Day Five: Last Day of the 2018 Guelph Jazz Festival

After four full days of programming, the 25th Anniversary edition of the Guelph Jazz Festival wraps up today with two thoughtful, inspiring concerts.

At noon – definitely not 2pm as listed in the printed GJF program; apologies for the confusion – the Guelph Youth Music Centre (75 Cardigan St.) hosts a double-bill featuring the international improvising trio Hübsch Martel Zoubek playing focused, deliberate, and transparent group pieces with their unique instrumentation: Carl Ludwig Hübsch (tuba, Germany), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba & harmonicas, Montreal), and Philip Zoubek (prepared piano, Austria). To follow, we present Toronto’s Brass Knuckle Sandwich, featuring two of Canada’s most brilliant improvising musicians who share a special rapport: Marilyn Lerner (piano) & Nicole Rampersaud (trumpet).

Tickets are $25 general admission, and $20 for students, seniors, and the under-waged. They are available at the River Run Centre box office.

Then, at 8pm, at Silence (46 Essex St.), the Festival finale concert features a new collaboration by Guelph’s own Ben Grossman –– whom celebrated Toronto composer John Oswald rightly calls “the best hurdy-gurdy player in the world” –– and Toronto composer-improviser Allison Cameron, who will play from a delightful and mysterious range of sound sources that she marshals to tremendously subtle effect, including various instruments, toys and small amplifiers. (When GJF Artistic Director Scott Thomson used to present Allison in Toronto, he would list her instrumentation as “curio.”) Expect deeply intimate and sympathetic timbral explorations in Allison and Ben’s freely improvised music.

Tickets are $15 general admission, and $10 for students, seniors, and the under-waged. They are available at the River Run Centre box office.

The Guelph Jazz Festival thanks its range of sponsors, donors, and volunteers for their various but nonetheless invaluable contributions to the event. We simply could not do it without them. They are the lifeblood of the organization, and their work has enabled us to get to this, our 25th year… and counting. Thanks you for being part of a great edition of the Guelph Jazz Festival, and we look forward to more in September 2019. Happy autumn!