The beginning of September heralds many things, including the time when the Guelph Jazz Festival once again animates the city with world-class creative improvised music. This year’s 30th Anniversary festival is two weeks away, 14-17 September, and features ten ticketed concerts in downtown venues. Highlights among the extraordinary Canadian artists featured include Montreal’s sensational 20-piece Ratchet Orchestra; François Houle’s GENERA Sextet, honouring the legacy of a pillar of Canadian jazz, Ken Pickering; Josh Zubot Strings, the wildest chamber group anywhere; and a double-bill celebrating the music of Steve Lacy: Susanna Hood Trio: unPacked and Coastlines Duo. Festival passes for all ten concerts are still available; $200 general admission and $150 for students, seniors, and the underwaged.
The Friday Night Street Music Party has become an institution at the GJF, and this year, 15 September, 7pm-midnight, features all-acoustic, ‘human-powered’ dance music from four distinct musical traditions: Brazilian percussion from Samba Squad; New Orleans-style funk from Big Smoke Brass; mandingue percussion from Guinea by Alpha Rhythm Roots; and Serbian wedding brass band traditions from Lemon Trubaci. Free to attend and free to be freely danced to.
Saturday 16 September: GJF in Market Square
Headlined by the Polaris Prize-nominated neo-soul/trip-hop star, Witch Prophet (11pm), the Saturday programming of ‘GJF in Market Square’ offers a rich banquet of sounds for those with adventurous and eclectic tastes: the rich Middle-Eastern synthesis of Moneka Arabic Jazz (9:30pm); modern calypsonians extraordinaire, Kobo Town (8pm); the percussion-heavy lilt of Brodie West’s Eucalyptus (6:30pm); Rebecca Hennessy’s sweet songs on poems by Guelph’s Thomas King, with her band Makeshift Island (5pm); the glorious pan-Balkan-Mediterranean vocal ensemble Turkwaz; and Montreal’s ‘bedroom electro-pop’ trio, Afternoon Bike Ride.
Check the 2023 GJF Website for information about the entire program, including GJF Colloquium events (in partnership with IICSI) and GJF Around Town, plus box office and volunteering information.Headlined by the Polaris Prize-nominated neo-soul/trip-hop star, Witch Prophet (11pm), the Saturday programming of ‘GJF in Market Square’ offers a rich banquet of sounds for those with adventurous and eclectic tastes: the rich Middle-Eastern synthesis of Moneka Arabic Jazz (9:30pm); modern calypsonians extraordinaire, Kobo Town (8pm); the percussion-heavy lilt of Brodie West’s Eucalyptus (6:30pm); Rebecca Hennessy’s sweet songs on poems by Guelph’s Thomas King, with her band Makeshift Island (5pm); the glorious pan-Balkan-Mediterranean vocal ensemble Turkwaz; and Montreal’s ‘bedroom electro-pop’ trio, Afternoon Bike Ride.