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Ottawa (Monday, April 6, 2020) – Subsequent to this morning’s release announcing continued exploration of our options with respect to Jazz 2020, The City of Ottawa just announced that it is extending “its closures of City facilities, services, and public gatherings until June 30th.” – CTV.ca. The ordinance forbids gatherings in groups until further notice. Given this new reality along with the cancellations of our many presenting partners, the Ottawa Jazz Festival has no choice but to cancel this year’s edition. Obviously, we deliver this news with a very heavy heart.

Say an airplane carrying a large polar bear were flying above the Nation’s Capital and, say, just say, said polar bear’s carrier were to jangle loose in a bad patch of turbulence that also opened the security hatch whooshing the bewildered bear out and sending it buffeting through the clouds. Now say, and we’re just saying here, that bear plummeted towards a recently upended truckload of beanbag chairs where it fell safe and snugly, shook off the air sickness and rolled into, say, the Rideau Canal where it slowly but surely swam its way towards,I dunno, City Hall? Stepping onto land with a mighty shake, say, and let me reiterate, I’m just saying, it were to sneak somehow undetected unto the grounds of the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, park itself behind those jerks who decided to chat all the way through, saaaayyyyy, a Norah Jones concert, and then, just then, suddenly realize how hungry it was and….

NORAH JONES ● CHICAGO ● JUDITH HILL ● THE ROOTS ●OMARA PORTUONDO ● BRAD MEHLDAU ● TERRI LYNNE CARRINGTON and LEE FIELDS TO HEADLINE THE 39th ANNUAL TD OTTAWA JAZZ FESTIVAL

The sweat rolled down my back like a rainstorm on a window pane. Hot town, summer in the city alright and this heat wave was only getting hotter with a two hour jazz funk fusion trip lead by the legendary Herbie Hancock. This is how you want to close out your TD Ottawa Jazz Fest, am I right?

When you think of late night hour jazz, those wee small hours of the morning, most conjure up images of slow, smooth, sleepy horns and the crooning of Ella or Billie or maybe some ol’ Blue Eyes. When it comes ‘round midnight at the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, however, you best trade your droopy eyes for some dancing shows because when the late night tent is a’pumpin’ you’re gonna’ be a’jumpin’!

From rave style parties, to insane Jewish DJs, to the conga lines, dancing on tables and chairs, tossing out tables and chairs for more room to dance, musicians in the crowd with tubas, and oh my Lordy Lord Lord, the vibration. You could charge up the downtown core if you could bottle it, people.

The OLG After Dark Series is electrified!

“It’s become one of my favourite venues. It’s really more of a club atmosphere with a large capacity. So we wanted to make it an exciting program, with lots of energy,” Festival Programming Director Petr Cancura says, though he should add a couple buckets ‘o sweat and a rattling tent full of pulse and beat if he wants to really encapsulate the feel. Jane Fonda ain’t got nothing on this workout.

Not having to adhere to O-town’s outdoor curfew cops, jazzers, ravers and the festival “Bobcat” himself Stephen Corrigan get to keep the shock and awesome going inside the late night tent until well past the time our carriages turn back into pumpkins. It’s midnight but Cinderella ain’t leavin’ this ball. Besides, glass slippers make perfect wine sippers! Am I right?

Now, I’d like to think that it wasn’t construction in Confederation Park that moved the tent to this year’s location at City Hall’s Lisgar Field. Between you, me, and a couple of jump jivin’ squirrels in the trees above, that tent just up and moved itself . . . propelled by rhythm and bass, Base, BASS! Mayor Watson, you better expect a couple of rattled items in your office each morning, methinks.

Okay, so you’re now pumped and peaked. What, tell me what, Andre should we go see in this wonderful structure you have so elevated?What say we start with Moon Hooch (June 22 / 10:30PM). This is not the first ro-did-e-oh for this band at Jazz Fest. I’d say my usual “those who have seen them before will know what you are in for” but, here’s the short skinny-bop: we’re not ready for Moon Hooch. Not you. Not me. Not your hipster Uncle Mort and his jazzy pug Arnie. We are just not ready. They’re going to bring virtuosic jazzer jams, they have heaps of the funk and they got enough electro dance vibes that Escapade wants to borrow a cup of six of it all! Ohhh yeahhhh, they also got a ginormous traffic cone they slip into the sax for extra ooompha-loompha! They’re so wild the NYPD had to ban ‘em from playing subway platforms. You don’t have to catch the A-train to see ‘em. Just grab a jazz fest ticket and strap in!

It’s just a two day step to the right to get acquainted with L.A.’s KNOWER (June 25 / 10:30PM). The Jazz Festival’s website calls them searing hot but I’ve been watching their YouTube vids. This is more than that…it’s nuclear heat, like what happens when you blaze some of that noon day sun above El Azizia on top of the Large Hadron Collider. If you don’t wanna’ Google it, that’s more heat than a supernova. Bam! Slam! Sizzle me timbers! Drummer Louis Cole and singer Genevieve Artadi have been spearheading a new music movement with hard-hitting funk, coolio chords and ocean deep melodies. It all makes for an off-world trip through the musical stratosphere. If there’s a thermometer nearby prepare for the mercury to be rising. KNOWER isn’t going to be holding back!

Did you ever think you’d read the sentence “this avant-garde Artic-born artist has power-driven the traditional throat singing of her ancestors into the main stream”? Yeah, Tanya Tagaq (June 28 / 10:30PM) has a style like nothing you’ve ever heard before. She’s punk and metal and electronica all baked into a bubbling beat simmered in the unique music of her Nunavut homeland. It’s a sound that begins in a breath and sends you soaring on gusts of violin and drums. You know you’re one of music’s most wanted when Björk and the Kronos Quartet are trackin’ you down! If this Member of the Order of Canada’s literary output is as tingly spiney as her concerts, I can’t wait for her first book, Split Tooth, to drop come September.

Alright, if I hit ya’ with anymore you might need to break out a defibrillator. One last thing, if you see a groovin’ tent bouncing down Elgin Street sometime next week you’ll know where the party is at!

(Cover Photo – Cynthia Tauro by Andre Gagne)

To some, the greatest test of endurance is the Cape Epic, a gruelling eight day, 70 km trek through South Africa that’s referred to as the Tour de France of mountain biking. Then there’s Badwater, a non-stop 135-mile run through some of the most scorching hot places on the planet. Racers have to brave the heat through Death Valley as they battle the elements, dehydration and sometimes even delirium. Yikes! Then, for the truly insane, there’s the Marathon des Sable. You know, just your typical 150 mile race…through the Sahara! 

An astounding array of superlative artists to perform at 2018 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival

Bradley is an American funk/soul/R&B singer who was the subject of the documentary Soul of America that premiered at the South by Southwest festival in 2012. He was a James Brown impersonator since the age of 14 and then decided, in his sixties, that he was going to “do Charles Bradley instead”.

It’s been about 20 years since I last saw Kenny Rogers, a lot has changed since then. Kenny was at the middle of an incredible career and I was at the very beginning of figuring out my own.

I first discovered six time Juno Award winner Serena Ryder a couple of years ago when I heard a live concert broadcast on CBC radio. I liked it. She had a different sound than a lot of newer artists. When she was booked to play Kingston a short time after, I bought tickets to attend. I have been a Serena Ryder fan since that night. I was amazed by her powerful voice and her five-octave range. She did not disappoint on Friday night at Ottawa Jazz Festival. It was another stellar performance by the Millbrook, Ontario native.