Our History
From the beginning, listener-supported, volunteer-run Co-op Radio (CFRO 102.7 FM) was one of the most important media outlets in Vancouver for jazz, as well as a focal point for both programmers and listeners. By the early '80s, a growing grassroots jazz community took shape around the station. At the weekly Jazz Forum show, programmers Ken Pickering (then owner of Black Swan records), John Orysik and Robert Kerr (both ex-CJAZ deejays), and other enthusiasts kicked around ideas about forming a Jazz Society and staging a major international jazz festival in Vancouver.
Eventually the discussions led to the formation of the Pacific Jazz & Blues Association in 1984. Soon after its creation, PJBA began presenting concerts by acclaimed artists such as pianist Michel Petrucciani and guitarists Peter Leitch and Johnny Copeland. Late in the summer of 1985, the seven-day Pacific Jazz & Blues Festival (financed largely by the organizers themselves) was launched, showcasing regional jazz and blues artists along with internationally acclaimed artists such as Hungarian bass player Aladar Pege. The association took the same bold, open, and eclectic programming philosophy developed in their Co-op Radio jazz programs and applied it to its year-round concert and festival bookings. Appreciative audiences loved the diversity and inclusive nature of the music.
In 1985, Pacific Jazz & Blues Association officially became Coastal Jazz & Blues Society, headed by founders Executive Director Robert Kerr, Artistic Director Ken Pickering, and Media Director John Orysik, along with board member Deborah Roitberg and fellow Co-op Radio programmer Ron Simmonds. With a creative vision and strong determination to invigorate and revitalize Vancouver's jazz and improvised music scene, Coastal Jazz laid its foundation and incorporated as a non-profit society in 1986. Coastal Jazz has produced year-round concerts and the annual Vancouver International Jazz Festival since that time, presenting an extensive program of traditional, contemporary, and evolving forms of jazz, blues, world, creative, and improvised music. In 1986, with major corporate sponsorship in tow, the Jazz Festival partnered with the World's Fair 'Expo '86' and produced many high-calibre concerts with artists such as Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, Tito Puente, Tony Williams, Albert Collins, and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. The Festival produced many other great performances throughout Vancouver at that time, including Ornette Coleman's Prime Time, Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Frisell, and the Ganelin Trio. Since that time the Vancouver International Jazz Festival has presented the greatest artists in the world.
Twenty years later, the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival is the largest music festival in British Columbia, winner of the Georgia Straight's Straight Choices Award for Best Festival (5 years running), and heralded as one of the leading jazz festivals in the world. Known for its innovative and adventurous programming, stellar production values, community involvement, solid fiscal management, and extraordinary volunteers (1,000+), the festival brings audiences face to face with the most exciting and creative music the world has to offer. By taking music to parks, community centres, concert halls, clubs, public plazas, and neighborhoods and streets, the Jazz Festival animates the city with over 400 concerts (including 149 free concerts) and sparks the imagination of more than 510,000 people each year! Today the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival is one of the most acclaimed, innovative, joyous, and adventurous music celebrations in the world.
