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Ottawa Jazz Scene is your best and most accurate source for Ottawa-Gatineau jazz and improvised music news, complete event listings, interviews, photos, jazz radio listings, and more.
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Thanks for your interest and support. See you on the scene!
Brett Delmage
publisher, OttawaJazzScene.ca
Alayne McGregor
Editor , OttawaJazzScene.ca
Brett Delmage
Publisher, editor, photographer
Twenty years ago, in 1988 or so, I became involved in the local jazz scene as a Charter member of the Ottawa International Jazz Festival and member of Jazz Ottawa. Volunteering for the Jazz Festival for 19 years, I served at the old Sparks Street stage, schlepped T shirts, and then dealt with garbage: the kind that leaks out of bags onto your shoes, and the other kind that's even worse. I heard and enjoyed a lot of music. But I missed even more and didn't even know what I was missing in our local jazz scene.
I started photographing performances at the Jazz Festival around 10 years ago, beginning with our local youth bands that were being missed, and then photographing signage, bike racks -- and even more of our local stars of all ages. From 2006 to 2010, I was the official photographer for Impressions in Jazz Orchestra (www.ImpressionsInJazz.ca). I've enjoyed and photographed many performances in many local clubs and shows at the National Arts Centre.
I'm a member of the Jazz Journalists Association: writers, photographers,and videographers reporting on and documenting jazz worldwide.
I served as as volunteer editor of Ottawa Jazz Happenings and JazzWorks Connections until July 2009. The positive response from musicians and listeners to my work on that encouraged me to start OttawaJazzScene.ca . I wanted to do more as both publisher and editor with the features that didn't fit well into the newsletter format and that were threatening to overwhelm it.
It's taken awhile getting here, and I'm excited as ever. As I look back over the past twenty years, I am thankful for the great local live jazz performances that I heard and the people who introduced me to it. I regret what I missed too. Looking to 2029 I hope that others will be able to look back with pleasure on twenty years of local jazz and improvised music performances and related events that they have enjoyed.
I welcome your suggestions and feedback at any time, and I hope to see you at a show.
Alayne McGregor
Editor and writer
Back in the late 1980s, I discovered jazz. I'd been a folk music fan for many years, but wanted something more than guitars after a while. Jazz was fun, and bouncy, and complex and interesting – and had lots of interesting fellow fans to talk to.
Since them, I've attended festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Guelph, and Ottawa, as well as many concerts all over. I've written reviews, and sold T-shirts at the Ottawa jazz festival (20 years this year!)
I like all types of instrumental jazz, from free jazz to standards to bebop. Vocalists and funk artists – well, some of them are great.
Occasionally I get worried that I too uncritically like the music, but then I hear an absolute clunker of a performance and am reassured of the high standard of most of the musicians I hear – and especially our local Ottawa-Gatineau musicians!
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