Day One, Wednesday 12 September: SUNG RA

We are thrilled to kick off the 25th Anniversary edition of the Guelph Jazz Festival, and to do so with a very special concert at the Guelph Little Theatre, 176 Morris St., at 8pm. SUNG RA is the brainchild of Rory Magill, leader of Ottawa’s Rakestar Arkestra, a superb septet dedicated to ‘traveling the spaceways’ with their interpretations of the wonderful compositions of Saturnian composer, pianist, and all-around mystic, Sun Ra. For this two-set concert, Rory and company have partnered with the extraordinary Toronto singer and choir conductor, Christine Duncan, who is leading a massed choir of singers from Guelph as well as members of her singular Toronto improvised vocal group, the Element Choir. Christine has coached and rehearsed the singers to perform both Ra song material as well as improvisations based on his poetic output. Tickets for this extravaganza are only $15 general, $10 for students, seniors, and the under-waged, and are available at the venue.

Furthermore, our partners at the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) are hosting a launch of an exhibit by their 2018 ‘Improvisers-in-Residence,’ Montreal sound-artists and musicians, Jen Reimer and Max Stein. The exhibit will feature the Guelph edition of Sounding the City, an ongoing project dedicated to re-imagining the urban soundscape through site-specific installations and acoustic interventions. These installations emerge from their surroundings and are situated in the environments themselves. The exhibition is at the Boarding House Gallery Space, 6 Dublin Street South, second floor, and is open daily 12-5pm until 30 September. Jen and Max will be present to introduce their project and discuss the series of downtown interventions and installations that it comprises, tonight 5-7:30pm, free admission.

This marks just the tip of the iceberg: the first of five jam-packed days of creative music and related programming at the 25th Anniversary Guelph Jazz Festival & Colloquium.

SUNG RA