Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Why Choir
2021-07-03 13:30 - 14:00 (America/Vancouver) | Western Front, 303 East 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5T 1S1, Canada
As Why Choir, Roxanne Nesbitt and Ben Brown investigate reverberant spaces, resonant sculptures, and the pitched mundane. Using a wide and wild range of sonic tools and treatments—including drum kit, strung floor tom, voice, electronics, upright bass, and Nesbitt’s handmade ceramic percussion instruments—Why Choir’s improvised performances evoke an “eerie, insect-like 3D experience… in a good way” (Discorder).

Anita Eccleston
2021-07-03 12:00 - 13:00 | British Columbia
Where Chet Baker sang like he played, Anita Eccleston plays like she sings. “Packing a polished and sassy approach to the American jazz songbook” (BC Musician Magazine), her trumpet is an extension of her playful, sultry voice, while her hotshot quartet serves up traditional jazz, blues, soul, funk, and reggae-rock to get crowds moving! With Andrew R. Smith guitar, Graham Clark bass, and Justin James drums.

Artifacts
2021-07-02 22:30 | Online Event
Cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and drummer Mike Reed are torchbearers of Chicago’s innovative jazz scene, and the most prominent members of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Music’s third generation. Artifacts honour and advance the essential Chicago arts organization’s motto—Ancient to the Future—celebrating African-American culture while integrating new cross-genre ideas into the legacy of jazz and experimentalism.
Playing their own compositions and works from across 55 years of the AACM, “their rearrangements distill the pieces to their essential virtues, such as the jubilant demeanor and intricate changes of Roscoe Mitchell’s “Jo Jar” and the insistent, spiritual vibe of Amina Claudine Myers’s “Have Mercy on Us.” (The Chicago Reader)
Special thanks to Constellation Chicago
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Waxwing
2021-07-02 21:00 - 22:00 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
“…a gentle trip into the unknown.”—The WholeNote
Three pillars of the Vancouver creative music scene—guitarist Tony Wilson, cellist Peggy Lee and saxophonist Jon Bentley—in daring, conversational collaboration. Waxwing’s tonal elegance and fierce improvisations offer “a treasure-trove of melody, emotion, and masterful
musicianship” (Georgia Straight). This special Festival performance celebrates the release of their new Songlines Recordings album Flicker Down.
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Ludic
2021-07-02 20:00 - 21:00 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
While Vancouver’s long grey winters may push some musicians into the cardiganed arms of moody indie-rock, Ludic’s explosive and delightfully bright groove-pop is an unhesitating cannonball into the deep end of the pool. Guitarist Ayla Tesler-Mabe (Calpurnia), drummer Rhett Cunningham, and bassist/keyboardist Max Cunningham have yet to turn 21, and already they have chops that’ll make your head snap back. As if that wasn’t enough, they also craft inventive, instantly addictive, and “delightfully off-kilter” (Vancouver Sun) tunes that draw from icons like Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan, and the postmodern soul of Hiatus Kaiyote. The CBC said it: “this wildly original indie-jazz-funk-fused band seems poised for a major breakthrough!”
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Laura Crema & Bill Coon Quartet
2021-07-02 19:30 - 22:00 | Frankie’s Jazz Club, 755 Beatty Sreet, Vancouver, BC, V6B 2M4, Canada
Laura Crema’s captivating voice is “unadulterated musical silk, and not to be missed” (CBC Radio), while acclaimed guitarist/composer Bill Coon is one of Canada’s most respected and talented musicians. Alongside choice arrangements of genre-spanning tunes, the pair have created a new book of original songs that explore beautiful—and sometimes haunting—sounds, while nurturing joyful interplay between its members.
Spanning blues, jazz, country, folk, and Latin music, their cool and classy quartet features Miles Black piano and Conrad Good bass.
This show is fully booked. If you’d like to be added to a waitlist in case of cancellations, please call Frankie’s Jazz Club at (604) 688-6368.

Mike Allen Quartet
2021-07-02 19:00 - 20:00 | Pyatt Hall, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3L4, Canada
Saxophonist Mike Allen’s “burnished tone and understated approach” (The Whole Note) set the stage for wonderfully fluid feels and eloquent melodicism.
A member of Sonny Greenwich’s band in the ‘90s, Allen lived in Montreal and NYC before becoming a fixture in the Pacific Northwest scene. The former Director of Jazz Studies at Western Washington University, Mike’s a Western Canadian Music Award-winner and a first-call sideman (just ask Michael Bublé, who tapped him for 2009’s Grammy-winning Crazy Love). With jazz all-stars Bruno Hubert piano, Adam Thomas bass, and Dave Robbins drums, “Allen’s improvisations swing effortlessly and eschew stock clichés in favor of more inventive phraseology” (Cadence).
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Assertion
2021-07-02 16:30 - 17:30 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
This defiantly singular group calls upon post-punk, folk, psych, and Rock in Opposition-inflected improvisation to snake their way through song forms and free music.
Featuring Chad MacQuarrie guitar/vocals, Scott Rabo Ritchie drums/vocals, Russell Sholberg bass, and Charlene Vickers bass/electronics/vocals, the long-running band’s new recording Medusa was released in January 2021. Split into two distinct halves, it leads with original songs by MacQuarrie before crossing into exploratory improv.

Sharon Minemoto Workshop
2021-07-02 15:30 - 16:30 | Tom Lee Music Hall, 728 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1E4, Canada
Vancouver-based keyboardist/melodica player Sharon Minemoto is a swinging and sensitive performer with a highly melodic style. She is also the composer of some very hip, original music that runs the gamut from introspective to funky, drawing wide-ranging influence from Herbie Hancock, Kenny Wheeler, Stevie Wonder, and Alexander Scriabin.
Note: This workshop takes place via Zoom.

Dawn Pemberton
2021-07-02 14:30 - 15:30 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
Vibrant, honest, and powerful, WCMA-winner Dawn Pemberton’s voice beats a soulful path from gospel and R&B to jazz, funk, and world music. A collaborator with The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer and Khari Wendell McClelland, her deep musicality and irresistible verve make Dawn the new queen of Canadian soul!

Parlour Panther
2021-07-02 13:30 - 14:30 | British Columbia
Queer, inspiring, and sexy, Parlour Panther packs a sonic punch. The previous album from these artful androgynes made BeatRoute’s top 25 local releases of 2018, and their hotly anticipated new album drops this summer. Blending unearthly guitar tones, layered synths, darkly beautiful grit, and transcendent harmonies, “an air of mystique dances around their soulful groove rock” (Permanent Rain Press).

Kristin Fung
2021-07-02 12:00 - 13:00 | British Columbia
Vancouver vocalist/keyboardist Kristin Fung stirs her considerable talents, infectious charm, and choir chops into an effervescent cocktail of ‘70s R&B, funk, jazz, neo-soul, and pop. With “soulful grace and jazzy joy” (From The Intercom), Fung leads a four-piece band of Vancouver groovemasters through nu-retro sounds that invoke Aretha Franklin, Patrice Rushen, and Alicia Keys. With Jonny Tobin keyboards, JeanSe Le Doujet electric bass, and Nino DiPasquale drums.

Moor Mother/Luke Stewart/Tcheser Holmes
2021-07-01 22:30 | Online Event
Camae Ayewa—aka Moor Mother—is a poet, musician, and activist from Philadelphia. Black Quantum Futurism, her duo with Rasheedah Phillips, was just awarded a residency at the CERN particle collider lab, where they’ll artfully investigate how quantum physics can influence how we think about, experience, and measure time in everyday reality. Ayewa also co-leads Irreversible Entanglements, whose confrontational yet completely engrossing Ironworks set was a scorching highlight of the 2019 Festival. That group’s joined-at-the-soul rhythm section of bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Tcheser Holmes draws from DC hardcore punk and pulsing free jazz to match the intensity and unwavering intentionality of Moor Mother’s potent incantations.
This short but powerful piece pays homage to 20th-century shaman, intellectual, and free jazz percussionist Milford Graves, who passed in February of this year.
Special thanks to Ars Nova Workshop

Tommy Babin's Benzene
2021-07-01 21:00 - 22:00 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
One of Vancouver’s most expressive bassists, Tommy Babin (Haram) plays with the sort of fiery thrill of discovery usually reserved for mad scientists. With Chad MacQuarrie guitar, Chad Makela baritone sax, and Bernie Arai drums, Tommy Babin’s genre-defying Benzene “pits full-bore free-improv against stratospheric out-rock” (Exclaim).
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Peggy Lee Band
2021-07-01 20:00 - 21:00 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
Cellist/composer Peggy Lee is a giant in Vancouver’s creative music scene. Equally adept in way-out free improv, the classical rigor of her work with the VSO, and the arcing melodic texturing of her detailed, emotionally deep compositions, Lee exudes mastery in quietude and in fire. Premiering new music alongside selections from its rich back catalogue, this all-star band inhabits a sound world where “melodies slide in and out of abstraction; skewed marches butt up against folk songs; chamber music niceties crumble under the assault of funk and psychedelia.” (Georgia Straight)
This concert is presented with the support of Arlene James, in honour of the memory of Ralph and Barbara James, her parents, who both loved jazz.
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Jimi James Quartet feat. John Gross
2021-07-01 19:30 - 22:00 | Frankie’s Jazz Club, 755 Beatty Sreet, Vancouver, BC, V6B 2M4, Canada
A canny combination of youthful exuberance and old-school wisdom, Jimi James Quartet formed just three years ago, though you’d never guess it from their exquisite interplay on Coltrane and Monk classics, plus tunes by Vancouver legend Hugh Fraser. With acclaimed American ex-pat saxophonist John Gross, Jimi James keyboards, Brad Pearson bass, and Max Huberdeau drums.

Bill Coon 4tet with Campbell Ryga
2021-07-01 19:00 - 20:00 | Pyatt Hall, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3L4, Canada
Bill Coon is an award-winning guitarist who’s played with jazz luminaries like Peter Bernstein, Jimmy Heath, and Dr. Lonnie Smith. A prolific and adaptable composer, he’s written everything from intimate solos to large-scale works for the VSO and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. For this concert, Bill will unveil brand-new original tunes and cook on some fine arrangements of Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans. With a passion for groove, beautiful melodies, and hard-swinging improvisation, Bill’s always engaging 4tet features Campbell Ryga saxophones, Darren Radtke bass, and Bernie Arai drums.
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Lisa Cay Miller/Ben Brown/Feven Kidane
2021-07-01 16:30 - 17:30 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
Three improvisers who coax out sounds from where few would consider searching, pianist and NOW Society Artistic Director Lisa Cay Miller, JUNO Award-winning drummer/percussionist Ben Brown (Pugs & Crows), and emerging trumpeter Feven Kidane find magic in the momentous and the mundane.

Ayla Tesler-Mabe Workshop
2021-07-01 15:30 - 16:30 | Tom Lee Music Hall, 728 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1E4, Canada
Driven by a deep and true passion for music and creativity, Ayla has developed into a professional guitarist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer, garnering millions of views on her YouTube and Instagram videos from people all over the world.
An Ernie Ball and Music Man family member, a Fender artist and a recipient of multiple scholarships to the Berklee College of Music, as well as various endorsements from other respected music suppliers, Ayla continues to develop her craft, original songs and sound while participating in various musical projects.
Note: This workshop takes place via Zoom.

Quatuor André Lachance
2021-07-01 14:30 - 15:30 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
Drawing on jazz, rock, and electric improvisation, one of Canada’s top bassists André Lachance switches to guitar for this dazzling mix of cool tunes, pulsing grooves, and cosmically compelling sonic excursions. His Quatuor features fellow Renaissance men Brad Turner Rhodes/piano, Chris Gestrin Moog, and Joel Fountain drums.

Marin Patenaude
2021-07-01 13:30 - 14:30 | British Columbia
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Marin Patenaude’s absorbing sound is earthy, soulful, and achingly beautiful, evoking comparisons to Joni Mitchell and kd lang. Marin’s pure voice and “heart-rending emotional breadth” (American Songwriter) weave together country, blues, and folk into something sublimely intangible with Cole Schmidt (Pugs & Crows) guitar, Pete Schmitt (Inhabitants) bass, and Paul Rigby pedal steel.

Thad Bailey-Mai Quartet
2021-07-01 12:00 - 13:00 | British Columbia
Thad Bailey-Mai embraces the experimental aesthetics of modern jazz trumpet while grounding himself in the tradition set by the monumental legends of the genre. With influences ranging from Woody Shaw and Ambrose Akinmusire to Vancouver’s own Brad Turner and Vince Mai, Thad is an exciting yet soft-spoken presence on the horn. With David Blake guitar, Eli Davidovici bass, Mili Hong drums.

John Beasley's MONK'estra Septet
2021-06-30 22:30 | Online Event
When John Beasley began arranging Thelonious Monk’s music “a miracle of two geniuses collided and MONK’estra was born” (All About Jazz). Beasley gives Monk’s offbeat accents and punchy dissonances a vivid, genre-blind 21st century treatment that renowned jazz critic Don Heckman called “some of the most mesmerizing big band music of recent memory.”
Over the past three decades, GRAMMY Award-winner John Beasley has carved out a reputation as an uncommonly versatile, unerringly exciting pianist who’s worked with Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard—while still in his 20s—as well as Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan, and Dianne Reeves.
On their third critically-acclaimed album—Monk’estra Plays John Beasley—the spotlight shifts to the leader’s bold, piano-driven compositions, while keeping plenty of Monk’s singular music in the mix. Past, present, and future jazz are writ large in MONK’estra’s smashing big band delights.
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Limbs of the Stars
2021-06-30 21:00 - 22:00 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
Discorder described Limbs of the Stars’ engaging, “shadow-shrouded riches” as “a mix of jazz, folk, and turn-of-the-century indie rock accented with flourishes of New Weird America.”
Featuring guitarist/vocalist Stephen Lyons and bassist Shanto Acharia—both of Fond of Tigers—plus Paul Rigby (Neko Case) pedal steel/acoustic guitar and Liam MacDonald drums/percussion, Limbs of the Stars premiere new material and play selections from a back catalogue that has graciously sidestepped inclusion in Top-40 charts and bestseller lists for the better part of a decade. “A thinking person’s musical feast” (Georgia Straight), this unhurried, filmic group is masterfully paced and darkly beautiful.
Want more bang for your buck? Check out our ticket package options and save up to 50% on your festival experience!

Tonye Aganaba
2021-06-30 20:00 - 21:00 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
London-born, Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Tonye Aganaba’s immersive neo-folk/soul/hip hop draws listeners in while maintaining a seriously wicked groove. Their album Something Comfortable—inspired by Tonye’s battle with multiple sclerosis—deals with identity, addiction, recovery, and expression. Aganaba’s big beats and R&B-inflected pop melodies combine with a powerful message: dance and be inspired. With Thomas Hoeller guitar, Mary Ancheta keys, JeanSe Le Doujet bass, Corrina Keeling vocals, and Aaron Hamblin percussion.
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Sax Jeopardy! w/ Steve Kaldested, Cory Weeds & Dominic Conway
2021-06-30 20:00 | BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, British Columbia, V7J 3H5, Canada
The most popular game on the Backstage at CapU channel: What is Jeopardy! Three contestants, all ace saxophone players, vie for sax-trivia champion! Backstage at CapU, the BlueShore’s video series, usually takes the form of a talk show. Once again, Jeopardy! takes over, with an all-sax history focus and great prizes, capped off by a performance by Weeds, Kaldestad, and Conway.

Kevin Romain Acoustic Trio
2021-06-30 19:30 - 22:00 | Frankie’s Jazz Club, 755 Beatty Sreet, Vancouver, BC, V6B 2M4, Canada
Debuting a suite of music inspired by neuroscience, socialism, humility, and fine coffee,
this new chordless jazz trio from drummer/composer Kevin Romain (Only A Visitor, Enemy Pigeon) sets up shop in the lush median between precision and intuition. With Jeff Gammon bass and John Nicholson tenor saxophone, Romain searches for that intangible yet affecting emotional alchemy that can somehow be created from wood, metal, and breath.
This show is fully booked. If you’d like to be added to a waitlist in case of cancellations, please call Frankie’s Jazz Club at (604) 688-6368.

Triology
2021-06-30 19:00 - 20:00 | Pyatt Hall, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3L4, Canada
Fashioned after the great early jazz trios of Nat King Cole and Oscar Peterson, Triology is a sublimely talented, long-running ensemble featuring three of Canada’s most sought-after jazz musicians performing original tunes and canny arrangements of classic standards.
Between them, Bill Coon guitar, Miles Black piano, and Jodi Proznick bass have won National Jazz Awards, garnered JUNO nominations, and worked with the likes of Jimmy Heath, Hugh Fraser, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Oliver Gannon, Max Roach, and Dee Daniels. This is essential jazz, triangulated.
Want more bang for your buck? Check out our ticket package options and save up to 50% on your festival experience!

Wawona
2021-06-30 16:30 - 17:30 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
Pianist/composer/producer Quincy Mayes investigates how narrative is uniquely conveyed through both live performance and visual media. The new four-piece Mayes co-leads with vocalist/producer Yuyu Feng 冯榆喻 (China) creates acoustic experiences out of concepts that are mainly initiated and drafted digitally. The idea of reverse engineering the processes of production and audio synthesis into tactile, analog forms and compositions to be performed live is central to the group, as is creating new contexts for sampling, sequencing, and layering sound in digital workstations.

Gavin Youngash Workshop
2021-06-30 15:30 - 16:30 | Tom Lee Music Hall, 728 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1E4, Canada
Jazz Fest fans will know Gavin Youngash from his perfectly-calibrated guitar work with Dawn Pemberton, David Ward, Krystle Dos Santos, and his own Trio. Join him for Follow Your Ear: Applying Chordal Harmony Across Genres, where he’ll talk about using jazz harmony outside of a jazz context, whether it’s in composition, arranging, or accompaniment. Applying these concepts to the guitar specifically, Youngash will demonstrate different approaches to harmonization and provide examples from wildly varying styles. Groove, synth pop, soul, R&B and indie: it’s all in Gavin’s wheelhouse!
Note: This workshop takes place via Zoom.
