Following a successful event in 2021 that was reconfigured to meet public health measures, the Guelph Jazz Festival is announcing highlights of its 2022 Festival programming, 15-18 September. The 2022 Festival will feature ticketed indoor and free outdoor concerts, including the notable return to its highly popular ‘GJF in Market Square’ events, and effective return to its pre-pandemic structure for the benefit of long-time and brand-new audiences alike.
Included among the featured ticketed concerts this year are the genre-bending 24-piece Montreal electro-acoustic ensemble led by Sam Shalabi, Land of Kush, performing the opus, Sand Enigma, notably released on Constellation Records. Chicago composer, bassist, and guembri-player Josh Abrams presents a special octet version of the invigoratingly hypnotic Natural Information Society, featuring soloist Ari Brown on tenor saxophone. Montreal-based composer and drummer John Hollenbeck presents GEORGE, assembling phenomenal artists from different cities and milieux: Anna Webber (NYC), Aurora Nealand (New Orleans), and Chiquita Magic (Toronto). Late-night concerts present two further Constellation Records artists playing adventurous song-based material: Eric Chenaux (France) and Kee Avil(Montreal). Toronto composer Pete Johnston presents Stranger Still, his suite of eclectic art songs that set texts by celebrated poet Alden Nowlen that are tied deeply to Johnston’s home province of Nova Scotia. The programming extends further Maritime connections with Collateral, featuring Haligonians Norman Adams and Tim Crofts with Sam Shalabi on guitar and oud, and a solo concert by the brilliant trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud, now based in rural New Brunswick. This latter show pairs Rampersaud on a double-bill with seasoned Montreal harp experimentalist, Sarah Pagé.
More ticketed concerts are listed on the GJF website, and even more are still to be announced in the weeks to come. Tickets and passes will be available from the festival box office, through the River Run Centre, as of Monday 18 July.
The ‘GJF in Market Square’ programming, the most widely popular element of the pre-pandemic structure of the festival, returns in 2022 to present free live music in the heart of Downtown Guelph the evening on Friday 16 September, and all afternoon and evening on Saturday 17 September. Highlights of the Saturday programming include the radical Polaris Prize-winning Colombian-Canadian singer and composer Lido Pimienta, a second concert by Natural Information Society, the powerfully funky NYC James Brandon Lewis Trio, and Toronto electro-dream-pop group Bernice. Friday night once again features the Street Music Party in Market Square, featuring four all-acoustic ‘human powered’ dance music ensembles playing in and among the audience in the Market Square enclosure: To date we have confirmed Montreal’s long-standing brass band, Fanfare Pourpour; Anishnaabeg powwow legends, Chippewa Travellers; and a new Toronto horns-and-drum project exploring Ghanaian folk- and popular song, Libation Street Band; with more to be announced.
Building on the success of our 2021 ‘GJF in the Parks,’ the festival will once again present free live music in four city parks outside of the downtown core and in partnership with the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition and the local Neighbourhood Groups: Norm Jary and Brant Parks (17 September), and Mollison and York Road Parks (18 September), featuring the ensembles from the Friday Night Street Music Party.
More programming announcements will continue through the summer as our program grows and is refined. Please see the festival website, featuring our 2022 image by Hamilton painter and music aficionado Mike Hansen, for more information.
For more information, please contact us ([email protected] // 519-763-4952). We are also recruiting volunteers for the festival; you can expect a formal volunteer recruitment message in the weeks to come, but if you already know that you are interested, feel free to contact us and we’ll gladly discuss how you can contribute in September. We look forward to having you aboard!
