Coastal Jazz | Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Blowout Band
2022-07-02 15:30 - 16:30 (America/Vancouver) | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
No chords and the truth—four of Vancouver’s finest musicians let loose on one of jazz’s purest forms: the chordless horns/bass/drums group. Brad Turner trumpet, Jon Bentley sax, André Lachance bass, and Joe Poole drums use simple song forms as launch pads for unbridled, swing-based improv in the spirit of early ’60s Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman.

Todd Stewart Crescent Quartet
2022-07-02 16:00 - 18:00 | British Columbia
Drummer Todd Stewart has been making quite a name for himself on the local scene, alongside emerging contemporaries and veterans like Chris Davis and Brad Turner. With Ardeshir Pourkeramati tenor sax, Seb Chamney guitar, and David Caballero bass, Stewart’s Crescent Quartet brings passion and melodic sensitivity to detailed post-bop arrangements and original tunes informed by Coltrane, Brad Mehldau, and Immanuel Wilkins.
Sponsored in part by CHMC Granville Island

Raagaverse
2022-07-02 17:00 - 18:00 | Roundhouse – Performance Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2W3, Canada
Enthrallingly eclectic, this new collaborative Indo-Jazz fusion quartet interweaves Hindustani classical traditions, modern jazz, and poetry. Featuring Shruti Ramani voice, Jodi Proznick bass, Noah Franche-Nolan piano/Nord, and Nicholas Bracewell drums, Raagaverse transports listeners to a parallel dimension of gloriously collapsed frontiers. Say you saw them when!
$10 at Door only OR part of the Roundhouse Performance Centre Pass, available HERE; only $34 for all six shows!
Plus: July 2 • Roundhouse – Studio (Shruti Ramani Workshop) @ 3pm • FREE

Thus Owls
2022-07-02 17:15 - 18:15 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
Montreal’s mystical, morphing Thus Owls cross-pollinates artful chamber pop with “swirling, forceful and textured modern rock” (Wall Street Journal).
For this Festival performance, Simon Angell guitar and Erika Angell voice/keys stretch their already unusual indie-pop/avant-jazz compositions into new and surprising shapes with Samuel Joly drums/vocals, Vancouver saxophonist Chris Kelly, and acclaimed Swedish vocalist/saxophonist Lisen Rylander Löve.
Plus:
July 3 • Roundhouse – Studio (Simon Angell Workshop) @ 3pm • FREE

Omianan
2022-07-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Roundhouse – Exhibition Hall, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z2W3, Canada
Omianan’s omnivorous alt-jazz appetite feeds on indie rock, pop, prog, free improv, and blues. Emerging Vancouver players Jesus Caballero drums, Thomas Hoeller guitar, Nikko Whitworth bass, and Sara Kim vocals bring together wistful lyrics, knotty interlocking rhythms, and loose free-time melodies. Their challenging and enchanting debut album Paper Dream was released in February 2022, and the band was just nominated for Global Artist of the Year by the Western Canadian Music Awards!

Jo Passed
2022-07-02 19:00 - 20:00 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
What would happen if Lennon and McCartney somehow got really into Sonic Youth, Neu!, and XTC? Vancouver’s jo passed have a pretty good idea. With a knack for dreamy melodies, philosophical lyrics with counterculture bite, and chord progressions that sound like they’re from a land far, far away, jo passed is “rich in bombast and noise on the one hand, and clever musicality on the other” (Under The Radar).

Cory Weeds Little Big Band with special guest Carl Allen - Early Show
2022-07-02 19:30 - 20:30 | Pyatt Hall, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3L4, Canada
Take it from Downbeat Magazine: “renaissance man Cory Weeds has the Midas Touch!” An indefatigable force on the Vancouver scene, the tenor saxophonist and impresario keeps the flame of classic straight-ahead jazz burning bright. Inspired by tenor heroes Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Gene Ammons, Weeds calls on New York-based drummer Carl Allen (Christian McBride, Cyrus Chestnut) and a wealth of top-flight Vancouver musicians to suavely bring the big band sizzle.
Conducted by Jill Townsend, the Little Big Band features Steve Kaldestad alto sax, James Danderfer tenor sax, Dave Say baritone sax, Brad Turner trumpet, Julian Borkowski trumpet, Brian Harding trombone, Brad Shigeta trombone, Chris Gestrin piano, and John Lee bass.

The Blue and Gold + Great Aunt Ida
2022-07-02 19:30 - 21:45 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
THE BLUE AND GOLD
Vocalist Ndidi O (JUNO-nominee, WCMA Blues Artist of the Year) and guitarist/banjo player Trish Klein (The Be Good Tanyas) were both established Canadian roots artists when they met in Paris, developed a friendship, and forged a brilliant collaboration. The Blue And Gold reinterpret songs from pioneering Black and Indigenous women—such as Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Buffy Sainte-Marie—with grit, vision, and soul. The four-piece is rounded out by Brad Ferguson bass and Paul Clark drums.
GREAT AUNT IDA
After a lengthy hiatus, Great Aunt Ida returns with Unsayable, “a delicate, lushly tranquil release that sounds like it was made by ghosts in a dilapidated old house” (Vancouver Sun). Singer/songwriter/pianist Ida Nilsen has a sly, knowing way of creating deep emotional effect through subtle melodic shifts, artful arrangements, and deceptively straightforward lyrics. With Jonathan Anderson guitar, Peggy Lee cello, Mark Haney bass, and Barry Mirochnick drums and vocals.

Lucinda Williams
2022-07-02 20:00 - 22:30 | Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC, V6B 5N6, Canada
LUCINDA WILLIAMS
“It’s all come full circle,” says three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams about her powerful new album, Good Souls Better Angels. After more than forty years of music making, the pioneering singer-songwriter returns to the gritty blues that first inspired her in the late 1970s, while also reuniting with Ray Kennedy, the co-producer of her game-changing 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. The new songs hit all the deliciously dark Gothic notes the Louisiana-born storyteller is beloved for, tied together with themes of perseverance, resilience and ultimately, hope. “Drawing as much from punk as roadhouse blues, Lucinda Williams’ loud and unsparing new album is some of the heaviest, most inspiring music of her career” (Pitchfork).
COLIN LINDEN (OPENER)
Colin Linden is truly the stuff of legend – as a songwriter, record producer, and guitarist he has worked with some of the biggest names in Blues, Country, and Rock (including Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Cockburn). Linden’s latest solo album, bLOW, is his 14th in 40 years, but first electric blues release. It was nominated for a 2022 JUNO award in the category of Blues Album of the Year.

The Suffers
2022-07-02 20:45 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
“The sort of neo-retro group you never knew music was so badly missing” (Spin Magazine). Eight-piece wonderband The Suffers are a fired-up, contemporary version of the great R&B/funk bands of ’70s and ‘80s like Earth, Wind & Fire, Rufus, and Kool & The Gang. Coming in hot out of Houston, Texas, The Suffers pack elements of reggae, jazz, salsa, rock, and hip hop into their trademark Gulf Coast soul. Brimming with contagious grooves, combustible energy, and Kam Franklin’s powerhouse voice, this is “soul, straight from horn to heart” (NPR).

FIRE!
2022-07-02 21:00 - 22:00 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
Sweden’s Fire! have been unabashedly colouring outside the lines of free jazz, psych rock, and noise for over a decade. Featuring members of The Thing and Wildbirds and Peacedrums, they’ve collaborated with Jim O’Rourke and Sunn O)))’s Oren Ambarchi, and in 2013 went massive by cherry-picking 28 Scandinavian improvisators and avant-garde rock players to form Fire! Orchestra. But it’s the trio format that brings their uncompromising mix of heavy, dark, and intensely burning music starkly into focus. Saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Johan Berthling, and drummer Andreas Werlin “offer a pulse-quickening sonic shock to the system” (Rolling Stone).

the della kit + Cara Bateman
2022-07-02 21:00 - 23:00 | British Columbia
THE DELLA KIT
Vocalist/DJ/songwriter/producer the della kit blends lush melodies and sensuous lyrics to create spacey, groove-focused neo-soul. Raw, dynamic, and interactive, the della kit’s dreamy landscapes, layered harmonies, and stories of self-love and healing are influenced by Ella Fitzgerald, Erykah Badu, and an ongoing, immersive engagement with community and self-connection.
Presented in association with Full Circle: First Nations Performance
CARA BATEMAN
Anyone can hear what makes Cara Bateman special the moment she starts to sing. Rich, reedy, and almost raspy—like when horsehair meets gut string on a master-crafted cello—Bateman’s voice adds deep emotional resonance to sultry, singable, powerful songs that draw on classic story-song and folk traditions. Presented in association with Full Circle: First Nations Performance
Sponsored in part by CHMC Granville Island.

Cory Weeds Little Big Band with special guest Carl Allen - Late Show
2022-07-02 21:30 - 22:30 | Pyatt Hall, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3L4, Canada

DJ Kookum
2022-07-02 23:00 - 2022-07-03 00:00 | British Columbia
Cheyanna Kootenhayoo AKA Kookum is a DJ and multi media maker from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, and Cold Lake First Nations, their maternal Denesuline traditional territory. Based out of Vancouver BC, Kookum has been making a name for their self across the country and is no stranger in the community. Kookum is an open format DJ inspired by EDM and Hip Hop music. This diverse- mix-diva is a force on the decks and always keeps the party hype, fresh, and unpredictable. Kookum tours nationally and internationally with the Snotty Nose Rez Kids.
Presented in association with Full Circle: First Nations Performance
Sponsored in part by CHMC Granville Island

Dave Rempis / Tommy Babin / Kenton Loewen
2022-07-02 23:30 - 2022-07-03 00:30 | The Ironworks, 235 Alexander St, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6A 1C2, Canada
Saxophonist Dave Rempis burst onto the late-’90s Chicago scene with The Vandermark 5 and has remained one of modern jazz’s most prolific players, leading multiple distinct projects and working with the likes of Michael Zerang, Nels Cline, and Tim Daisy. Influenced by broad studies in ethnomusicology and contemporary composition philosophies, he’s equally driven by a love for unabashedly expressive yelps, screeches, and squeals.
Multifaceted drummer Kenton Loewen (Peregrine Falls) cut his teeth in free jazz, indie-folk, and DIY punk—and my, what sharp teeth they are! He shares a wildfire chemistry with bassist Tommy Babin (Haram, Benzene), whose playing exerts an irresistible gravitational pull.
Dave Rempis (solo) July 1 • The Ironworks @ 5pm • FREE
July 2 • Roundhouse – Studio (Dave Rempis Workshop) @ 1:30pm • FREE

KeAloha
2022-07-03 12:00 - 13:00 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
Carrying essences of KeAloha’s mixed Indigeneity, the vast wisdoms and sounds of Black and Latinx music-cultures, and the not-so-guilty pop pleasures they grew up on, this project holds the stories of a brown, mixed-Indigenous, disabled femme. A survivor and dreamer, healer and weaver, vocalist/drummer/multi-instrumentalist KeAloha is joined by Tayler Jade vocals, Axel Loitz guitar, Emilio Suarez cello/bass, Bobby Seenandan keys, and formidable mixed cuties TBA!
Presented in association with Full Circle: First Nations Performance

Beatings Are In The Body
2022-07-03 13:30 - 14:30 | Roundhouse – Performance Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2W3, Canada
Borrowing the project’s name from a work by Canadian poet Meaghan McAneeley, Beatings Are In The Body is a bracingly beautiful collaboration between Montreal’s Erika Angell (Thus Owls) on voice/electronics, Róisín Adams (Hildegard’s Ghost) on piano/wurlitzer/voice, and acclaimed Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee. Together, they artfully explore how memories, pain, and a spectrum of emotions are stored in and continue to be carried by our physical bodies. A highlight of the 2019 festival, Beatings Are In The Body’s relevance has deepened considerably in the difficult interval.
$10 at Door only OR part of the Roundhouse Performance Centre Pass, available HERE; only $34 for all six shows!

Parlour Panther
2022-07-03 13:45 - 14:45 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
Parlour Panther‘s anthemic electro-pop dreamscapes blend unearthly guitar tones, layered synths, darkly beautiful grit, and transcendent harmonies. The boundary-pushing, binary-breaking duo’s new album Retrograde “easily sits alongside two other queer-adjacent pop records: Tegan and Sara’s Heartthrob and Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual” (Dominionated).

Jeff Younger's Dark Matter Machine
2022-07-03 14:30 - 15:30 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
A daring composer and improviser of mysterious, primal, and unpredictable music, guitarist Jeff Younger’s brand-new Dark Matter Machine generates beautiful melodies, angular juxtapositions, and expressionistic soundscapes with Jocelyn Waugh trumpet, Chris Kelly baritone sax and noise, Karlis Silins bass, and Bernie Arai drums.

Mike Bjella Quartet
2022-07-03 15:00 - 17:00 | Roundhouse – Exhibition Hall, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z2W3, Canada
Now based in rural Vermont, saxophonist/composer/improviser Mike Bjella has performed throughout Europe and the Americas with Leif Vollebekk, Chronicle Infinitas, Nomad, and Pablo Held. Alongside longtime collaborators Simon Millerd trumpet and Kai Basanta drums, plus fiery bassist Tommy Babin (Haram), Bjella plays buoyant originals that owe much to Hermeto Pascoal, John Coltrane, and Ramakrishna.

Lina Allemano Four
2022-07-03 15:15 - 16:15 | Roundhouse – Performance Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2W3, Canada
One of Canada’s leading cutting-edge ensembles, trumpeter/composer Lina Allemano’s JUNO-nominated group is known for their inventiveness and playfulness as they deftly blur the line between composition and improvisation. “Rooted in a dynamic, creative tradition with an openness to the imminent possibilities of the musical moment” (Musicworks Magazine), this is bold acoustic chamber-jazz full of telepathic interaction and sonic exploration. With fellow Torontonians Brodie West alto saxophone, Andrew Downing bass, and Nick Fraser drums.
$10 at Door only OR part of the Roundhouse Performance Centre Pass, available HERE; only $34 for all six shows!

Alvaro Rojas' Gran Kasa
2022-07-03 15:30 - 16:30 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
Imagine a ’70s prog band, a salsa group, and a string quartet going on a road trip together. Composer/guitarist Alvaro Rojas calls on some of Vancouver’s finest creative players to add elements of Afro-Peruvian rhythms and forms to his harmonically adventurous, textural pieces. With Peggy Lee cello, Chris Gestrin keyboards, Meredith Bates violin, James Meger bass, Sam Cartwright drums, and Liam MacDonald percussion, Rojas will dig into tunes from the group’s dynamic debut album.

Noah Walker Trio
2022-07-03 16:00 - 18:00 | British Columbia
Beloved hired guns for many of Vancouver’s favourite groups, guitarist Noah Walker (Khari McClelland, Kitty & The Rooster), bassist Catherine Hiltz (Tegan and Sara, Queer as Funk), and drummer Daniel Ruiz (Leisure Club) stretch out on roots-based instrumentals and bring a daredevil sense of adventure to deep cuts from David Byrne, Dylan, Weezer, Nina Simone, and more.
Sponsored in part by CHMC Granville Island

Müller / Rempis / van der Schyff
2022-07-03 17:00 - 18:00 | Roundhouse – Performance Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2W3, Canada
Dave Rempis has lent his bold sax playing to collaborations with Fred Lonberg-Holm, Joe McPhee, and a legion of greats. Here, he meets two of Vancouver’s most distinctive improvisors, the extended-technique tornado that is bassist Torsten Müller, and visionary, pointillist drummer Dylan van der Schyff.
$10 at Door only OR part of the Roundhouse Performance Centre Pass, available HERE; only $34 for all six shows!

Tonye Aganaba
2022-07-03 17:15 - 18:15 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
London-born, Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Tonye Aganaba’s album Something Comfortable—inspired by Tonye’s battle with multiple sclerosis—takes on subjects like identity, addiction, and recovery, while riding neo-folk/soul/hip hop grooves that crackle with expressivity and hope. With big beats, R&B-inflected pop melodies, and powerful messages, Aganaba is “a world-building, shape-shifting, time-travelling creative” (Discorder).
With Aaron Hamblin drums, JeanSe Le Doujet bass, Thomas Hoeller guitar, and Carlos Joe Costa percussion and flute.

Jocelyn Waugh Quartet
2022-07-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Roundhouse – Exhibition Hall, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z2W3, Canada
In-demand Vancouver trumpeter Jocelyn Waugh (Locarno, Hard Rubber Orchestra) breathes vibrant life into myriad styles, from Mariachi to big band. With her new quartet featuring Chris Fraser guitar, Wynston Minckler bass, and Omar Amlani drums, Jocelyn mixes jazz standards with groove-based tunes by Herbie Hancock and Robert Glasper.

The Modelos
2022-07-03 19:00 - 20:00 | David Lam Park Main Stage, Pacific Bouevard & Drake Street, Vancouver, Canada
If you’ve ever suddenly awoken to find yourself doing donuts in a kiddie pool, astride a sort of half-jetski/half-mechanical bull hybrid contraption, while also being halfway through a bottle of whiskey, then you know all you need to know about Vancouver’s spirited rock ‘n’ roll surf cowboys, The Modelos.
Joe Rotundo guitar/vocals, Mike Kenny guitar, Bradley Ferguson bass, Geoff Hicks drums.

Cat Toren’s HUMAN KIND - Early Show
2022-07-03 19:30 - 20:30 | Pyatt Hall, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3L4, Canada
JUNO Award-winning pianist/composer Cat Toren’s “beautiful and adventurous” (CBC) HUMAN KIND channels Alice Coltrane and the free-form, socially conscious jazz of the late ’60s, making a powerful and urgent case for jazz’s expressive ability to uplift, engage, and unite. With local heavy-hitters Dave Say saxophone, Elisa Thorn harp, Aram Bajakian oud, Tommy Babin bass, and Dan Gaucher drums, the empathic Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based Toren uses atmospheric abstraction and harmonic layering to mix deep human warmth with creative fire!

Les Filles de Illighadad
2022-07-03 19:30 - 21:30 | Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3R8, Canada
[CANCELLED]
“Heavy, meditative, and tender” (New Yorker), Les Filles de Illighadad bring a sublime sound from central Niger. Guitarist/vocalist Fatou Seidi Ghali leads this ensemble through a hybrid of two distinct sides of Tuareg music: the hypnotic, polyphonic rhythms of tende—performed exclusively by women—and the newer, dreamily melodic guitar-based ‘desert blues’ that—until Ghali—had been made only by men. With trance-inducing singing, chanting, clapping, and the centring low rhythm of the askalabo—a partially submerged calabash—the ground-breaking group’s communal spirit is at turns celebratory, mournful, and healing.

John Boutté Quartet
2022-07-03 20:00 - 22:00 | BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts at Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, British Columbia, V7J 3H5, Canada
John Boutte’s shows are all about energy and soul. His gorgeous voice and deep groove make standards like Fly Me To the Moon fresh again. He can evoke Sam Cooke, but his spirit is all New Orleans. His ace band (Caleb Tokarska guitar, Chris Gestrin piano, Nobumasa Osaki bass) knows when to add subtle shadings and when to swing!
“Mr. Boutté can often evoke the sound of Sam Cooke. But his stage manner, his choice of repertory and his rapport with musicians all point back to New Orleans. It’s hard to imagine him settled in any place else.” – The New York Times
