Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Thus Owls
2019-06-27 21:00 - 23:30 (America/Vancouver) | The Imperial, 319 Main St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Blending artful chamber pop with “swirling, forceful and textured modern rock” (Wall Street Journal), Montreal’s ever-morphing, Polaris Prize-nominated Thus Owls’ “mystical and enchanting” (Huffington Post) sound finds Simon Angell’s charismatic guitar meeting the urgency of Erika Angell’s voice, stretching their already unusual indie-pop/avant-jazz compositions into new and surprising shapes. With Samuel Joly drums.

jo passed
2019-06-27 21:00 - 22:50 | The Imperial, 319 Main St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
What would happen if Lennon and McCartney somehow got really into Sonic Youth, Neu!, and XTC? Vancouver’s jo passed has a pretty good idea. With a knack for dreamy melodies, chord progressions that sound like he’s from a land far, far away, and philosophical lyrics with counterculture bite, jo passed is “rich in bombast and noise on the one hand and clever musicality on the other” (Under The Radar).

Unnatural Ways feat. Ava Mendoza
2019-06-27 21:00 | The Imperial, 319 Main St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Ava Mendoza is “a wizard on a semi-circle of effects pedals, but equally adept with FX-less technique” (NPR). The Brooklyn-based experimental guitarist/vocalist/composer has collaborated with Carla Bozulich, Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Matana Roberts, the Violent Femmes, and more. She brings next-level shredding and waves of jagged visceral expression to the heavily deconstructed jazz, metal, blues, and post-punk of her trio Unnatural Ways, with Tim Dahl (Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, Child Abuse) bass and Ches Smith (Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Secret Chiefs 3) drums.

Meghan Gilhespy Trio + Patrick O’Reilly
2019-06-27 20:00 - 23:30 | Tangent Cafe, 2095 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Toronto based vocalist Meghan Gilhespy explores the extremes of the human voice. Incorporating extended techniques and electronics, she paints a wild sound scape. She’ll be joined by special guest guitarist Patrick O’Reilly. With David Blake – guitar and Conrad Good – bass

Tobacco Brown
2019-06-27 20:00 - 23:00 | Ouisi Bistro, 3014 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Using his trusty loop pedal and fender strat Tobacco Brown mixes jazz, surf, blues and folk to create a bold, expansive sound; unique and undeniably his own.

Dave Robbins Sextet CD Release
2019-06-27 20:00 - 22:30 | Frankie’s Jazz Club, 755 Beatty Sreet, Vancouver, BC, V6B 2M4, Canada
Drummer Dave Robbins has spent his career performing and recording with the finest jazz musicians in Canada. With a classic hard bop formation and exciting sound that incorporates African and rock-infused jazz styles, this will be the release of the Sextet’s second album. With Brad Turner trumpet, Mike Allen tenor sax, Rod Murray trombone, Chris Gestrin piano, and Steve Holy bass.

Greg Brown
2019-06-27 20:00 | BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, British Columbia, V7J 3H5, Canada
A solo performance from a folk poet with deep roots in gospel and literary traditions. Greg Brown’s music combines the grit of Tom Waits, the blues of Captain Beefheart, and the lyricism of Bob Dylan.
“Greg Brown writes and performs music that has been lived in and lived through; his songs have picked up lots of scrapes and bruises on the way to your CD player.” – Paste Magazine
Greg Brown grew up in a family of musicians, poets and preachers in Southeastern Iowa where gospel and hymns, classical, hillbilly, early rock and roll, country and blues coalesced into a simmering stew of sound. This road poet’s music combines the grit of Tom Waits, the blues of Captain Beefheart and lyricism of Bob Dylan. A co-founder of the now legendary folk/roots record label, Red House Records, he has released 27 critically-acclaimed albums. His songwriting has been lauded by many and covered by the likes of Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Joan Baez, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. At the personal request of Jeff Bridges, Brown contributed songs for the Oscar-winning film, Crazy Heart, and played Hades on Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera concept album, Hadestown.

Dueling Pianos with Mike Van Eyes & Coris Aeven
2019-06-27 19:30 - 22:30 | Revel Room, 238 Abbott Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Piano legend Michael Van Eyes is Vancouver’s premiere boogie woogie rock ‘n’ roll piano player. He’s contributed his magic keys to an extraordinary amount of great artists from his current roles in the city’s legendary R&B troupe, The Epics – and the all-star band of rockers, The Trespassers, with members of DOA and the Scramblers, to his past stints with the Herald Nix band (where he toured with The Clash and even sat in with Howlin’ Wolf’s band), Colin James, The Yodell’s, The Undertakin’ Daddies and Peewee Clayton. Accompanied by Coris Aevan, the duo perform a Vegas style all request show with tunes ranging from Frank Sinatra to Queen to Disney showtunes. Come prepared to sing along!

Jimmy Baldwin
2019-06-27 19:00 - 22:00 | The Cascade Room, 2616 Main Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5T3E6, Canada
Guitarist/singer Jimmy Baldwin and bassist/singer “Yorkshire” Phil Bell have been playing music together in a variety of contexts for several years. They are very excited for Jazz Fest 2019 and the chance to put their own unique spin on jazz, country and rock material as a duo.

Sharon Minemoto
2019-06-27 19:00 - 21:30 | 2nd Floor Gastown (at the Water St. Café), 300 Water St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6B1B6, Canada
Pianist Sharon Minemoto’s trio plays music in the style of the great Nat King Cole trio as well as some of her original compositions. “Imaginative and lyrical as a composer with pianistic technique in spades.” (Whole Note Magazine). With Paul Rushka (bass) and Darren Radtke (guitar).

Beatings Are In The Body - Róisín Adams, Erika Angell, Peggy Lee
2019-06-27 17:00 - 18:00 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
Borrowing the project’s title from a work by Canadian poet Meaghan McAneeley, Montreal’s Erika Angell (Thus Owls) voice/electronics, Hildegard’s Ghost’s Róisín Adams Wurlitzer, and acclaimed cellist Peggy Lee explore how memories, pain, and a spectrum of emotions are stored in and continue to be carried by our physical bodies.

Diane Lines Duo
2019-06-27 14:00 - 17:00 | Provence Marinaside, 1177 Marinaside Crescent, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Diane Lines – keyboard / vocals, Adam Rohrlick – electric guitar / tenor saxophone
Pianist and vocalist Diane Lines has worked with many artists including Michael Buble, Bria Skonberg, Marcus Mosely, Steve Maddock and Gary Fjellgaard. Since 2011, she has been touring with her show JUMP! A Celebration of Swing, Boogie and Blues. Most recently Diane was musical director of the hit show Bittergirl at the Charlottetown Festival in PEI and the Arts Club in Vancouver. In 2018 she was inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame. She is joined by Hip Pocket bandleader and multi-instrumentalist, Adam Rohrlick. They’ve performed together for over 20 years and have a natural and empathetic musical connection.
https://dianelines.com/

Joanna Duda Trio
2019-06-27 13:30 - 15:30 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
Using acoustic piano as well as a variety of electronic instruments and processing, Polish composer Joanna Duda’s singular sound is a multilayered and consistently surprising synthesis of forward-thinking modern jazz, pointillist contemporary classical, textural soundscapes, and electronica-augmented pulsing grooves. With Maksymilian Mucha bass and Michał Bryndal drums.
Presented by the National Forum of Music in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Patricia Barber - Cancelled
2019-06-27 13:00 - 14:00 | Tom Lee Music Hall, 728 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1E4, Canada
This workshop has been cancelled due to illness.
“Few performers in or out of jazz are as consistently brilliant as Patricia Barber” —JazzTimes
A formidable musical presence whose artistry has been called “conspicuously literate and restlessly inventive” by The New Yorker, celebrated vocalist/pianist Patricia Barber has again broken artistic boundaries with her first album in six years, Higher, which rethinks the canons of jazz songwriting into a highly personal, uncompromising musical language. Broadly inspired by jazz as well as Fauré and Debussy, Barber’s harmonic sophistication and incisive lyrics lead the charge of an audacious new musical expression.
Barber will give a one hour workshop that is open to the public.
Presented by:

Sonny's Cousin
2019-06-27 12:00 - 15:00 | Granville Island Public Market, 1669 Johnston Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6H3R9, Canada
A hard-swinging sextet made up of some of Vancouver’s most exciting jazz improvisers, Sonny’s Cousin’s compelling originals and novel arrangements of lesser-known standards keep audiences hanging on every thrilling note. With Ingrid Stitt saxophones, Rod Murray trombone, Daniel Hersog trumpet, Nick Peck piano, Conrad Good bass, and Duran Ritz drums.

Longhand + 2 plays Long
2019-06-26 23:00 - 23:45 | The China Cloud, 524 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Vancouver, BC, Canada
(With Ava Mendoza)
Saxophonist Peder Long was a little-known but extremely prolific composer who wrote hundreds of unreleased songs. For four years in the mid-1980s, he mentored guitarist Tony Wilson, who also played in Long’s band. Now, Tony’s Longhand Trio has recorded a full album of Peder’s music which they’ll release at this concert. Bassist Russell Sholberg and drummer Skye Brooks are joined by special guest violinists Joshua and Jesse Zubot.
Late Night Shows at The China Cloud, 524 Main Street, 2nd Floor, 11pm, $15 at door only. No Minors.

Ava Mendoza
2019-06-26 23:00 - 23:30 | The China Cloud, 524 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Vancouver, BC, Canada
(With Longhand + 2 Plays Long)
Ava Mendoza is “a wizard on a semi-circle of effects pedals, but equally adept with FX-less technique” (NPR). The Brooklyn-based experimental guitarist/vocalist/composer has collaborated with Carla Bozulich, Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Matana Roberts, the Violent Femmes, and more.
Late Night Shows at The China Cloud, 524 Main Street, 2nd Floor, 11pm, $15 at door only. No Minors.

Hot Jazz Wednesdays featuring Jen Hodge
2019-06-26 21:30 - 2019-06-27 00:00 | Guilt & Co., 1 Alexander Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1B2, Canada
Bass player, vocalist, and bandleader Jen Hodge is a versatile musician who can be found playing with a wide variety of artists all over the world. Jen’s playing is characterized by hard swinging grooves, an expressive and energetic playing style, and an evident, infectious love for making music, which endears her performances to listeners, partiers, and dancers alike.

Eric Alexander Quartet featuring Eric Reed - Late Show
2019-06-26 21:30 - 22:45 | Pyatt Hall, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3L4, Canada
Boasting a warm, burnished tone, and keen harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander brings fresh ideas to the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition. With influences from bebop pioneers and post-bop innovators, his wide vocabulary touches on Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, the Sonnys (Stitt and Rollins), Charlie Parker, and Coltrane. Regularly working New York City’s most prestigious jazz clubs, he’s collaborated with the likes of Joe Lovano and Rufus Reid while appearing on more than 80 albums. His sharp quartet features Mike Gurrola bass, Kevin Kanner drums, and pianist Eric Reed, “a commanding presence on the jazz scene” (JazzTimes) who has worked with Dianne Reeves, Elvin Jones, and Wynton Marsalis.

Endangered Blood
2019-06-26 21:30 - 22:45 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
“A head-rush of aggressive improvising” —Seattle Times
Brooklyn’s Endangered Blood is a rare blend of fiery interplay, compositional complexity and intense soulfulness. Endlessly inventive and thrillingly unpredictable, the beating heart of traditional jazz is always at the group’s core, no matter how far it pushes the sonic envelope. With cutting edge jazz innovators Oscar Noriega bass clarinet/alto sax (Tim Berne’s Snakeoil), Chris Speed tenor sax/clarinet (Uri Caine, Claudia Quintet), drummer Jim Black (Nels Cline, AlasNoAxis), and bassist Trevor Dunn (Mike Patton, John Zorn, The Melvins).

Weaver Worth Trio
2019-06-26 21:00 - 2019-06-27 00:00 | The Yard Café, 8482 Granville St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6P4Z7, Canada
Rob Weaver’s lively keyboard stylings along with vocalist Laura Werth’s beautiful renditions of original and standard jazz tunes take audiences on a tour that features bebop, swing, latin, blues, funk, and hip-hop grooves. Rick Kilburn, well known Canadian jazz bassist, who played with Dave Brubeck for 6 years, rounds out this trio.

Makaya McCraven
2019-06-26 21:00 - 23:00 | The Imperial, 319 Main St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
“Jazz is dance music again.”—Rolling Stone
Makaya McCraven is a beat scientist. The bleeding edge drummer, composer, producer, and sonic collagist is one of Chicago’s savviest cultural players and a multi-talented force whose inventive process and intuitive, cinematic style defies categorization.
Blurring the boundaries of jazz and electronic music, his “hypnotic, wholly new and radically communal” (Pitchfork) Universal Beings—featuring collaborations with Shabaka Hutchings, Tomeka Reid, Jeff Parker, and other greats—made “’Best Jazz Albums of 2018” lists in the New York Times, Billboard, NPR, The Guardian, Pitchfork, and more.

Eli Davidovici's Shapes
2019-06-26 21:00 | The Imperial, 319 Main St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Moving from repetitive, trance-like grooves to shimmering, amorphous textures, emerging Canadian bassist/composer Eli Davidovici’s Shapes embraces the vast creative potential of constant flux. Featuring Mili Hong drums, Ted Crosby sax/reeds, Dan Reynolds piano, and guitarist David Blake, Eli Davidovici’s Shapes takes listeners through ever-shifting environments and sweeping moods.

Bernie Arai Trio
2019-06-26 20:00 - 23:30 | Tangent Cafe, 2095 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Bernie Arai is an original voice on the drums. His unique sound blurs the lines between Art Blakey and Mix Master Mike.

With Jon Bentley – saxophones and Tommy Babin – bass

Las Divas
2019-06-26 20:00 - 23:00 | Ouisi Bistro, 3014 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Las Divas delivers impassioned, high energy renditions of these songs with interactive stage performances to back it up. Las Divas promises to offer something to music lovers of all tastes, from those who appreciate the twang of Patsy Cline, to those who have completely worn out their copy of Rumours or Abbey Road.

Black Gardenia featuring Daphne Roubini
2019-06-26 20:00 - 22:30 | Frankie’s Jazz Club, 755 Beatty Sreet, Vancouver, BC, V6B 2M4, Canada
“Transporting listeners back to a time of martinis, lounge suits, and hazy cigarette smoke… the fact that Roubini’s originals are indistinguishable among the stacked line-up is the biggest compliment of all” —Georgia Straight
Jazz meets Americana in a different kind of vintage band. Blending reinterpreted classics with vintage-inspired originals, the band’s sound proves that cool is always classy and noir can be the norm. “Daphne Roubini’s original tunes bring to mind Django Reinhardt’s Gypsy Jazz with Billie Holiday as vocalist” (Vancouver Sun).
With Daphne Roubini voice/ukulele, Paul Pigat guitar, Andrew Smith guitar/ukulele, Brent Gubbels double bass, Chris Davis trumpet, and Cameron Wilson violin.

Patricia Barber Trio - SOLD OUT
2019-06-26 20:00 - 22:00 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
“Few performers in or out of jazz are as consistently brilliant as Patricia Barber” —JazzTimes
A formidable musical presence whose artistry has been called “conspicuously literate and restlessly inventive” by The New Yorker, celebrated vocalist/pianist Patricia Barber has again broken artistic boundaries with her first album in six years, Higher, which rethinks the canons of jazz songwriting into a highly personal, uncompromising musical language. Broadly inspired by jazz as well as Fauré and Debussy, Barber’s harmonic sophistication and incisive lyrics lead the charge of an audacious new musical expression alongside her superb longtime collaborators Patrick Mulcahy bass, and Jon Deitemyer drums.

Antonio Sanchez & Migration
2019-06-26 20:00 | BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, British Columbia, V7J 3H5, Canada
The five-time GRAMMY Award-winning drummer and composer of the score of 2014’s Oscar-winning film, Birdman, takes listeners on a dynamic electro-acoustic journey with the quintet Migration.
Featuring Antonio Sánchez (drums), John Escreet (piano and Fender Rhodes), Matt Brewer (acoustic and electric basses), Thana Alexa (vocals), and Chase Baird (tenor saxophone and ewi).
“A rare percussionist who can make the familiar drum set sound like a single instrument one minute, and a complete orchestra the next.” – Cam Jazz
Five-time Grammy Award-winning, Mexican-American jazz drummer Antonio Sánchez earned international praise following his score for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Best Picture-winning film, Birdman (2014). Long before this mainstream attention, Sánchez was releasing critically-acclaimed albums and playing with jazz legends. His first album, Migration (2007), featured Chris Potter, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny. With Migration, Sánchez takes listeners on a dynamic electro-acoustic journey sprinkled with Thana Alexa’s ethereal vocals. Their latest album entitled, Lines in the Sand, is an act of political and musical protest Sánchez describes as being “about the kind of immigrant who is constantly being demonized, ostracized and politicized by a powerful few in the name of a misguided nationalism.”

Steve Kozak Band
2019-06-26 19:30 - 23:00 | Hastings Mill Brewing Co., 403 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Steve Kozak has built a reputation as one of Canada’s premier Blues acts and is known as the go to guy in Vancouver for the west coast Blues sound.
Gaining national recognition in 2013, Kozak was awarded with a prestigious Maple Blues Award for New Artist or Group of the Year in Canada by the Toronto Blues Society. The Steve Kozak Band has been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award as Blues Artist of the Year in 2017 and 2018.
The Steve Kozak Band features: Steve Kozak, guitar and vocal, Michael Kalanj, piano and organ (Powder Blues Band, Jim Byrnes, Spencer Davis, Chris Isaak), Roger Brant, bass guitar, (Amos Garrett, Brent Parkin and Hound Dog, David Burgin) and ‘Steady Rollin’ John Nolan on the drums (Sonny Phillips, Jimmy Smith, Mose Allison, Joe Pass, Linton Garner, Wynton Marsalis, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Charlie Byrd).

The Rocket Revellers
2019-06-26 19:30 - 22:30 | Revel Room, 238 Abbott Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
The Rocket Revellers are the house band at Gastown’s Revel Room. Lead vocalist Dennis Brock designed and built the Revel Room in 2008 to be an extension of his living room and bring a little bit of Southern Hospitality to Vancouver. From his beginnings in San Francisco Rock & Roll Group Skin N Bones he shifted to more blues & swing style after recording at Sun Studios in Memphis with his group Denny & the Magnets. Dennis’s vocal style has evolved to include roots, gospel, and swing standards. The Revellers came together organically as a group in 2012 after many jams together and play a mixture of Texas Swing, Roots, & Rockabilly. Other members include Jimmy Roy on lapsteel, Patrick Metzger on upright bass, guitar wizard Stephen Nikleva, James “Hollywood” Badger on drums, and boogie woogie piano legend Michael Van Eyes.
Photo Credit: Andy Cotton
