Second Wave of Artists!

A few weeks ago, we gave you a sneak preview of what is to come at this year’s festival. Today we are pleased to share the second wave of artists, including the majority of the ticketed concerts. We would also like to remind everyone that our sponsor, the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation, has agreed to match all new donations, dollar-for-dollar. More information below.

These incredible artists will bring world-class improvised music and innovative instrumental and vocal techniques to Guelph this September. Here is the second wave of festival artists:

Nick Fraser (drums, compositions) has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community for over 25 years. For this performance, he has gathered his mentor and collaborator Tony Malaby (saxophones) and pianist Angelica Sanchez, who also share a long history of music-making together. This trio features three seasoned improvisers who delight in musical abstraction. Bracing yet lyrical, their music will be an intense journey into the unknown.

Pianist Angelica Sanchez and drummer Chad Taylor are two of the most important musical personalities in contemporary jazz. Both are virtuoso improvisers and unmistakable stylists and they celebrate a music that releases energy – pulsating vividly while at the same time withdrawing into intimacy.

Matt Brubeck and Caylie Staples met in 2005 at York University in Toronto. The two rapidly developed an improvisational compatibility in creating completely freely improvised songs. Celebrating spontaneity, serendipity, whimsy, and the creative potency of any given moment; Matt says “it’s like a musical trust exercise”; trusting each other to go with what the other is giving and committing to keeping the balloon up!

On their new double LP, How Can I Possibly Sleep When There Is Music, Luka Kuplowsky & The Ryōkan Band (Alex Lukashevsky, Anh Phung, Evan Cartwright, Felicity Williams, Josh Cole and Philippe Melanson) craft a singular sound of spaciousness, experimentation and unbridled expressiveness that traverses traditions of jazz, folk and blues.

Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary abstractivist with a focus on electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, performance, painting, sculpture, video, and installation. He spent much of his creative life in Chicago, and some years in Brazil. Currently he lives and works in Marfa, Texas.

All Wild Things Are Shy is the band Richard Laviolette worked with to rehearse and record his last and forthcoming album of the same name. Richard honed the songs on this album during the last five years of his life, in the time between his mother’s death from Huntington’s Disease and his own. The band is: Jessy Bell Smith, Rich Burnett, Ally Corbett, Jordan Howard, Matt Reeves, and Dave Snider. Together with a line-up of guest vocalists they will perform the twelve songs from All Wild Things Are Shy.

We would like to take a moment to remind our amazing supporters that we have a donation campaign ongoing, where all donations will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation, up to our goal of $6000. Donations above $500 get a free festival pass. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and sponsors, there has never been a better time to Donate & Double Your Impact.

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