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FESTIVAL TALES: HILARIOUS STORIES & CONNECTIONS MADE

July 2, 2020

While we cannot gather for a 2020 Festival this year, we can still celebrate what the Vancouver International Jazz Festival means to our community. Festival Tales showcases stories and memories from people who love our Festival—artists, volunteers, audiences, staff, donors, and community members.

This is a collection of those stories that are about relationships that started at the Festival and about some of the hilarious hijinks that happen when the Festival is in full swing.

CONNECTIONS MADE

A Jazz Festival love story from Kemila Zsange:

I met Tim, my current partner, on Canada Day 2007, at the Jazz Fest in David Lam Park. Tim had gone into the Roundhouse for other concerts, while leaving his blanket laid out in the park. I was new to the country and I didn’t know to bring a blanket to an outdoor festival. I went to sit on his empty blanket when the next show started. And the rest, as they say, is history. It’s our favourite festival, and we miss it dearly this year.

Kemila and Tim at David Lam Park in 2017

Kemila and Tim on the blanket where they first met!

This story of a festival friendship from volunteer Tamara Flick-Parker comes from sometime between 2006 and 2008:

I was volunteering for a late shift at the Roundhouse. No idea for which performance, but might have been Peggy Lee & Friends. I had never done a shift there, and there was no Canada Line yet. One of the other volunteers, Sharron, and I began talking. We kinda clicked. I wasn’t sure if the bus I needed to take home was still going to be running (no smart phones yet, at least not for me, let alone transit apps). Sharron had briefly mentioned the area of Vancouver she lived in, and I asked her if she could possibly give me a ride home. She said sure. By the time we got to my house, we had agreed we’d like to hang out again and exchanged phone numbers. When possible, we’ve been hanging out at the Jazz Fest, seeing shows together, but our favourite has been the David Lam Park weekends. We are still good friends to this day all because of the Jazz Festival. In fact, I just Zoomed with her last night. She’s probably about 15 or more years older than I, but she is like a Super Volunteer. She’s really missing all of the volunteering she normally does. I’ve had to pull back from volunteering over the last few years, as I’m in grad school right now.

And a festival love story from 2002 by Bruce Suttie, former volunteer & transpo coordinator:

I had a seat in the balcony of the Vogue and was sitting with several volunteers that I had crossed paths with in my role as Artist Transportation and the intermission began. I suggested we go up the Commodore Lanes Bowling alley as they had craft beer on tap and there was never a lineup. Four of us, all from different crews, got up and I asked a woman in the aisle seat if she could please save our seats. We made it back in time for the headliner and as I thanked the woman for saving our seats I found she was a volunteer as well and she was working a shift the next day at an afternoon show at Performance Works.

We met and shared festival stories and found we had much in common in music and life and ended up crossing paths regularly over the course of the festival, some planned and some by chance. It has been 18 years together and both still involved with the Festival and we celebrate our anniversary of meeting during the best part of summer. Different kind of summer this year but we still have a reason to celebrate.

HILARIOUS STORIES

Our first funny story comes from John Wayne MacEachern, a volunteer:

The 2007 volunteer party was at a place with a pool on South Granville. Great times there! So this one year I took my son—he was 6-7 at the time and had recently taken some swimming lessons—but as far as I knew he hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet. Throughout the party prizes were being given out. I was sitting on a chair chatting with my friend Liz when all of a sudden I heard the woman on the microphone say, “First one in the pool gets this Official Jazzfest Briefcase!”. I was fully dressed as I was supposed to be going out on a date after the party, but I looked around and there was my son, running towards the pool. Next thing I know he was jumping in. In a fit of panic I ran after him and dove in to try and save him. Turns out he was a pretty good swimmer. They gave us the briefcase and set of tickets to an upcoming concert. I, on the other hand, had to borrow some trunks and a t-shirt while my clothes dried off in the host’s laundry room. Great memory!

Francoi Depey first volunteered for us in 1993, and shares his surprising love for being on the environment crew:

Freshly arrived in Vancouver and just moving from Europe, I was not familiar with the concept of volunteering for a music festival. There was no doubt that, beside love, one of the reasons why I had moved to Canada was its wild environment. When I realized that not only I could volunteer for a music festival, but I could do it in the “environment” team, I fell in love with the whole country! I quickly realized, that “environment” in the context of a music festival essentially means picking up garbage. I never had so much fun picking up garbage with the background sound of great jazz music in Gastown! It inspired me to volunteer for our local music festival in Smithers for many other years when I moved there that same summer! I returned to volunteering for the Vancouver Jazz Fest several times. Nice environment for sure!

An ill-timed fire alarm story from Betty Perverzov, volunteer:

Sitting in the warm dark night in the cozy confines of the Vogue Theatre, watching the always wonderful Patricia Barber and her trio, when all of a sudden, the fire alarm goes off!! Right in the middle of a song she was playing!! The entire place, me included, jumped to their feet when the word came down that it was a false alarm. Patricia Barber asked if there was actually a fire and the Vogue staff said no. Some guy from the audience called out, “Finish the song!” and she did! Didn’t miss a note either.

A surprisingly festive memory from Renée van Stiphout:

A saw this gentleman in 2019 in the audience outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on the Georgia Street side. He reminded me of Santa Claus. It put a smile on my face as I have always wondered what Santa does on his time off! He’s a cool dude – he enjoys the TD Vancouver Jazz Festival, of course!

And another great story from Bruce Suttie, former volunteer & Transpo coordinator, from the early 2000s:

I was on artist transportation and one of my runs was to pick up Han Bennink, the wonderful free jazz virtuoso drummer and his band of merry men from a sound check at the Cultch. I arrived early and was entertained by the amazing creativity that was taking place as they used anything and everything to make a contribution to the sound. It was time to head back to the hotel so I rounded them up and secured them in the van. Driving along I heard a tap tap tap, and then a seat belt rhythm, and before I knew it my vehicle was a rolling musical instrument as anything that could make a sound was being played. All of a sudden a gush of wind and I looked in the rear view mirror to see the side door of the van wide open as we traveled down Terminal Ave. Everyone in the band was sitting bolt upright and staring straight ahead and looking completely innocent and still. I suspect someone thought the door handle would make a nice sound. I tapped the brakes just hard enough for momentum to close the door and we continued on in silence. I do not believe it was more than a minute when I heard tap tap tap. Good fun!

FESTIVAL TALES: ARTIST ENCOUNTERS

June 30, 2020

While we cannot gather for a 2020 Festival this year, we can still celebrate what the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival means to our community. Festival Tales showcases stories and memories from people who love our Festival—artists, volunteers, audiences, staff, donors, and community members.

This is a collection of those stories that are about memorable encounters with some of the incredible artists who are at the heart of our Festival.

This story from about 18 years ago comes from Scott Aitken, a local artist:

I remember walking on a Saturday in between seeing some of Ken’s amazing improv groups that were formed to be seen for free! Free music! Experimental, improvised free music from players who are living their lives immersed in this! As a younger man in Vancouver, it was very metropolitan.

Lo and behold, there was the wonderful bassist Wilbert de Joode, sitting in the sun and eating sushi! I stopped and gently interrupted his moment alone, feeling shy and sheepish for bothering him. He was not having any of that, and invited us to sit and chat. I remember marveling at him—his hands! Those cool glasses and that handsome jawline with his short cropped salt and pepper haircut…. a true European musician! Hipness and cool personified. I told him how much I’ve enjoyed his playing during the festival and loved his unique instrument (Italian I think and halfway between a cello and a double bass).

For those of you that don’t know, he’s self taught and extolled the values of being a lifelong learner—as most musicians are. That’s the fun and most humbling part of playing improvised music. I’m self taught as well but had some early classical training that I promptly forgot, well before picking up the double bass several years after moving to BC. I was renting a student one. We talked about getting the right instrument and more importantly about listening to music you are not just playing but also engaging with as a listener in the audience! The ideal of being an engaged and present audience with the music you’re creating—being willing to be humbled by it as a force as it passes through you and each player you’re with in that moment… Very spiritual and profound insights to my young and impressionable mind!

Sitting there in the sun it was like hearing confirmation about this beautiful mirage in the horizon now coming into focus. His experience and kind words of encouragement allowed me to this day approach all my creative practices in this way.

Seeing Tony Wilson play for the first time; marvelling at the sheer power of Torsten Muller’s full on commitment to the moment; Peggy and Ron’s amazing group Talking Pictures; playing a short duet in class with Han Bennik at 2007 VCMI…. the moments stack up! Needless to say I’ve also become a lifelong listener to the wonderful community of jazz musicians that we are so grateful to have in British Columbia and in the world that have come to our amazing festival!

Community member Michael Ford shares an encounter that inspired his son:

I took my 12-year old son Griffin to see the Julian Lage Trio on June 26, 2018 at Performance Works on Granville Island. Griffin, a budding musician himself, was transfixed throughout. We were both so impressed by Julian and his band that we stuck around after the show until Julian came back on the stage after pretty much everyone, but a handful of fans, were gone. Julian came up to us, shook our hands and had a short conversation with my son. We will always remember the night as a father-and-son moment, and another important influence on my son’s musical life, to be added to his music education trip to Cuba, along with his Beatles tribute band with three of his buddies, which they call The Boytles. Thanks to the Jazz Fest and to Julian, it was a night to remember!

A heartening story from one of our regular volunteers, Bill Brooks:

While working backstage at Pyatt Hall during the 2019 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, one of the acts that came in was Laila Biali, the Vancouver-born pianist and singer. During my career I have met and dealt with many artists, famous and not so famous. Some were gracious and acknowledge the existence of other human beings, some were conceited and pretended that anyone not immediately important to them was invisible, and some were just Assholes with a capital A.

Laila was so warm and genuine—it was a total breath of fresh air. Time to move the piano? Place the bench? Re-arrange a music stand? She asked so nicely we would have carried the piano on our shoulders.

Somehow during the sound check Laila managed to learn everybody’s name: mine, the sound tech, the front of house people, everybody. Conversation was a breeze, sound check was like a party, all good. The performance that night was wonderful and intimate—exactly the kind of experience I signed on for as a volunteer. At the end of the concert, I was just blown away when she made her closing remarks she thanked us all by name in front of the audience.

May she have a long and wonderful career.

A memory from Marioka Ball about a show that has really stuck with her:

I have many wonderful memories of the Jazz Festival but the one that stands out from the rest was Kenny Wayne. The concert was called An Old Rock On A Roll. His singing and piano playing had St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church a-rocking and a-rolling. Those of us lucky enough to be present had the most amazing and fun time listening to the “Blues Boss” and his band. I bought a CD and Kenny Wayne kindly autographed it, I am listening to it now and smiling as I write this letter. During these difficult times this CD has never failed to lighten my mood and has me dancing in my living room. Thanks for the opportunity to tell my story.

And former volunteer Sarah Bennett on how meeting an artist led her to discover (and love) his music:

I volunteered for seven years in the 90s. For several of those years, I handled the media room at the Listel on Robson Street and had the opportunity of meeting the wonderful saxophonist Ernie Watts and his wife. Absolutely one of the nicest people you could meet. I started really following his music and was blown away with his skill and musicality. Saw him after this at Cory’s Cellar on Broadway and he brought the house down! A wonderful memory.

FESTIVAL TALES: SHOWS GONE RIGHT (& WRONG)

June 29, 2020

This is a collection of those stories that are about the shows that have gone right (or wrong) over our 35 year history.

This story comes from Jen Hodge, a local bass player and friend of the festival:

The Vancouver International Jazz Festival has been hugely important to me in so many ways, from providing the opportunity to see and hear (and occasionally meet!) artists I love, to providing invaluable performance opportunities for me as a growing artist, to centralizing Vancouver’s jazz community—musicians and fans alike—for a concentrated dose of inspiration, fun, and camaraderie to kick off every summer. During my 17 years in Vancouver, I have always looked forward to Jazz Fest time like a kid looking forward to Christmas! It is a challenge to pick a single memory to write about, but since I recently dug out a photo from the 2004 festival, I figure the story of that night is as good as any!

I count myself very lucky to have seen Oscar Peterson’s concert at the Orpheum in 2004, a show that kicked off that year’s TD Vancouver Int’l Jazz Fest. Oscar is certainly one of my heroes, and it was such a thrill to hear and see his hands playing those dumbfoundingly swinging long runs in real life! In addition, Oscar had with him on bass Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (NHØP), who 18-year-old-jazz-bass-student-Jen REALLY looked up to (fun fact: my spot in the bass locker at Cap back then was marked by a sign which read “JENHØP” – with thanks to Michael Rush!). After the show was over, I scurried from my balcony seat all the way down to the edge of the stage, against the wishes of the ushers I’m sure. To my delight, NHØP actually wandered back out, and I was able to get his attention. He graciously chatted with me, and helped me climb up onto the stage to have my picture taken with him. He passed away less than a year after that concert, and I am so very grateful that I was able to hear him live (with Oscar, no less!) and tell him how much I admired his bass playing and musicianship.

Guylaine Matchett, Volunteer & Donor, shares her Expo86 experience:

It was pretty early in my jazz listening when I was 23 and I saw a set of gigs planned for Expo86. I lived in Victoria but had friends working Expo86 who I could crash with. In fact all I was at Expo86 for was the music. On the second night of the festival I had tickets for Miles Davis, who had already become a huge go-to even in the early days. I had listened to, read about, and absorbed as much as I could about Miles. I had spent what was quite a bit for me back then to get great seats, in the center and 4 rows up. People were a bit put off with Miles’ style as he played a lot with his back to the audience and did not announce or speak much which I knew was standard for this part of his career. I also knew he did not sign autographs. SO when the gig ended, people rushed the stage with pens and albums/old records for an autograph, but I just put up my hand and he shook it! He did glance a few times across the crowd and we were pretty heavily into it. Not only a Jazz Fest memory, but the memory of a lifetime. Sadly I never saw Miles live again but his influence is very much with me.

An anonymous memory:

Many years ago, during one of the Gastown Jazz weekends, my husband and I were sitting on the cobblestone street, on a glorious sunny afternoon, listening to the pulsing rhythms of ‘Antibalas’. The music was magic and the crowd was huge. In the midst of this, I noticed a couple of birds in the sky, then another, dipping and gliding. I didn’t know what kind of birds they were, but they were huge! I stood up to get a better view of the birds when I noticed an Indigenous man standing beside me. He watched me scanning the birds in the sky and leaned towards me and said in a gentle voice, “Those are eagles. To see them in the sky, soaring like that, on a day like this, is a blessing”. And with that, he disappeared into the crowd. Now, each time I see eagles, I remember his gentle voice and strong message. A blessing indeed!

I’m so sad that we’re unable to celebrate music collectively at the Jazz Fest this year. It feeds my soul, as I’m certain it feeds others’. We all need nourishment, particularly in times like these.

This story comes from Erik Jakobs, a veteran volunteer:

2020 would have been my 10th year volunteering with Jazz Festival. I have seen many venues come and go during these years, but the Ironworks has always been a constant, and if it were to cease being a venue, the Jazz Festival would be permanently and irrevocably altered. It was at the Ironworks, in the year 2010, that I worked my first shift as a Jazz Festival volunteer.

It was also at the Ironworks that the single most memorable thing to happen to me at a Jazz Festival occurred. The evening started out like many at the Ironworks. I walked through the door of the nondescript building into the parallel world beyond, past the band performing their soundcheck, and into the bar area at the back of the building. It was a hot day in late June, so the inside of the building was rather stuffy, but the backyard was pleasantly cool. Headed inside in time to grab a seat for the first act, then back to the bar and back yard, then back for the second act. Just after midnight, as the musicians got into their groove and I sat back to let the music take me where it would. It happened. In the rail yard behind the building, the night shift began shunting rail cars with a series of loud bangs and other mechanical noises. Then, in rapid succession, several emergency vehicles raced by, their sirens blaring. For any other show, this would have constituted an obnoxious disruption, but in that moment, the sounds outside blended with sublime perfection with the sounds coming from the stage. And then they stopped, as quickly as they had begun. The band played on and finished their set as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t tell you which band was playing that night. I don’t even remember the exact date. But for a brief time, all the sounds in my small corner of the universe converged into a single, beautiful, surreal moment.

From community member Doris Lancaster:

I drove from the Okanagan to the Gastown Jazz Fest several times, sometimes with my daughter or brother who is a big jazz fan, and we saw John Scofield in concert at the Commodore. We even had a picture taken with him! It was one of the best concerts I’ve been to—I’m a senior now, and while I did see a lot of the good concerts in Vancouver back in the 80s, nothing compared to this one. I hope he will perform again, and possibly inspire me for another glorious drive to Vancouver to enjoy another Jazz Fest. Have followed the jazz society for decades and enjoyed Cory Weeds, Brad Turner, other local groups affiliated with Cellar Jazz, I also saw John Pizzarelli—a bravo show! Thanks for the great memories.

Former staff member Jennifer Wyss on a captivating Gastown show:

Vancouver Jazz Festival 2002 was blessed with perfect warm sunny days for the Gastown weekend. Water Street was packed, with people wandering from stage to stage, listening to band after band. That year, a buzz was created because there was a ‘Mystery Cuban Band’. A sea of music lovers gathered with anticipated excitement to see what would be unveiled. Media Director of Coastal Jazz, John Orysik (aka The Doctor, Johnnie O, Frank), came on stage. All he had to do was yell “Viva Cuba, Viva” and the crowd erupted in thunderous applause.

Maraca hit the stage with smiles as wide as could be. This was Maraca’s first visit to British Columbia and to say the least – they were taken aback. Their expressions and giggling told us that they were wonderfully surprised by the reception and they would give a show to remember. With the first song, the crowd of thousands swayed in unison to Maraca’s intoxicating beat. People’s arms raised to the sky and waved from right to left in synchronicity. Being in the crowd was unifying as people thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were happy to be part of the party. An amazing Vancouver summer night, when the sun hangs in the sky a little bit longer and where people on Water Street were unwilling to leave this set early for all the money in the world, I knew I just witnessed something special. I felt honoured that I was given a small role in helping make this happen.

Volunteer Beverly shared her two standout Jazz Fest discoveries:

Discovering a “new” artist always feels special. My standout Jazz Fest discoveries are Hiromi and Ndidi O. My first time watching Hiromi attack a grand piano was stunning. All I could think was, she’s Hendrix on piano. Her no-holds-barred performance with a band matching every lick and flourish lifted the roof off the theatre. Her show had the punch only live concerts can deliver.

I was sad a lot of other festivalgoers weren’t crowding Ndidi’s rousing set elsewhere. Their loss: this lady can sing and rattle the blues like a house on fire, owning the stage with moxie and musical chops worth a bigger audience.

Harry, one of our volunteers, with just one example of how sometimes, at the Festival, you just luck out:

Norah Jones was playing at the Orpheum, and I volunteered for the Banner crew. It was totally sold out, but Boddie went into the back and found the stage manager—he had one ticket and I sat at the front row, enthralled with the show, and how lucky I was. It was a wonderful moment with wonderful music and feelings. Thank you for the magical time.

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