In 1995 the Vancouver Jazz Festival celebrated a major milestone with its tenth anniversary. In just under a decade, Vancouver had become so synonymous with jazz that Gastown would be referred to as Bourbon Street North, a nod to the Festival’s free opening weekend performances that drew thousands to the neighbourhood’s streets. In 1994, total festival attendance had ballooned to nearly 250,000. The Vancouver Sun wrote, “But numbers aside, the small staff at the society has in a decade of operation, raised the profile of jazz to the point where the annual festival is the largest, best-attended cultural event in the province.”
Coastal Jazz had committed to building an audience by presenting concerts throughout the year as well as the signature festival each June. This was despite the fact that jazz artists received very little support from the music industry, so all of the heavy lifting to educate the public was up to them. Record companies had never done much to promote their music. From day one, the Coastal Jazz team took it on as their mission to introduce audiences to the wide berth of music they loved – often pushing genre boundaries and assumptions.
Programming a ten-day festival was an immense balancing act of booking mainstream acts that appeal to a mass audience, which could underwrite some of the more adventurous programming that weren’t going to be as successful at the box office. “We had to find a different way to present these artists that are breaking ground and are important for the future of music,” said John Orysik. “The one thing Ken Pickering (co-founder and artistic programmer) does better than anybody else in the jazz festival world is create interesting performance situations for musicians.” Artists could have multiple opportunities to play during festival, and locals were often paired up with international acts, creating new combinations and surprise collaborations. It earned Coastal Jazz a global reputation and created an infrastructure for local artists to grow. “The festival has given the local jazz community opportunity to survive and prosper.” (The WestEnder)
The 1994 guidebook was effusive in support of Canadian artists like the “talented young bassist André Lachance, one of the busiest players on the Vancouver scene.” André joined one of Canada’s premier vocalist’s shows, Kate Hammett-Vaughan, on stage for two shows. “Tremendously talented Vancouver-born tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake” appeared with his trio at the Alma Street Cafe. Vancouver’s 13-piece NOW Orchestra boasted virtuoso performers like the internationally renown Paul Plimley. Locals Hugh Fraser and Francois Houle, two musicians who built reputations beyond their hometown, also appeared on the calendar. Coastal Jazz had been there on Diana Krall’s rise to stardom, and she had benefitted from the exposure she received playing Vancouver’s jazz fest over the years. The guidebook described it, “Since opening for pianist Oliver Jones during the 1993 Vancouver Jazz Festival, pianist/vocalist Diana Krall’s career has been on fast forward.”
Headliners and international acts in 1995 included Jimmy Scott, who the late Quincy Jones referred to as, “the most soulful singer I’ve ever heard in my life.” American jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson hit the Orpheum on a triple bill with living legend J.J. Johnson and then 22-year-old bassist Christian McBride.
Catch up on all our festival flashbacks. Did you attend one of our early jazz festivals? Share your story with us! Join the conversation on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter X @coastaljazz.
Made it this far? Consider supporting our 40th anniversary.
