Day three of this, the 25th Anniversary Guelph Jazz Festival, sees an even greater intensification of activity and features a superb range of concerts and other events.
The 8pm double-bill at Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre, presents NewYork trombonist Steve Swell’s Soul Travelers, a crack free-jazz quintet with Jemeel Moondoc, Dave Burrell, William Parker, and Chad Taylor. In the first half, Barcelona pianist Agustí Fernández renews his transoceanic collaboration with Montreal alto saxophonist Yves Charuest in an intimate duo tête-à-tête.
Meanwhile, the free ‘GJF in Market Square’ event kicks off with a brand-new programming initiative, the ‘Friday Night Street Music Party,’ 7pm-midnight. Instead of playing amplified from the outdoor stage, four dynamite bands will play all-acoustic, human-powered dance music in and among the audience in true street-style: The Shuffle Demons, the Surefire Street Band, Samba Squad, and Heavyweights Brass Band. These groups will bring Market Square to life, evoking global street-music party capitals like New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, and beyond.
Please note that the rain venue for the Friday Night Street Music Party is Mitchell Hall, St. George’s Church (99 Woolwich Street).
Throughout the day, Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium will present free programming including an interview with Dionne Brand (9am) and a keynote talk by Brent Hayes Edwards (10:30pm), both at the Art Gallery of Guelph (358 Gordon St.); a free noontime concert by Montreal’s Thanya Iyer in Branion Plaza, University of Guelph; followed by a full afternoon of programming at Silence (46 Essex St.): A 1:30pm double-bill concert by Bernard Falaise and Konk Pack, a 4pm Artists Panel on Voice, Song, and Creative Music with Thanya Iyer, Darius Jones, Amirtha Kidambi, Emilie Lesbros, and Kevin McNeilly (moderator), and an intimate voice-saxophone concert at 5:30pm by Kidambi and Jones.
All told, it’s a full musical banquet, with something for everyone and a range of brilliant and inspiring artists whose work ‘covers the waterfront’ of musical practices and related disciplines.
