By Tim Reinert
For decades, Downbeat Magazine has had the tagline “Jazz, Blues & Beyond” underneath their logo. Essentially, it’s a catch-all term to describe the music that doesn’t comfortably fit into existing or pre-approved categories. And that’s what we’re talking about today: the music that is at this year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival that defies categorization, and possibly even description.
Irreversible Entanglements
Irreversible Entanglements are one of the biggest success stories of the creative music scene over the last decade or so, with their utterly unique blend of spoken word and free jazz connecting with audiences all around the world, and their concerts being an almost religious experience that music lovers can’t afford to miss. The last time that the Entanglements performed at the Jazz Festival they played a small club, but their recent album on Impulse Records translated into a lot of mainstream buzz, and with buzz comes bigger rooms like Performance Works. Members of the band will be making other appearances during the Jazz Festival, as Moor Mother will be opening for SUMAC on June 21 at Fortune Sound Club. And don’t forget to head to Frankie’s After Dark right after the Entanglements show on June 22, as Entanglements band members Aquiles Navarro and Tcheser Holmes will be performing a very special duo set for only $10 at 11PM!
Date: Saturday, June 22, 2024
Location: Performance Works
Time: 7:30PM
Tickets: Available online for $37 plus fees
Horse Lords
If excitement was currency, the buzz around Horse Lord’s show at the Revue Stage would be worth a zillion dollars. It’s this experimental rock band’s first time playing Vancouver, and it’s hard to imagine the show being anything other than a sell out. This is normally the point in the piece where I would tell you about other bands that Horse Lords sound like, but honestly they just sound like Horse Lords. Post-punk minimalism creeps into Krautrock groove, which then flips effortlessly into Appalachian polyrhythmia and Mauritanian Guitar music…and it all just sounds like it makes sense and that bands sound like this all the time. They don’t, but they should.
Date: Sunday, June 30, 2024
Location: Revue Stage
Time: 9:30PM
Tickets: Available online for $27 plus fees
Peregrine Falls & Shazad Ismaily
They’re one of the most visceral and exciting bands in Vancouver, but Peregrine Falls (Gordon Grdina and Kenton Loewen) have been mostly dormant for the past six years. A recent sold out Infidels Jazz show, plus a successful opening adventure for Kamasi Washington at the Vogue, has brought the band out of hibernation, and they’re ready to return to the Jazz Festival, with old friend Shazad Ismaily. Shazad is one our artists in residence this year, but has played at Jazz Festivals past with Grdina, and with Arooj Aftab and Vijay Iyer.
Date: Thursday, June 27, 2024
Location: Revue Stage
Time: 9:30PM
Tickets: Available online for $27 plus fees
Laraaji
He’s a pioneer. That’s probably the best way to describe Laraaji’s contributions to ambient and new age music since the 1970s as it would be difficult to think of another musician whose work has been so transformative to a genre the way that his has. He’s as relevant as ever, with his electric zither having been part of over forty albums and multiple tours around the world. It seems like this icon is finally getting the attention he deserves, and that the music world has finally caught up with Laraaji.
Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Location: Performance Works
Time: 7:30PM
Tickets: Available online for $40-46 plus fees
aja monet
aja monet’s debut album What the Poems Do What They Do was one of my favourites of 2023. And so when I saw that she would be performing here as part of this year’s Jazz Festival, I knew that her performance would be a Festival highlight for sure. monet’s poetry is contemporary and surreal yet reminds us of trailblazers like Jayne Cortez or Amiri Baraka. She’ll be backed by an exceptional band featuring Logan Richardson on alto saxophone.
Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Location: Performance Works
Time: 7:30PM
Tickets: Available online for $37 plus fees
Some of the other artists that defy simple description who you’re going to want to check out at this year’s Jazz Festival include the drummer Kassa Overall, local pedal steel player Scott Smith, and Emad Armoush, a local oud player who has been thrilling audiences here for years.
For more on Tim’s picks, check out this Infidels Jazz podcast episode.
