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…

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…

Please note that the Sunday 16 September double-bill concert at the Guelph Youth Music Centre, Hübsch Martel Zoubek & Brass Knuckle Sandwich, will start at 12pm (as listed on this website) and not at 2pm (as listed in the printed program). We apologize if this typographical error in the program causes any confusion, and look…

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…

Today’s GJF program features concerts by superb international talents, starting at noon with a solo concert by Barcelona pianist Agustí Fernández, a leading light of European creative music with a list of collaborators that reads like a ‘who’s who’ of global improvisation. The concert marks our continued partnership with the University of Guelph College of…

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’…

(This note is a version of what is printed in the 2018 print program.) Assembling a program of wide-ranging, world-class music is the fun part of the job. The artists and groups described [on this site] excite me enormously, and the varied approaches they reflect amount to a dynamic long weekend of uncommon creative music.…

Have a listen to this formidable partnership – in music and in life – pianist, violinist, composer, and improviser Marielle Groven and double-bassist, improviser, and composer Aaron Lumley, discuss their work (together and separately) at some length with Guelph Jazz Festival AD Scott Thomson. Current Guelph residents Marielle and Aaron (savour their presence while you…

Artistic Director Scott Thomson has produced the tenth of ten podcasts featuring the artists and groups to be presented at the 2018 festival. This episode features the brand-new programming initiative designed to help celebrate the GJF’s 25th Anniversary, the Friday Night Street Music Party in Market Square, featuring the Shuffle Demons, Samba Squad, Heavyweights Brass Band,…

Artistic Director Scott Thomson has produced the ninth of ten podcasts featuring the artists and groups to be presented at the 2018 festival. This episode features the special opening-night concert: SUNG RA: The Rakestar Arkestra and a massed choir under the direction of Christine Duncan.