What a great day of music we have in store! It kicks off at 10:30am at Royal City Church (50 Quebec St.) with the wonderful New York bassist and multi-instrumentalist, William Parker, performing solo. In the festival’s 25th Anniversary Year, we can think of no artist who embodies the spirit of the event more than William does.Then, at 2pm at Co-operators Hall, River Run Centre (35 Woolwich St.), we present two trios with married couples at their cores: From Japan, pianist Satoko Fujii’s This is It! with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and drummer Takashi Itani follows the international trio of pianist-violinist Marielle Groven and bassist Aaron Lumley (recently relocated from Montreal to Guelph!) and their colleague from Amsterdam, Jasper Stadhouders, a rising star of guitar improvisation.
Tickets are $25 general admission, and $20 for students, seniors, and the under-waged. They are available at the River Run Centre box office.
The 8pm double-bill at the Guelph Youth Music Centre (75 Cardigan St.), features two quintets playing complementary song-based projects, both with lyrics in English and French. From New York, composer and alto saxophonist Darius Jones presents Le bébé de Brigitte (Lost in Translation) featuring French singer Emilie Lesbros, pianist John Escreet, bassist Sean Conly, and drummer Ches Smith, all ‘first call’ jazz and creative music players in the NYC scene. They share the bill with a project led by Montreal’s Jean Derome, a long-time friend of the Guelph Jazz Festival. Somebody Special: Music of Steve Lacy extends Jean’s work with his trio with bassist Normand Guilbeault and drummer Pierre Tanguay in which they focus on the work of a single composer. In this case, the focus is on Lacy’s singular song repertoire to be interpreted by one of Canada’s great singers, Karen Young, and complemented by piano virtuoso, Alexandre Grogg.
Tickets are $30 general admission, and $25 for students, seniors, and the under-waged. They are available at the River Run Centre box office.
Meanwhile, there’s a whole afternoon and evening of free, outdoor programming at Market Square (Carden Street) featuring, in order, the KidsAbility ‘Play Who You Are’ Ensemble with Special Guest SlowPitchSound (1pm), the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble with Special Guest Joe Sorbara (2pm), Guelph’s own Jason Raso Funktet (3:30pm), Toronto indo-jazz ensemble Avaatar (5pm), Montreal experimental songstress Thanya Iyer (6:30pm), Toronto funk and afrobeat dynamo Surefire Sweat (8pm), NYC/DC funk-based free jazz group, the James Brandon Lewis Trio (9:30pm), and headlined by acclaimed ‘Powwow Step’ producer, DJ Shub (11pm).
The GJF at Market Square represents a tremendous range and calibre of musicianship and is totally accessible to everyone – come for the music, food vendors and a drink at the bar. A lovely early autumn day brought to life with brilliant music. Come in droves!
Please note: There is a typographical error in the printed GJF program; the Sunday 16 September double-bill (Hübsch Martel Zoubek & Brass Knuckle Sandwich) will indeed start AT NOON (as listed on the website) and not at 2pm (as printed in the program).
