). The venues were good, but I think this city needs some place that doesn’t close at midnight. Also, it would be nice if the restaurants would be a little more dedicated to helping the musicians out, provide a piano, maybe introduce the band and ask people to keep it down a bit for those who are here for the music. The experience was, on the whole, very satisfying and I plan to take it in again next year.
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