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Saturday, July 31 - 1 p.m.
Free
- Torq Percussion Ensemble
- Jesse Stewart - percussion
- Ryan Scott - percussion
Ottawa Chamberfest and Rideau Canal Festival present:
The Second Annual Musical Breeze Bicycle Parade
Lansdowne Park
Registration begins at 1:00 p.m.
Waves depart, beginning at 1:15 p.m.
The Rideau Canal Festival and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival have teamed up to offer cycling enthusiasts a unique way to enjoy a ride along the Rideau Canal. The Musical Breeze Bicycle Parade is an outdoor musical and cycling event in which participants of all ages can learn how to tune into the sounds around them, and actively contribute to Ottawa’s “soundscape”!
Departing at Lansdowne Park, participants will encounter a series of mini concerts and assist in music-making by observing posted instructions such as “ring your bell for 8 seconds” or “sing in a high pitch” as they make their way along the route to Marion Dewar Plaza at City Hall. There, they will be part of a larger musical performance with musicians from the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival.
This is a great way for families to celebrate the Rideau Canal Festival’s zero footprint and active-living themes.
Don't have a bicycle but would still like to participate the parade? Join the Chamberfest Community Hand Drum Collective and be part of the Musical Wheel grand finale in Marion Dewar Plaza! For more information contact www.treefrogpercussion.ca.
For more information and to register visit www.rideaucanalfestival.ca
Ottawa Chamber Music Festival
http://www.chamberfest.com/en/festival/
Saturday, July 31 - 10 p.m.
Cover: $10
Reservation recommended: 819-205-4999 ext 1
"Le Zookamoofoo swing Band vous offre un spectacle en Jive, en swing, ou en Rock’n’Roll. Zookamoofoo revisite les années 40, 50 et 60 à la façon des Brian Setzer, Colin James, Cherry poppin’ Daddies, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Squirrel Nut Zippers et autres icônes de l’esprit de ces rebelles qui se battaient à coups de toupets."
Les Brasseurs du Temps, Gatineau's first micro-brewery, in Vieux-Hull, has launched an extensive high quality music program.
Les Brasseurs du Temps
170 rue Montcalm
Gatineau
819-205-4999
Sunday, August 1 - 10:30 p.m.
Tickets: $35 in advance for reserved seats, $20 at the door
Elements
Ottawa improvising percussionist Jesse Stewart will bring his ensemble to the festival "exploring the elements as defined by Chinese tradition, using instruments made of stone, wood, metal, fire, and water". Stewart has used these elements separately in previous performances in Ottawa, but not combined in one performance.
Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts and Humanities
314 St. Patrick Street
Ottawa
[map]
Ottawa Chamber Music Festival
www.chamberfest.com/
Tickets are now on sale to see pianist Chick Corea in concert, with Brian Blade on drums and Christian McBride on bass. They will be playing Sunday, October 3 at 7 p.m., at Dominion-Chalmers United Church, 355 Cooper Street (at O'Connor).
You can order tickets immediately at OttawaJazzFestival.com, or by calling the Festival office at 613-241-2633 during office hours. As of July 27, CD Warehouse and Compact Music will also be selling tickets. Reserved tickets are $56.50. General admission (i.e. back of the church) is $50.85 and student prices (11 to 25 years, with valid student ID) are $22.60. Taxes are included.
This is a new trio for Corea, born after the three musicians performed in the Five Peace Band on its tour of Asia and America in 2009. McBride has been part of the New York scene for the past 20 years, playing with Sting, Pat Metheny and McCoy Tyner, as well as composing and leading his own groups. Blade is one of the elite drummers in jazz today, who has worked with Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Kenny Garrett, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and who has held the drum chair in the Wayne Shorter Quartet for the past 10 years.
Chick Corea last performed at the Festival in 2008 for the Return to Forever reunion tour. Brian Blade performed in two concerts in 2009: with Wayne Shorter’s quartet, and with his own Fellowship Band.
Ottawa Jazz Happenings announced July 24 that the registration deadline for the 2010 JazzWorks Jazz Camp (August 19-22) has been extended, and applications are still being accepted.
As well, a new guest artist has been announced: New York recording artist Don Braden (replacing Ted Nash). "Don Braden is a master of the tenor and soprano saxophone and also an outstanding flutist. He has toured the world leading his own ensembles, as a special guest and as a sideman with such greats as Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, Tony Williams, Roy Haynes and many others. Don has composed music for everything from duo to symphonic orchestra, in many styles, for recordings, film and television. An active performer in the New York area, he is also on the faculty of the Prins Claus Conservatoire in Gronengin, Holland."
Led by Toronto trumpet player and Guest Artistic Director, Jim Lewis, other 2010 JazzWorks returning faculty include Canadian jazz musicians: vocalists Julie Michels, Christine Duncan and Sharada Banman, pianist David Restivo, drummers Jean Martin and Nick Fraser, saxophonists Remi Bolduc and Frank Lozano, as well as Rob Frayne for composition and arranging. New or returning after several years are pianist Nancy Walker, bassist Kieran Overs, guitarists Kim Ratcliffe and Garry Elliott and trombonist William Carn.
The camp is an intensive learning opportunity for adult jazz musicians (all levels, beginner through professional), and advanced high school musicians, to immerse themselves in a full weekend of music-making through original composition, solo and combo performance. Many local jazz musicians have attended the camp over the last 17-odd years and said they learned a great deal from the experience.
Ottawa Jazz Happenings also said that the original composition development done by jazz combos at the camp will be part of the preparation for a special event/concert that will take place in Ottawa in fall 2010. Originals, sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council, will feature JazzWorks faculty and participants as they present their newly created works to the Ottawa community.
See more photos by Brett Delmage of the 2008 Jazz Camp here.
Craig Pedersen, Linsey Wellman, and Mike Essoudry played free improvisation to an appreciative audience at the Umi Café on Sunday, July 18. They were surrounded by instruments that all found their place at one time or another in the music: xylophone, kalimba, clarinet, cymbal, drum, bells, bass clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, laptop, and various electronics, which allowed sampling and looping the instruments. One piece was inspired by a crossword puzzle clue (15 down, "aquatic larvae"), and featured original water sounds Craig had sampled in BC.
OttawaJazzScene.ca editor Alayne McGregor talked with Craig Pedersen at the end of the show.
Listen to the podcast [mp3, 4 minutes, 3.5 MB]
OttawaJazzScene.ca celebrated our first anniversary of operation this weekend, on July 3, 2010. Or we would have, if we weren't so busy at the jazzfest :-)
In our first year of operation
- we emailed 52 informative, weekly site update newsletters to an ever-increasing number of subscribers
- we published over 100 previews, interviews, photo sets, podcasts, and reviews, and
- we listed more than 1000 jazz and improvised music events
We've certainly proven that the jazz and improvised music scene in Ottawa-Gatineau is vibrant, diverse, interesting, and worth hearing and seeing !
Thanks to everyone who took time to give us encouragement and feedback in the past 12 months. Thanks also to the clubs, restaurants and musicians who continue to provide us with timely event information, patiently answer our questions, and of course, present great music. And thanks to everyone who has promoted, tweeted, or linked to OttawaJazzScene.ca.
Last but not least, we thank everyone who participated in the scene as an attentive listener (especially as Café Paradiso when we were trying to listen).
We look forward to covering the scene in the next year. We have lots more ideas and improvements planned. Your help, support, and comments are always welcomed and appreciated.
See you on the scene!
Brett and Alayne
At almost age 90, pianist Dave Brubeck no longer bounds up the stairs. He needs to lever himself up from the piano by leaning on the keyboard. His fingers are gnarled.
And yet once he sits down and starts to play, the old magic comes back, if a bit weaker than before. And it certainly enthralled a near-capacity audience (about 10,500) in Confederation Park on Saturday, July 3.
Brubeck brought his quartet (Bobby Militello on alto sax, Michael Moore on bass, and Randy Jones on drums) to the Ottawa Jazz Festival for a concert in conjunction with the NAC Orchestra. The Orchestra essentially became a big band behind the quartet, an arrangement which mostly worked well. It certainly wasn't for lack of enthusiasm or skill by the orchestra musicians, several of whom have played straight jazz in the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra.
Brubeck wisely husbanded his strength in the concert, letting concert-master Russell Gloyd conduct the orchestra and provide the between-song patter, explaining the background of each piece. Brubeck didn't talk at all, confining himself to briefly waving to the audience at the end, and energetic piano playing.
In 1999, I heard Brubeck at the Montreal Jazz Festival, playing with the big band Diva. In that concert, he was premiering new pieces, talking about his recent adventures, and actively improvising and creating new rhythms and ideas. But his concert at the 2007 Ottawa Jazz Festival – and to an even greater extent this year – were primarily a celebration of the past, of what Brubeck has created, as opposed to looking forward.
Read more: Dave Brubeck and NAC Orchestra draw 10,500 listeners to the Park
Balloons. Paper instruments. Controlled feedback. And saxophones. For the second year, the Jazz Workshops at the OLG Stage offered three afternoons of unusual instruments and creative combinations of instruments and musical ideas. The nine shows featured both emerging and accomplished Ottawa-Gatineau musicians.
OttawaJazzScene.ca was there and we had a great time. Be sure to visit our website this week to see more coverage, including selected video, from this fun series.
Ottawa-Gatineau's own Souljazz Orchestra added new fans from their own 'hood to their growing worldwide audience, as they played music from their recent CD Rising Sun, in the Great Canadian Jazz series at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival on July 2. New fans can hear them again at le petit Chicago on July 30. Subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter or watch OttawaJazzScene.ca's comprehensive event listings for Souljazz Orchestra's upcoming shows, and other music by these local musicians.
Read more: Ottawa's Souljazz Orchestra returns to the Ottawa Jazz Festival
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